TORNADO

Some of you have emailed me to ask if this was truly a tornado, or just a bad storm! It was a confirmed tornado. This was the second one we've been through since we've lived here! The last one was in 2001. This one caused quite a bit more destruction than the one in 2001! There were more than 150 trees (big trees) that were uprooted and blocking roadways. The street department is working 24 hours a day to clear the roadways! They hope to have all roadways cleared by Sunday (06/15/2008). There are still over 8,000 people without power here in the City. They are hoping to have all power restored by Friday morning (06/13/2008).

6:35 P.M. /Monday, June 9th
See the nice BIG dent in the middle of my husband's truck (hood)?!

Never a dull moment around here, folks! Yesterday at 6:00 p.m. I turned on the news because I wanted to see if we had a storm warning (it was thundering in the distance, and I could see periodic flashes of lightning). The "weather lady" said there were no warnings for our area, just a thunderstorm WATCH until 8:00 p.m. As I sat back down to my computer to work, there was a really loud bang! I thought "Okay, I need to shut my computer off and go downstairs"! So, I did. I no more than got to the bottom of the stairs when I looked out the window and saw the trees BENT over and blowing things sideways!! I let out a yell to the kids who were watching television in the living room "LET's GO, GUYS.....DOWN TO THE BASEMENT"! Just then the power went out and everything was dark (we could hardly see in front of us). When we got down to the basement, we heard TERRIBLE wind and things banging around (it was very scary)! It was hard to try and stay calm for the kids' sake when I was just SHAKING inside! Dad was at work, so....we were on our own!!

The kids kept crying and asking "Are we gonna be okay, mom?"!! I reassured the kids that we were in the safest place possible, and the whole time thinking "Oh, Dear God....please don't let anything happen to us"!

The storm seemed to pass quickly (other than the very HARD rain). When the coast was clear, I went upstairs and looked outside. All I could see were trees down everywhere! I called my husband at work and told him that he needed to come home! He had a very hard time GETTING home because of all of the downed trees and power lines everywhere! But, he finally made it and....we were all REALLY glad to see him!!

We were without power from 6:00 p.m. last night until 8:30 this morning! Thank goodness we're all used to camping and "roughing it" because that's exactly what we had to do last night...ROUGH IT.

Look at how dark and "creepy" the above pictures were just after the storm hit! And notice below how bright and sunny things are about an hour later!

This was taken AFTER the fire department came by and put up the "Caution" tape so people couldn't come down our street!

This was one of the many neighbors who came out to offer their help! He went from house to house cutting up trees and branches! I think he MOST DEFINITELY deserves the "good neighbor" award!

Hey, who's this handsome guy?!!!

Rudy was in "stick heaven"!! So many to choose from!!

These are just a couple of the MANY holes and dents on the top of our camper! As far as our own property goes, the camper took the brunt of the damage"! Not so sure about that camping trip we had planned for the 20th!!



Well, we are truly thankful that we are all okay! Material things are just material things and they can be repaired or replaced! And, I'm also thankful that our power has finally come back on.....when I'm at home, I prefer all of the necessary amenities!! I'll save the "roughing it" for CAMPING!!

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On May 12th, we had an earthquake here!! On June 9th we had a tornado! Do you think maybe we should pack up and LEAVE for the month of July?!!