Midtown Business Reopens 2 Years After Tornado

8 views · Published 8 October 2014 · 1:35 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: NBC 15 · 2014 · News & Politics

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MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) A business in Mobile has reopened nearly two years after it was destroyed by a tornado that tore through parts of the city. 

"Hurricanes you can prepare for, but a tornado, never in my wildest dreams," said Laura Cantrell, owner of Laura Cantrell Photography.

The studio was unrecognizable on Christmas Day in 2012. 

"I don't remember much, I know that sounds crazy. All of my friends, and friends I didn't even know I had, showed up to help," she said.

The dark of night made it tough to realize how bad things were, but the next morning the damage was surreal. The roof was gone and the walls were caved in. Everything the family had worked for was tossed around and destroyed in a matter of seconds.

"I just kept thinking looking at all of the devastation that the front windows where my mother would've been standing at that time of day had it been any other day and the glass shards and how it ripped everything apart," said Cantrell.

Luckily no one was hurt during the storm. The studio was the hardest hit business in midtown Mobile.

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