Sixth months ago tomorrow, an EF4 tornado touched down in Tuscaloosa and destroyed most everything in its path. Six University of Alabama students died that day and countless others lost their homes and businesses.

Among the UA students affected were Adam Melton, who was in Arlington Square; Emily Fuller, who left Tuscaloosa for her home in Joplin, Mo., following the cancelation of finals; and Chelsea Thrash, who was thrown 150 feet out of her boyfriend’s Charleston Square apartment.

Melton

Melton said he and girlfriend Jessica Colburn were unaware of the tornado’s location until the people in an apartment across the complex started yelling at them because they could see it coming.

The two ran down to the cellar of a house in the front of the complex, he said.

“When it hit, the house lifted up off of us and then a Jeep Cherokee came right over us and hit me in the head,” he said. “We were underneath the Jeep on our knees and chest for the end of it. After we got hit, we pulled five or six people out, but it was gone. The house was gone.”

Melton and Colburn said they walked across McFarland Boulevard to Rite Aid to meet Melton’s parents, who had driven from Birmingham to take them out of the city.

“We stayed in Birmingham for the next seven days but drove back and forth between the two cities every day, except April 30 and the one day it rained, in a 15-passenger cargo van to shuttle things back and forth,” Melton said.

Melton said volunteers assisted him in retrieving his belongings, but only to a certain extent.

“You needed to know exactly what your stuff looks like, and from every angle,” he said. “Once I figured out the path my stuff blew, it got easier, but determining where my stuff went was definitely the hardest thing.”

On April 28, Melton said he was at a Zaxby’s en route to Tuscaloosa from Birmingham when he received a call from a Piers Morgan correspondent who asked if he could meet up with a crew at CNN’s satellite truck for an interview.

“My stepdad gave me a white polo, so I looked good from the waist up, and we used Google Maps to get to the trailer because all of the road signs were missing,” Melton said. “We pre-recorded my interview, so I talked about my experience and then got back into our van and headed to my apartment.”

Melton said he and Colburn crawled through holes and insulation to retrieve his items that weren’t damaged by the storm, including many of his electronics and stereo-cooler, which he used to broadcast news to those in Arlington Square.

“We never found my bed or any other piece of furniture I had prior to April 27,” he said. “It totaled my FJ Cruiser as well. A spare tire had gone through my windshield and ended up in my driver’s seat.

All in all, Melton said he and Colburn had been on Piers Morgan, the Discovery Channel, Weather Channel, MSNBC, BBC, Good Morning America, the Washington Post and AOL.com.

“It’s hard to believe all this happened half a year ago,” Colburn said. “I still think about the tornado every day. It is amazing how things that used to seem like such a big deal to me rarely matter to me anymore. I almost lost the love of my life that day. My perspective on life has changed completely. I am extremely blessed and more determined than ever before to drain every opportunity out of every moment I am given.”

Fuller

Only three weeks after April 27, another tornado ripped through Joplin, Mo., the hometown of UA student Emily Fuller.

Fuller, who had returned home to Missouri following the cancelation of the University’s finals, once again found herself in the midst of tornado warnings.

“It was still sunny in Joplin, but I was already freaked out from Tuscaloosa, so I went home and asked my mom to do the same,” she said on June 8. “My mom, my dad and I were all home when it hit.”

Fuller said although her home, car and belongings were not taken away by either of the two tornadoes she experienced in the one-month span, she is now extremely terrified of storms.

“I haven’t been in an awful storm yet since the Joplin tornado, but this spring should be interesting,” she said. “I went home to Joplin in July and volunteered a little bit with debris cleanup, and I’ve been following the news on Joplin and Tuscaloosa recovery. I think about those storms almost every day.”

The EF5 tornado in Joplin reportedly had high wind speeds reaching between 225-250 mph, while the tornado in Tuscaloosa, an EF4, topped out at 190, according to the National Weather Service.

On Thursday, Fuller said she would be in New York City with her sisters.

“I won’t be [in Tuscaloosa] to do anything for the six month anniversary,” she said. “But of course I’ll be thinking about everyone.” In the past six months, Fuller said she thought Tuscaloosa has done a good job recovering from what happened.

“We’ve learned a lot since then and hopefully we’ll be prepared if anything like that ever happens again,” she said.

Thrash

Chelsea Thrash, a UA student who was at her boyfriend’s Charleston Square apartment on April 27, was thrown from the apartment to the complex’ courtyard and was unable to feel her legs.

“[I] looked up to see the entire apartment destroyed, and I couldn’t feel my legs,” she said in an interview following the tornado. “Being a biology major, I knew that if I panicked and moved, I could cause way more damage.”

Susan and Derek DeBruin, a couple trained in wildlife rescue, found Thrash 150 feet from her boyfriend’s apartment. They used parts of a dining room table to serve as a backboard for Thrash, who was transported to DCH and ultimately UAB.

Thrash’s official diagnosis was an L1 burst fracture that caused her spinal cord to shift. She was taken into emergency surgery and received a spinal fusion and had bone fragments removed from her spinal nerves.

Despite the injuries sustained from the tornado, Thrash was able to walk to class this semester.

Since classes began, Thrash said she’s been attending physical rehab at DCH Northport since August. “They have helped out tremendously,” Thrash said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I still use the cane to go to classes so I can get off curbs and such, but around the house, I walk around on my own with no assistance.”

On Thursday, Thrash said she planned on going back to the site where she was hit to take it in.

“…Just kind of meditate on what has gone on since then, how far I have progressed, where I want to be years from now, and also to remember all those who perished, especially my sorority sister, Nicole Mixon, who was one door down from me,” Thrash said.

With the sixth month anniversary of the storm approaching, Thrash said she feels great gratitude with all she has accomplished, but at the same time, a great sadness that many others did not get the same opportunity as she did.

“Deep in my heart, I feel they all deserved the same opportunity,” she said. “I also feel an overwhelming sense of warmth and togetherness thinking back on all my family, boyfriend, sisters and friends have done for me and for the community.”

Thrash said she hoped to be walking on her own at fully by the tornado’s one year anniversary.

In the near future, she said she wants to volunteer in Tuscaloosa in a relief effort and show others that even with great disasters come great miracles.