Huntsville/Athens Alabama Tornado Situation

93EXCivic said:

Justjim75 said:

Must be an Auburn fan, lol

Nope not really an American football fan. Just Alabama football is probably the most annoying thing about living in Alabama.

No, it's just the Alabama fans that are annoying.  

I moved to Montgomery in 1982 for a new job.  When I was being shown around the Limestone Valley (north Alabama) by one of our salesmen, I kept seeing doorways built into the banks along the sides of the roads. The salesman said they were tornado shelters.  A few years earlier they had had a series of deadly tornadoes come through the area and that was their response.  One of my farmers actually purchased a ready made shelter that they buried in their backyard.  If my company had let me move to that area Instead of Montgomery I would definitely have stayed there after I got laid off.  Athens was one of my favorite areas.  Huntsville is quite sophisticated compared to the rest of Alabama, due to so many highly educated people associated with Redstone Arsenal etc.  

wlkelley3 said:

Even in automotive, Toyota and Subaru just built a joint factory here and that brought in some of their suppliers here too.

Mazda not Subaru. Since I now work for Mazda.

Also Mazda is looking for hire some R&D members if anyone is looking to move to the Huntsville area.

spitfirebill said:

93EXCivic said:

Justjim75 said:

Must be an Auburn fan, lol

Nope not really an American football fan. Just Alabama football is probably the most annoying thing about living in Alabama.

No, it's just the Alabama fans that are annoying.  

They can't be as bad as the Gator or Clemson fans. 

I love Huntsville/North Alabama. Went to University of Alabama at Huntsville. All of my college friends now work in the space industry or supporting the military as engineers. Miss that town so much. I go through every year on the way to Road Atlanta and pick up a bunch of my friends from one of the car clubs - crash at one of their homes on the way over. 

All the things mentioned about the fact that Huntsville is not nearly as rural as the rest of Alabama is completely true. Has the highest level of education of any city in the south per my memory, and that shows. 

I'm up in the Memphis, TN area and we get a number of the Huntsville SCCA AutoX'ers up to our events and up to the Nashville events quite regularly. Lotsa car culture there. 

In reply to Stampie :

Clemson fans are nowhere near as annoying as Alabama or Florida fans are.  I'm still not sure why Florida fans are bigheaded.  I do understand the Alabama thing.  As a Clemson alum, I will say we have acquired a whole bunch of fairweather fans with the recent success.  I hope they go away.  

I live in the Birmingham area, but my kids grandparents have a house on the river in Athens, so we spend a good amount of summer up there.

I'm originally from California and when I moved here I was concerned about tornadoes as well. Now that I've lived here for 20+ years, I can tell you that they aren't really that big of a deal.  Yes, they happen. Sometimes they are strong.  However the technology and communication have improved so much that being personally impacted is so very rare.

For example, in addition to the sirens, TV/Radio/weather app warnings, I have a service called "weather call". Costs me $9, but will call my phone if we are directly in the path of a severe storm.  In 10 years, I got only 1 call (and we were away on vacation).

Also the warning system is much more sophisticated.  Warnings are more specific to the path of a storm and not county wide.

I say all this to say, you shouldn't need to worry too much.

spitfirebill said:

In reply to Stampie :

Clemson fans are nowhere near as annoying as Alabama or Florida fans are.  I'm still not sure why Florida fans are bigheaded.  I do understand the Alabama thing.  As a Clemson alum, I will say we have acquired a whole bunch of fairweather fans with the recent success.  I hope they go away.  

You haven't been around Oklahoma fans, especially the ones that never went to school there. 

All the manufacturing places I've worked in the past, when people would give me a hard time (all in good fun) for wearing an Ok State hoodie, or hat, or something like that, my response was:

"You know the difference between an OU and OSU fan? The OSU fan has a degree."

Super excited to be heading to Huntsville saturday for a 4 day stay. Bringing the family with and meeting a realtor I have been talking to look look at about 6 properties 

In reply to Jeff Shaffer :

Do not arrive to town wearing anything representing Texas A&M Football.  

In reply to John Welsh :

I heard the crowd was unified.

In reply to John Welsh :

Yup

https://www.cbs42.com/news/crime/man-dead-in-bessemer-following-shooting-over-alabama-texas-am-football-game/

93EXCivic said:

wlkelley3 said:

Even in automotive, Toyota and Subaru just built a joint factory here and that brought in some of their suppliers here too.

Mazda not Subaru. Since I now work for Mazda.

Also Mazda is looking for hire some R&D members if anyone is looking to move to the Huntsville area.

Missed this thread the first time around, and odd thread bump by the OP, but what?

I had no idea Mazda had an R&D facility in Huntsville- what do they research and develop there?

In reply to alfadriver :

We are supporting the new Mazda and Toyota factory and working on the car that will be built here.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

So mostly assembly research?  (and by that, enveloping all things included in that- I know it's incredibly complex)

In reply to alfadriver :

I am not doing anything with assembly processes. Right now primarily issue correction, managing last minute changes, acting as a go between Mazda Japan and suppliers, any other support the manufacturing engineers/QA needs. Going forward managing year to year changes of the vehicle, developing Cost improvements, continuing some of the current tasks. 

I'd recommend not limiting yourself to Athens depending on where you plan to work. I live on the east side of town(Huntsville) known as "Hampton Cove" and it's very nice as well. The only problem with living anywhere north or west of Redstone Arsenal is the commuting can really suck because so many other people live that way. Don't even get me started on Madison traffic, but depending on where you are coming from it may not be a big deal at all. Huntsville's idea of traffic is laughable if you're coming from LA or DC I suppose. Good luck on the house search!

In reply to JAdams :

Yup this. I lived in Madison before moving to the Blossomwood area (just east of downtown) and when I moved my commute to the job almost doubled in distance but the time went down.

In reply to JAdams :

I just got back after 4 days in the greater huntsville area and contracted on a house there north of town still in Athens but right below elkmont.

We did the rush hour commute from athens to huntsville tuesday morning and yes it laughable compared to here...at home on a friday afternoon it took me 30 mins to literally go 4 exits (approx 10 miles) and side streets would have been the same or maybe longer here.

Anyway long story short the family and I love it and cant wait to move in next month. We got a nice little place on 3 acres with a swimming pool and a big shop at a great price on a cash deal. 

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