Today marks 10 years since the infamous 2011 severe weather that stuck the state of Alabama. On that day a decade ago, a series of long-track tornadoes tore through Alabama in three waves across 35 of the state’s 67 counties.

The unprecedented event claimed the lives of 254 Alabamians, injured more than 2,000 and devastated the state. It was one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks recorded in Alabama since 1932, with 348 people dying across several states. Here in DeKalb County it claimed 34 lives.

It is a tribute to our strength and resiliency that we were able to recover from such a horrific tragedy and rebuild our broken communities.

I recall that the weather was threatening all day long in wave after wave of severe thunderstorms and some of the strongest winds I’d ever seen. The trees in our yard were being tossed about like rag dolls.

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Busiest Time of the Year Ends

I’m finally getting to come up for air a little bit after spending the last three months working on The Times-Journal’s annual Progress edition.

If you subscribe — which I certainly hope you do if you are a fan of my writing and photography because that’s where the overwhelming majority of it now appears – you will have received these amazing issues throughout the month of March.

Progress is always a massive undertaking that requires months of hard work by a team of creatives and ad sales reps who get out there and sell.

Finishing it means great relief to everyone in the TJ building because we have a tangible result of all of that effort we can proudly hold in our hands, along with some awesome deposits as checks arrive from advertisers. I sincerely hope they felt it was a great value for their money and interesting enough to attract a lot of eyeballs who will now shop with them.

Please, if you enjoy the paper, drop our name in these stores and tell them you learned about them in the Times-Journal.

You don’t know the lasting impact that makes when a business owner ponders where to direct his or her precious ad budget. We aim every day to produce such a quality product that people don’t want to miss any issue, making it a useful platform for our advertisers to reach buyers.