10th Anniversary of April 27, 2011 Tornado: Pratt City Library Rises from Ashes
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| Vincent Solfronk, Branch Manager, outside the new Pratt City Branch Library. |
The tornado caused such massive damage that the library was forced to close. Thankfully, most of Pratt City’s library collection was saved and relocated to temporary storage.
Nearly three years later, in February 2014, the Pratt City Library reopened with a totally new design.
The new Pratt City Library has a storm shelter installed, with concrete walls strong enough to withstand tornado-force winds.
Reminding patrons and staff of the importance of libraries and reading, the walls on the new Pratt City Library have inspirational quotes from leaders such as President Barack Obama, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and educator/activist Mary McLeod Bethune.
A special quote that stands out is one by American author/historian Studs Terkel, “All you need in life is truth and beauty, and you can find both at the public library.”
This E-F4 tornado had 180-plus mile-an-hour winds, and was among 62 that struck large parts of Alabama a decade ago, killing 248 people and injuring over 1,500 statewide. Across the nation, tornados on April 27, 2011 struck six states and killed 348 people, with over two-thirds of the victims from Alabama. Those were the most tornado deaths in the U.S. since March 1925.
Al.com did an article February 10, 2014, at Pratt City Library’s reopening ceremony. The headline “Like a phoenix,” pulled from a quote by former Birmingham City Councilman Marcus Lundy, representing the Pratt City district, described how the reconstruction of the area (including the library) as rising from the ashes “like a phoenix.”
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| Pratt City Library in April 2021. The new library reopened in February 2014. |
Gwendolyn Amamoo, former president of the Birmingham Public Library Board of Trustees, addressed a full crowd at the reopening ceremony, stating that although the Pratt City Library was destroyed and the community devastated by the April 27, 2011 tornado, “we’re not here to dwell on that tragic day in April. We are here to celebrate” its rebirth.
The Pratt City Branch Library is “truly a community hub,” former Pratt City Library Branch Manager Deborah Blackmon said in an interview with NPR in April 2016, five years after the devastating tornado.
Now, the community devastated by the tornado has a totally new look, highlighted by a beautiful new park outside the Pratt City Library. The city commissioned the the same landscape architecture firm that created Railroad Park to create the park around the rebuilt Pratt City library.
During the Pratt City reopening ceremony in February 2014, staff member Lenairria Creer, an employee there since 1995, talked of how she was personally affected by the April 2011 tornado. After the library closed early due to the approaching storm, Creer said she went to her home a few blocks away. That afternoon, the same tornado that struck Pratt City Library hit her house.
She told attendees of the reopening ceremony the destruction of the Pratt City Library was just as devastating to her as the loss of her home at time. "At first I thought that I was going to be a little depressed coming back," she said on missing the old library. "But being that everything is new and all the old is gone, it is a sweet memory."
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| Pratt City Library "Remembering April 27, 2011" display. |
Vincent Solfronk, branch manager of Pratt City Branch Library, placed a "Remembering April 27, 2011" display that has photographs and newspaper articles showing the library damage sustained from the powerful storm. It has been popular among patrons who remember how the storm devastated the area.
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