West Alabama Monday Briefing

Good morning West Alabama! It is Monday, May 19, 2025. This is the 139th day of the year with 226 days remaining. Today's edition of the briefing was delayed due to technical issues. It should return to its normal late morning issuance tomorrow.

Inside the Monday Briefing:

Weather: As cleanup from Sunday morning's storms continue, preparations for another round of strong to severe thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon and evening are being made.
News: Mayor Maddox, the Tuscaloosa City Council and City School Board take the oath of office today.
Sports: Alabama Softball is headed to the Super Regionals in Norman, OK.
Monday Morning Observations (Commentary): Congratulations to the mayor, council and city school board. The work ahead won't be easy but at least you are used to working together.

Weather:

Trees and power lines brought down by early Sunday morning severe thunderstorms left 134,000 without power and a lot of debris removal confronting Alabamians statewide. Some 8,000 Tuscaloosa County customers and 28,000 across West Alabama were without power much of Sunday.

As of late morning today, power crews who have been working not stop since early yesterday morning, has whittled the outages down to just over 5,000 statewide, with 3,600-plus of the outages in Tuscaloosa County alone.

Area schools adjusted their start times this morning due to storm debris on roadways.

Now another storm system forecast for tomorrow has everyone on guard. Lamar, Fayette, NW Pickens and extreme NW Tuscaloosa Counties are painted by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) under an Elevated (3 in 5) Risk for strong to severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes.

A Slight (2 in 5) Risk has been established for Tuscaloosa and surrounding counties (Bibb, most of Pickens and the northern sections of Hale, Greene and Sumter Counties). Tornadoes are less likely but cannot be ruled out.

A Marginal (1 in 5) Risk is in effect for areas roughly south of Demopolis in northern Marengo County.

The Forecast:

Today

Partly sunny, with a high near 88. South wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southeast wind around 5 mph.

Tuesday

A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. South wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Tuesday Night

Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1am. Low around 67. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Wednesday

Sunny, with a high near 83. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Wednesday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 61.

Remainder of the Week

Mostly sunny days with highs near 80 and mostly clear nights with lows in the mid 50s.

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News:

Tuscaloosa City Inauguration Has Familiar Ring to It

Today is inauguration Day for Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox as he enters his sixth term as the city's chief executive. The event at the Tuscaloosa River Market also marks the re-inauguration of all but one member of the city council and all of the City Board of Education.

Long tenures are not unusual in Tuscaloosa City Government. Maddox is only the fifth mayor in the city since 1956. Council President Kip Tyner was first elected to the council in 1997. All current council members except District 1's newly elected Joe Eatmon have served at least one term. All seven members of the newly sworn-in Tuscaloosa County Board of Education are incumbents.

One of the legacy projects that will be key to the mayor, council and board over the next four years is development of the Saban Center for STEM education.

Sunday Shooting Leaves Woman Wounded

A juvenile, who cannot be named due to state law, has been arrested and charged with the early Sunday morning shooting of a woman. According to the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, the incident took place just before dawn yesterday near the intersection of 21st Street and Alston Avenue.

An ongoing argument among a group of people is believed to be the spark that led to the women's shooting. She was transported to DCGRMC with serious wounds.

The suspect faces charges of Assault 1st Degree, discharging into an occupied Vehicle, and certain persons prohibited from possessing a pistol. He is expected to be tried as an adult.

Read More: Juvenile With Stolen Gun Charged in Tuscaloosa Shooting

Traffic Death Recorded in Hale County

52-year-old Moundville resident. Michael E. Snipes was fatally struck by a 2004 Honda Civic driven by an 18-year-old juvenile Saturday night. ALEA reports the incident happened at 11:20 p.m. on Alabama 60 near the 4-mile marker, about one mile south of Akron.

No further information has been released as the investigation continues.

Weather Radio Serving West Alabama Down for Upgrade

NOAA Weather Radio transmitters in Winfield, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Demopolis, Selma and other locations in Alabama will all offline due to installation of a system upgrade.

The outage began today and will extend through Wednesday. That will include the period of time that potential severe weather is in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon and evening.

The upgrade is being made to the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). It is used to display and integrate weather and water information, it is also responsible for sending weather alerts through NOAA Weather Radio transmitters.

The outage will have no impact on forecasting and the Birmingham Forecast Office will remain open and staffed. “During the time of the update, forecast operations will be conducted in conjunction with our service back-up office in Peachtree City Georgia to minimize any potential interruption to services,” the National Weather Service said on Weather.gov. “No impacts to our core services of forecast products and weather watches, warnings and advisories are expected during this period.”

Persons who use NOAA Weather Radio are encouraged to have the cellphones programmed to receive WEA Alerts and monitor local broadcast media.

Run For the Wall Again to Make a Stop at Tuscaloosa VA

350 motorcycle riders will thunder into the Tuscaloosa VA between 9:45 and 10:45 a.m. tomorrow morning on their way to Washington D.C. as part of the annual Run for the Wall.

The visit marks their annual Memorial Day cross-country ride to the Vietnam Wall to remember those some 50,000 U.S. Military who sacrificed their lives in Southeast Asian nation.

The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center will host the riders for a brief rest period and a meet and greet. It is open to the public.

Lamar County Body Discovered

A body was discovered Sunday evening in a wooded area along County Road 49 in Lamar County.

Lamar County Sheriff's Deputies believe the body is Rodney Raines, a Thomaston, Georgia man they have been seeking in connection with a Monday, May 12 shooting at a nearby home on County Road 49. The shooting wounded two people.

The last information the Lamar County SO had was Raines left the area on foot.

Sports:

Bama Softball Hangs on for Tuscaloosa Regional Title, Heads to Supers

The Crimson Tide had some scary moments Sunday afternoon as Virginia Tech rallied for a 3-2 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning. But some solid pitching and good defense kept the Hokies at bay and Alabama progressed to a Super Regional.

With the win over VT (42-13), Bama (40-21) claims its 21st NCAA Regional title and its 17th undefeated regional weekend since the current postseason format was adopted in 2005. The Crimson Tide will travel to Norman, Okla., to face No. 2 seed Oklahoma in Super Regionals. Game dates and times are still to be announced.

Read More: Alabama Softball Advances to Super Regionals

SEC in Softball Super Regionals

Nine of the 14 Southeastern Conference teams that earned first round births in the NCAA 2025 Softball Tournament have now moved on to the Super Regionals.

#1 ranked and top seeded Texas A&M will not be one of the SEC teams moving on. They were upset twice by upstart and homerun hitting Liberty and were eliminated from the tournament.

There will be two SEC vs SEC Super Regionals. Alabama at Oklahoma and Florida vs Georgia and Ole Miss at Arkansas.

Super Regional Brackets

Bama's: Labron a Semifinalist for Golden Spikes

Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron was named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, USA Baseball announced Sunday.

Lebron is one of 25 semifinalists for the Golden Spikes, an award given annually to the top amateur baseball player in the nation. Fan voting will again play a part in the Golden Spikes Award in 2025, as fans can vote for their favorite players on GoldenSpikesAward.com, beginning today with the naming of the semifinalists. USA Baseball will announce the finalists for the award on June 4, and fan voting will once again open at GoldenSpikesAward.com before closing on June 20.

Alabama has not produced a Golden Spikes winner since Dave Magadan in 1983.

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Monday Morning Observations:

Congratulations to Mayor Walt Maddox, members of the Tuscaloosa City Council and the Tuscaloosa City School Board. Each who begin a new term in office today.

Local governments are foundational to democracy, tasked with maintaining order and improving community life. As part of their duties, mayors and councils are expected to work toward improving social, economic, and environmental viability and sustainability for the benefit of council districts and the city as a whole. That is basically what this group of office holders have done.

If someone asked you to come up with a symbol or picture of "government," what would you think of? The White House? The nation's capital? Perhaps "Old Glory" or the state flag? The State Capitol in Montgomery? Maybe the county courthouse?

Few of you would probably think of a school building, the Jerry Plott Water Treatment Plant, the Tuscaloosa Public Library, or even City Hall. Yet these buildings are critical to our daily life. They are part of our municipal government.

Tuscaloosa has progressed since Walt Maddox entered his first term as the city's chief executive after serving on the council. The city has also survived during his tenure after the devastating EF-4 tornado.

Maddox and the council work well together and that has helped move the city forward. Meanwhile, the city school board has worked together to improve academics and deal with dwindling education dollars.

But the next four years may be extremely challenging as Washington cutbacks and presidential executive orders could have significant negative direct impact on municipal governing bodies.

Here are best wishes for a successful four years and may Tuscaloosa continue to grow and prosper. After all, a city that is not growing is stagnant or dying and that is not good for the future.

(Opinions expressed in Morning Observations are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the ownership, management, staff or sponsors of Townsquare Media Tuscaloosa.)