Hmm, beginning to think I prefer the cold...

At least with cold weather, you don't get tornadoes. On Sunday, my hometown was hit by a tornado. There has not been a tornado here in almost 45 years. Last month, we had a really warm day that turned into severe weather when a cold front went through. The tornado siren sounded and we went down to the basement only to find that the storm didn't produce anything. This time, it did. An EF-2 tornado struck the south side part of my town touching down just a mere block or so away from one of our hospitals. It then took a NE path through town crossing 4 highways before dissipating near the bluffs. What's absolutely shocking is that despite NUMEROUS close calls, there were NO serious injuries or fatalities. Considering that our tornado struck a mere hour plus before Joplin, MO was hit, I consider us all extremely lucky. To add to that incredible luck is the fact that the siren nearest the area that was hit did not sound. It's been dead for a number of years. The warning that would have sounded through the weather radio also did not occur due to a malfunction. By the time the warning came over the weather radio, it was too late. If you were not watching TV, surfing the internet, or set up with a warning system over your cell phone, you did not get a warning. My brother was one of those people who did not even know a tornado hit until my sister called him to find out if he was okay. At the time, we didn't know where it hit. Fortunately, he was 8 blocks away from the path.

I had a chance to take a look down in the area the next morning and it was just amazing. Large trees were down at the room or snapped in half. Some homes were hit really hard and others barely touched. My old apartment that I had 8-9 years ago had no damage while houses on either side were hit. What's absolutely amazing is while trees were brought down, lilac bushes were left unscathed, blossoms intact. It looked like a war zone down there and I imagine that the neighborhoods down there will change bit by bit as trees are removed and houses town down and rebuilt.

Some of the stories that have been told are simply amazing. One couple rode the storm out in their car and survived. They come out of the car to find the apartment had been damaged severely. Another rode out the tornado in his bathroom and emerged to find no roof over the rest of his apartment. A bus driver basically drove into the storm head on and got through it without a scratch. It was a rain wrapped tornado so no one could see it and because of that there weren't even any pictures of it and officials for awhile were not even sure a tornado had hit. But the damage was clear that it was a tornado that struck.

We lucked out. Looking at what happened to Joplin, things could have been SO much worse. An EF-5 would have damaged the hospital and left a devastating path of destruction through my town. A storm hitting 24 hours later would have severely impacted rush hour traffic. We lucked out, massively.

Still, the whole thing has left me feeling unsettled. I live a mere 3 1/2 to 4 miles away from where the tornado hit. The last tornado hit the airport which is not all that far from me. I have been having nightmares since then and hearing anything about a tornado/storm makes me nervous. We're due for another really warm day on Monday and a cold front coming through. The Weather Channel is already talking about the possibility of severe weather in my area. I'm not looking forward to this. My husband will be at work and I'll be home alone with the girls. As much as I was done with winter, I do have to say that cold weather does keep the severe weather down.