What I heeded was an order from a WBRC Fox6 news manager.

It was April 27, 2011, and just before 6 p.m., I was ordered to join other station employees in a room behind the front lobby. I joined my co-workers in the small, cramped room, and I gasped at the tower cam image of the giant black tornado sliding behind Birmingham’s skyscrapers.

In that instant, lives were being lost. Other lives would never be the same.

What I sensed that day, and over the next days and weeks and months, was that there was little need for a wise-cracking TV sports anchor to take up time on local news. While I felt blessed that my family and friends were OK, thousands across our state were not.

“You’re a storyteller, Karle,” said a news manager. “Take a photographer with you, go out in the field and find stories.”

What I found was pain and heartache, courage and inspiration. It was the day I turned into a news reporter. Over the days and weeks and months that followed, I chronicled the day that changed the lives of thousands, if not millions, as 252 people from our state perished in the midst of the April 27 tornado outbreak.

Those days changed my life, too.

What I saw melted my heart.

Her name was Elizabeth Nixon — she was 98 years old, a strong, feisty woman who had returned to her apartment with neighbors to survey the damage at 2019 Hackberry Lane in Tuscaloosa.

The day before, Ms. Nixon heard the roar as she lay on her couch and prayed the Rosary. The apartment roof was swept away, but Elizabeth Nixon was not. Neighbors lifted Ms. Nixon onto an ATV after helping her from the apartment.

“How did you survive the tornado?” I asked Ms. Nixon, who had lived alone for 60 years.

“God promised me I would live to be 100,” the former classmate of Paul “Bear” Bryant told me. “Don’t you know, I’m going to do it.”

What I witnessed boggled my mind.

The Full Moon Bar-B-Que restaurant in Tuscaloosa had been thrown across McFarland Boulevard to the Druid City Hospital side. As our cameras rolled a day later, we saw the giant freezer where three employees and 10 customers gathered as the tornado arrived. Some suffered broken bones and concussions — all 13 people in the freezer survived.

What I encountered was devastation.

It was days after the tornadoes touched down, and I visited the home of Hueytown High School baseball coach Rick Patterson, whose talented team was headlined by a pitcher named Jameis Winston. There was nothing left of Rick’s Pleasant Grove house, but the coach grinned as he told me his story.

“Days ago, my wife, Debra, was cooking a pot of beans, and a fire broke out in our kitchen, doing damage,” Patterson told me. “We moved into the Fairfield Inn & Suites a few miles away while our kitchen was being repaired.” While the tornado took everything, because of a kitchen fire, the Patterson’s were not at home when their house was leveled.

What I surveyed was a torn apart apartment building.

Crimson Tide gymnast Kayla Hoffman was at her apartment on 15th Street in Tuscaloosa when the tornado arrived. Kayla was giddy that week, as days before the tornado hit, the GymTide had won the national championship. Kayla wedged herself into a door frame as the walls fell around her. She hung on tight. Glass flew, and Kayla suffered a 6-inch gash in her calf. Her boyfriend Michael Hughes — a Bama track star- used his cross-country ability and ran from Coleman Coliseum to Kayla’s apartment to be by her side.

What I was reminded of was that they were more than just the first couple of Crimson Tide football.

 There they were — Nick and Terry Saban — visiting a shelter for the victims. Handing out water and gift cards and hugs. There was Coach Saban, telling his players to forget about football and do what was needed. From Preston Dial to Courtney Upshaw, the Crimson Tide players turned from athletes to humanitarians.

What I viewed was another familiar football coach arriving in Pleasant Grove, Alabama.

Auburn coach Gene Chizik and many of his players offered strength and support to those in need. Coach Chizik brought a group of 70 people to Pleasant Grove, where they were concerned not with orange and blue or crimson and white, but rather red, white and blue. They were united in their efforts.

What I heard were chainsaws and hammers, people and prayers.

I heard World War II hero George Hamilton tell me about losing his Pleasant Grove home. “There’s not much you can do — you just have to move forward,” he told me. Move forward Mr. Hamilton did, as days after his house on 9th Avenue was destroyed, he sat in a surviving recliner in the midst of rubble and drew up plans for a new house.

What I felt was sorrow.

A few months after the tornado, ‘Bama football long snapper Carson Tinker agreed to talk with me and the parents of his girlfriend, Ashley Harrison.

Dave and Darlene Harrison had arrived in Tuscaloosa from Dallas to march at summer commencement. Their daughter was taken in the tornado months before as Ashley and Carson huddled inside a house on 25th Street. Both were thrown several yards. Carson somehow survived, while Ashley did not. The next day, Ashley was found in a field across the street.

The interview was held inside the Hotel Capstone. Raw and emotional, Carson and Ashley’s parents poured out their broken hearts. They sat with me to tell the world about a special young woman. The following morning, Dave and Darlene took their daughter’s place in line and received Ashley’s diploma.

Six University of Alabama students were killed on April 27, 2011. Ashley Harrison, Scott Atterton, Danielle Downs, Nicole Mixon, Marcus Smith and Morgan Sigler lost their lives. From business majors to accounting majors to art majors, I think today about what they would have become.

What I digested in those days and weeks and months following April 27, 2011, was empathy and sympathy.

I digested the spirit of the old man I saw rocking on his porch on 13th Street in Tuscaloosa the day after the tornado struck. “I’m staying here,” he told me, though the damage in Tuscaloosa and Alberta City was heartbreaking. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

What I sought out were the heroics of first responders and law enforcement people.

Doctors and nurses. Power company workers and firemen. Clergy and teachers and neighbors and families. Hardworking people like the man from a tree service, holding his chainsaw tight as the sun set days after the storms. “I’m not charging anything,” the man told me as he looked tired and grimy. “And I’m not leaving here until I’m done.”

What I sensed was there were so many people who felt like the 40-something’s from Pleasant Grove — devastated, yet hopeful as they sifted through the rubble of their fallen home.

“Look, Mr. Karle,” the husband told me as his voice rose. “We have only found a few things, and this is one of them. It’s our family Bible, and it was on the mantle of our fireplace.”

While 14 years seems like so long ago, April 27, 2011, seems like yesterday. Lives have moved on — and in some cases ended — for those I met in the days after the tornadoes arrived.

Elizabeth Nixon tried her best, but she didn’t make it to 100. The Northport native passed away in December of 2012 at the age of 99, just days from her birthday.

Hueytown baseball coach Rick Patterson died on Sept. 29, 2020, at the age of 62. He left behind his wife, Debra, and his loving family, along with thousands of students and athletes he coached over the years.

George Hamilton, the World War II hero and the man who taught Sunday School at the age of 101, passed away on April 21, 2024, at the age of 102. He left behind a life of honor.

Former Bama gymnast Kayla Hoffman married former Bama track star Michael Hughes. Today, Kayla Hughes teaches kindergarten in Atlanta, while her husband works in marketing. The couple has two children.

Full Moon Bar-B-Que in Tuscaloosa stays busy as ever. Owner Brian Ahmed continues to serve up great food and hospitality 14 years after his old restaurant was thrown across the boulevard.

Carson Tinker has been married to the former Annie Bates for almost 10 years. He has retired from the NFL.

Dave and Darlene Harrison live in Dallas, and they help young people in Texas attend the University of Alabama through the Ashley Harrison Memorial Scholarship program.

Coach Saban is retired from coaching and works for ESPN.

Coach Chizik went on to take coaching positions at Texas, Iowa State and North Carolina, his most recent role the defensive coordinator with the Tar Heels in 2023.

What I learned 14 years ago will be with me forever.

I learned there was more to life than being on TV and reading ball scores.

I learned so much about kindness and unselfishness and the human spirit.

And I learned to love my state all over again.

*Rick Karle, who writes a weekly Sunday story for AL.com, is a 25-time Emmy winner and a 43-year veteran of broadcast news who has lived and worked in Alabama for 35 years. You can find his work on Facebook at Rick Karle Good News. Send your story suggestions to: [email protected]