BlockPrairie, Alabama
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Alberta census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36728. The Survey maps it on the Catherine quadrangle. It stands 161 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1953 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Catherine quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Selma quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
64 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 64 fires within 5 miles of Prairie between 1994 and 2020, burning about 799 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 21 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 16 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 23 September 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | 20160923-18 |
| 17 September 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 16 September 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 14 September 2010 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 13 September 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 7 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | 20180807-1 |
| 5 August 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | SWR-20140805-002 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
1 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Prairie in 1 storm report in 2007: 1 tornado. The reports record 1 death and 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2007 | Tornado (EF4) | Prairie | 1 killed, 2 hurt, $2,000,000 | A significant tornado first touched down around 1227 pm at State Highway 28 near Miller's Ferry dam. The tornado then tracked northeast across William Bill Dannelly Reservoir moving ashore on Sand Island Drive. This is where most of the severe damage occurred with numerous homes damaged or destroyed.|One resident had arrived at his home on the lake to eat lunch when the tornado hit and he was killed when his newer model manufactured home was destroyed. The straps holding the home down all snapped in the same place. He was thrown out of his home and later found in the debris. Neighbors next door had sought shelter in an underground storm shelter outside their house seconds before the tornado hit. When they safely emerged from the shelter, they found their home destroyed. Most of the homes on Sand Island are vacation homes with part-time residents. If the tornado had struck on the weekend when more people are present, the loss of life would likely have been greater.|Around 40 homes(four of these were slab homes)were damaged or destroyed along Sand Island Drive with some of the debris scattered up to two miles downstream. The tornado continued quickly to the northeast through sparsely populated areas. Damage did occur to homes and hunting camps along this path. However, the damage here was only rated as EF-0 and EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The tornado crossed into Dallas County.|In all, one person died and two people were slightly injured by the tornado. The injuries occurred along Sand Island Drive when a single wide trailer was destroyed with the occupants being thrown from the trailer. They were protected from flying debris by part of the trailer that had fallen on top of them. The highest wind speed of the tornado was estimated at 185 mph.| |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boiling Springs | 2.0 miles | 9 | |
| Bethel | 2.1 miles | 9 | |
| Prairie Bluff | 2.4 miles | 9 | |
| Catherine | 2.6 miles | 9 | |
| Gastonburg | 3.7 miles | 9 | |
| Rehoboth | 4.2 miles | 9 | |
| Flatwood | 4.4 miles | 9 | |
| Midway | 5.2 miles | 9 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Prairie | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q7237802 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 156929. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.