Forest Lake neighborhood, the day after the epic Tuscaloosa tornado.

In honor of the 5 year anniversary of the April 27, 2011 Tuscaloosa tornado coming up in a few weeks, I am posting this complete archive of my own photos from the day after. The sun was shining and the air smelled piney fresh. I’ll probably write a chronicle of the events which followed soon, so stay tuned. Also, you can check out my page about how I became a photographer for more tornado photos. And here’s a cute video of a tornado kitten I rescued.-Tanya Mikulas

traffic was bad driving in to the damaged area (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

traffic at Hackberry and Hargrove (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

people were salvaging whatever they could (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

so many people were affected by this tornado (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

destruction (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

the stare of disbelief (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

this tree got blown (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

tornado damage (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

it was supposed to be finals time at UA (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

you wouldn’t think the streets would get torn up by a tornado, but…they do. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

so many totalled cars. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

turning in to my neighborhood (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

i don’t even know what to say here (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

my house survived. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

my yard was filled with guys clearing the tree from across the street. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

my red x, and my dog The Bug. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

it took days to clear this tree from my yard. there was a Honda under there! (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

not too bad on this side. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

one of my landlord’s houses on the same lot. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

the root ball that flipped my car. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

the house across the street. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

accidental shot caused by stun and shock. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Forest Lake Drive, Tuscaloosa, AL (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

All the houses by the lake were completely demolished. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

the chainsaw crews worked very hard to clear the roads. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

tornado damage (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

look at how the metal from the school roof (probably) got twisted on this branch. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This grand old tree. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

With a truck flipped next to it. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

No leash for The Bug. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The damage was incredible. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

So much damage, you can’t imagine unless you see it with your own eyes. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

stick trees. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

It was stunning. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

A tangled mess. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Splintered trees. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Destroyed homes. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Behind my house. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Nobody even knows where this mailbox came from, there was no such address anywhere around. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My neighbor’s Volvo got smashed pretty bad. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This chair embedded in my neighbor’s root ball hole was on my porch before the storm. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The house behind mine was completely destroyed. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

It was so destroyed it was missed by the first search and rescue teams. We had to climb serveral trees and then climb down from the caved in roof to make sure it was empty. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This is what we climbed over. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Jon was brave enough to go down there. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

He checked the refrigerator and it was empty. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

There’s a house under this mess. I saw this happening when I peeked out from my safe place during the tornado. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

What a mess. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

You can’t even believe something like this can happen in a few seconds. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

These were not little trees. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

I think I can see the roof of my house. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This is the root ball and the underside of my flipped car. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Me and my flipped car.

Looking into my windshield. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The beams supporting my house moved, but most did not fall. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My front yard. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Side yard. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Tire of the Passat. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My car was wedged between the root ball and my house. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

It was not easy to get out. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The view of the house behind my house from my back porch. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This is the view from my back porch of the house behind my house, which I heard and witnessed being destroyed when I peeked out from my bathroom closet during the April 27, 2011 Tuscaloosa tornado.

The backyard fence line between me and my neighbor’s yard. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Fence line. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Tore up fence. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The chainsaw crew clearing the tree across the road. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My neighbor’s back yard. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My neighbor had just paid a couple thousand dollars to have a few trees removed. This was sort of a joke, but I like to think those were the trees that might have killed me. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The table on their patio stayed put. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Their fence got trashed. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Chainsaw crew, still working. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My car. I was so sad. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My yard was a parking place for cleanup crews for months. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My neighbor’s front porch. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

how this chunk of metal got wedged here I will never understand. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The muck spray covered everything. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My neighbor with her car. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

They found the Honda. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Danny Crenshaw would host several low country boils here for anybody who was hungry. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The root ball from this tree was massive. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

That’s my house across the street. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This tree wrapped around this house. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Acher’s appliance store was on the corner of Forest Lake Drive and 15th St. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

There were huge crowds of stunned people walking around 15th St. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Schlotzkys. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The McD playground almost a block away from McD. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

caught my eye. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

everybody was taking photos because it was just so incredible to see. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

There used to be a restaurant here. Completely gone. And, cedar crest neighbohood, also completely gone. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Used to be an oil change place. Gone. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Everything, gone. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

What’s left of the McDonalds at 15th and Hilliard. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This house. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This is the house on the corner that I always used as a landmark to know my street. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My Street, from the top. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The passenger side of my car, facing the sky. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Looking down into my car. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The lucky face my dad carved for me. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This is one hell of a gate. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My bro has arrived. Standing with my chair in the root ball hole behind my neighbor’s house. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My bro, looking down. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The inside of a Volvo car door. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

The dash of the Volvo. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

There’s a steering wheel in here somewhere. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Glad nobody was in the Volvo. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

This tree was so huge. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

You can’t even tell from this photo how huge this tree is. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Now you can sorta start to see how giant this tree was. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

Tanya Mikulas with the stump of the tree that buried the honda across the street after the 4/27/2011 Tuscaloosa tornado

Honda is still under there. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

My sis making the Looters Will Be Shot sign! (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

pretty nice sunset. (photo by Tanya Mikulas)

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