On April 27, 2011 a swarm of tornadoes swept across Alabama, killing hundreds of people and completely destroying homes and businesses across the state. Survivors were left to deal with a massive cleanup on top of suddenly being left homeless and jobless, while insurers racked up billions in insured losses.

Among the hardest-hit areas were Tuscaloosa and Hackleburg, Ala. Click “next” to see photos as we mark the one-year anniversary and take a look at progress made in the past year.

Greg Barnes and Sharon Crawford fish for their supper in debris-filled Forest Lake in Tuscaloosa on April 10, 2012.

Of the 3,228 people statewide who were still in temporary housing provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on April 1, more than one-third lived in Tuscaloosa County. Statistics show 1,135 homeowners there remain in temporary housing.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Some new construction is visible on debris-filled Forest Lake.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said “Forty percent of the houses destroyed in Alabama were in Tuscaloosa County. Of those, 61 percent of the 5,362 houses that were destroyed were rentals, and the median income there was $28,000 a household.”

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

In this April 10 photo, flowers, trinkets and sports memorabilia are displayed on a makeshift memorial for University of Alabama student Ashley Harrison in Tuscaloosa. Ashley and hundreds others were killed when the tornadoes hit.

Communities across Alabama are planning events to mark the first anniversary of the tornadoes that killed more than 250 people in the state.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Sharon Horn, 53, stands on the empty weedy lot in Tuscaloosa where her old house stood. Horn described herself as homeless.

“I think when you don’t have your own key to unlock your door to go into a place and say ‘It’s mine,’ whether you’re renting or own, you’re homeless,” she said.

Horn, 53, was renting a three-bedroom, one-bath home in Tuscaloosa until a massive twister splintered the old house and scattered her possessions across the neighborhood, leaving her with virtually nothing. Her $4,000 in federal disaster aid long gone, Horn now shuttles back and forth between a cousin and a daughter with no place of her own.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

A small tent houses a bar-b-cue grill where the town's cafe used to stand in Hackleburg, Ala. on April 16, 2012.

It was about 3:20 p.m. a year ago when the skies grew dark over the northwest Alabama town of Hackleburg and a tornado dropped from the sky. When it left, 18 people were dead.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

A workman crosses the site of the rebuilding Wrangler Plant in Hackleburg.

All but one of town's 32 commercial buildings was wiped out, including its largest employer, leaving most of the survivors without jobs.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Steve Sutherland sits on the stoop to his family’s tornado-destroyed home in Hackleburg.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Special Reports /

Remembering Alabama Tornadoes: One Year Later -- Slideshow

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