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Tim Striegel and his daughter escaped their trailer off 14th Street in Calera just minutes before a tornado struck, destroying the bedroom where Tim would have been. (Reporter photo/Alec Etheredge)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Publisher

CALERA – Sitting inside his home on Saturday, March 15 as a line of storms approached the city of Calera, the alert came through on Tim Striegel’s phone.

Tornado warning.

When he saw that notification flash on his phone, he had a quick decision to make for himself and his daughter.

“Me and my daughter contemplated whether we wanted to stay or go,” he recalled. “We decided to go.”

That decision quickly became one of the best of his life, as minutes later, the storm, which has since been classified to have produced at least an EF-1 tornado, hit their trailer.

“Within minutes, it got hit,” Striegel said, looking toward his now non-existent bedroom on the end of the trailer that suffered the worst damage.

“Right there is my bedroom, which is where I would have been because it’s where I spend most of my time when I’m home. If we hadn’t left, I wouldn’t be here. You can see what it would have done to me,” he said, pointing to his mattress under a pile of rubble.

Striegel’s bed frame was ripped apart, while the roof and other parts of the trailer and room were completely piled on top of his mattress.

His childhood dresser, however, remained standing strong.

“That dresser, my parents bought for me as a kid and it’s been with me ever since, and as you can see, it was apparently built pretty good because it’s still standing,” he said.

One of the toughest aspects for the family was being forced to leave behind the two cats and a dog inside.

Their dog, however, was on the other end of the trailer and survived, while one of the two cats was rescued from being pinned under a drawer of pots and pans. One cat did run away after, but has been found safe since.

“The fact that me and my daughter are alive through this, that’s the blessing,” Striegel said.

The two ended up staying the night in the Calera city jail after they were found back near their home without a place to go due to hotel rooms being booked.

Striegel’s daughter said the Calera officers were very hospitable during a restless night for them and they were grateful that they gave them a safe place to stay.

He also added that everything about the process was a last-minute decision, including an insurance purchase on the home a day prior, a blessing he didn’t know would be so impactful 24 hours later.

“It was just a whim,” he said. “I called up my insurance broker and said, ‘I just made an agreement to rent to own, do you have a policy for that?’ She said yes, so we setup a policy and 24 hours later, the trailer is gone.”

There was also other damage in the trailer park with Striegel’s trailer being one of the most heavily damaged there.

Volunteers were out throughout the morning helping with cleanup efforts, meals and more throughout the area as each of those impacted by the storm begin the path to recovery.

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