Postevent Deployment Activities for the Beauregard, Alabama, Tornado

On March 3, 2019, a violent EF-4 tornado tore through portions of Macon and Lee Counties in southeastern Alabama, resulting in 23 fatalities and nearly 100 injuries. Eleven additional tornadoes occurred across the state with damage totals from Lee county alone exceeding $10 million dollars. However, national, even international, media attention was squarely focused on the small community of Beauregard where all 23 fatalities occurred within a tenth of a square mile. Those fatalities were the highest number from a tornado event in the United States since the Moore, Oklahoma tornado in May 2013.

Given the extensive media attention and large scale magnitude of the disaster, a Joint Information Center (JIC) was established at the request of state and county EMA. The National Weather Service Office in Birmingham deployed the Meteorologist in Charge to the JIC at Beauregard High School for 5 days after the tornado and also deployed additional staff for select days to assist with workload. This presentation will focus on the post-event deployment activities including in the hours immediately after the tornado, along with the decision support services provided at the JIC and within the Incident Command (IC) structure. Best practices will be discussed along with lessons learned for future post-event deployments.