My pictures of the Enterprise tornado aftermath
During a break from work and on my way out of town I took the time to walk through my parent’s neighborhood and the neighborhood to the southwest of Enterprise High School. I took a number of pictures along the way and many of them are posted below. There are a lot of pictures in this post, so it may take a while to download. The ones in the post are thumbnails; click on them to see the larger image.
It should be kept in mind that these pictures were taken between about 48 and 60 hours after the tornado. You can imagine how much worse things looked immediately afterward.
First, here is a map of Enterprise with the path of the tornado indicated by the red arrow. The path is approximate, I may be off by a block here and there, but it is pretty accurate. The location of the high school is indicated as well as the two neighborhoods my pictures come from. The first is my parent’s neighborhood, which is circled in the northeast part of the map. The second is the neighborhood to the southwest of the high school, which includes the city cemetery, in the center of the map. If you are curious about the location of any specific picture feel free to email me (brian-at-flashpointblog-dot-com)
The first five pictures are of the building known to many as the Big & Little convenience store, more recently the Enterprise Meat Market, located on the corner of Dixie Drive and Hwy 27. It should be noted that the building was constructed with cinder blocks.
Yes, that is an RV in the next picture.
The next two pictures are of the art store opened by former EHS art teacher Sherry Eddins, which was directly across Dixie Drive from the former Big & Little.
The view down Dixie Drive from Hwy 27:
The next few pictures are from the segment of Dixie Drive from Hwy 27 to the intersection of Lake Oliver Drive.
The car in the background of the next picture is sitting on the front of a house.
The next pictures are from Lake Oliver Drive.
The house across the street from the previous one is completely gone. Amazingly, a mother and her child were in the house when the tornado struck.
The next house belongs to the parents of a friend I went to high school with. Her dad was in the closet door you can see in the middle of the first picture.
Notice the 2×4’s protruding from the roofs of the houses in the next two pictures.
The next pictures are from Oliver Drive and Lake Hill Drive.
The only part of the fence that once separated my parent’s house and their neighbor’s house is the gate. We made a point of using it since it was still there.
Our neighbor’s house:
The next house was swept off its slab.
The two houses directly across the street appear nearly untouched. Potted ferns still hang outside one of them.
The remainder of the pictures were taken Sunday morning in the neighborhood southwest of EHS.
The last picture is of the city cemetery. Notice the brick column supported wrought iron fence that was knocked over as well as the tombstones that were overturned.
Brian,
I was raised in Enterprise. I graduated from the high school in 1970 and my son graduated in 2002. We now live in Tennessee.
I’ve been online to the Ledger and the Dothan Eagle both looking for photos that would give me an idea of how wide spread the damage was. All the news coverage seems to be centered around the high school.
Tonight I decided to search blogs and see what I could find. I’m glad I did. Thank you for taking the photos and posting them.
I used to take my sons to the Big Little for fishing bait. I know Sherry Eddins well and had many friends who lived on Dixie Drive while growing up. I can’t believe the destruction!
I hope you don’t mind if I save the photos and send them to my sister and mother. They are both here in Tennessee and eager for news and info also. Our hearts and prayers are with Enterprise.
Feel free to save the pictures.
The main reason I walked around and took them was because I felt that the media was focusing too much on the high school and neglecting the serious damage throughout the city. There were two other hard hit neighborhoods I didn’t photograph. I felt exploitative taking pictures of other’s misery and I decided to call it quits after what you see above.
The day right before the tornado had hit Enterprise I had said to myself that I wanted to go live over there,but after I had saw what had happened to Enterprise I told myself that I had changed my mind.But me and my family are still praying for those hurt,lost ,and killed people.Me and my family had gotten really upset about the people who died because we haven’t heard from our friend Chelsea.But we are still praying for all of those people and families.A lot of people are going through rough times right now because thay have lost their loved ones.SO ALL YOU PEOPLE OUT THERDE NEED TO START GIVING BLOOD,AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU CAN GIVE TO THOSE HURT PEOPLE!So please help the hurt ones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Because they really,really,really need it bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our prayers go out to the entire community of Enterprise, and especially to those who have lost family & friends. This disaster has affected so many lives regardless of where you live. Thank you too for showing us other parts of the area that have been affected by this tornado–we had no idea what it looked like outside of the high school area (Alberta St & surrounding streets)–due to traffic issues & curfew. We were up in Enterprise cleaning up debris Friday – Sunday, & among the piles of trees, broken bricks, splintered boards, twisted tin, etc… we were witness to a very strong and proud community spirit. God Bless you all.
my prays go out to the citizens of enterprise. my heart is with yall.
thank u for showing other parts of the city. my husband’s family is from and currently resides in enterprise. when i heard of the tornado, all i could do was cry and pray my that family wasn’t hurt. I especially knowing that they live in the facsnity where it hit. but thank god they were ok . but i think about the poor kids who lost their lives and the families dealing with grieve. all i could say is may god bless you and may god get u through this time of tragedy.
When I heard about the tornado in Enterprise, I almost cried. You see,my brother’s relative was in the high school when it came through. He suffered from a slight cuccusion in the head, but other than that, he was okay. I was in Coffee County (at Zion Chapel) during the tornado. A couple weeks ago, we had a tornado come right past us. It ripped through a solid brick barn, right down the road.I WAS SCARED TO DEATH!!!!
I am a 1970 graduate of Enterprise H.S. and I noticed the first blog entry from Cathy and I was wondering if she remembered any of the Walden clan?
Thanks~
Glenda “Walden” Owings
I thought because I have read this page before I might as weel post something. We still have our house on lake oliver, which we were very lucky that we the house in on the bootom of the hill before the lake. the only damage to the house was atree in the front that hit the roof, which is not a inexpensive thing to fix, but compaired to alot it wasn’t much.
There are still rebuilding today, and no one reading this truely knows the matter at hand here. They have to really see it. I am going to miss how everything looks as a child growing up on that street, and how there is nothing that can remind me of my childhood there anymore.
OMG march 1st was the scariest day of my life. i was at school well sirings were going off all day well at school our principle mr martian and mrs seals told everybody to get in hall ways well i got up becasu ethe office was callin my name so i went up to the office and i see my mom well i went back to sit down and all of a sudden i here this formiler voice sayin everybody get down the tornado is coming and i just started cryin like OMG were going to die well when i turned around that voice i was hereing was my dad he came in the school my dad told mr martian that it already hit the high school and i said omg becasue i had family and friends in high school well im just goin to tell u this it changed everybody in ENTERPRISE ALABAMA i will NEVER forget that day i was so sad when i herd that 8 people died and i new all of em!!!!!!! and know when i here the sirings go off im like really scared and i just think if another does hit ALABAMA then if its my time to go then its my time to go and now im just thanksful of what i have !!!!!!!!!!!
ive lived in ENTERPRISE ALABAMA my whole life adn since the TORNADO hit ive changed my additude the way i treat people and everything cause u never kno wthe person that u care and loves the most can one day just leave u meaning dieing .. but now i now JESUS had the tornado hit ENTERPRISE so we all could get closer casu eafter the tornado ive seen alot of people closer then ever !!!and i just think GOD everyday that he didnt take the people i love
but im also happy because the tornado had me a BILLY JACOBS closer then ever