Tornadoes!

Living smack dab in the center of Tornado Alley, I've grown accustomed to monthly siren tests, weather watches and warnings and debates over whether or not an actual tornado touched down after a particularly violent storm. Friday night/Saturday morning's weather hit just a little too close to home for comfort.

My mother and father in law had a very small tornado touch down in their yard. It took out part of their wood fence, uprooted a plum tree, tilted the utility pole in their back yard, peeled back some of the metal flasching on their house and ripped off some shingles. They had very, very minor damage, but neighbors a mile or two away were not so fortunate.

It was awful looking at one especially hard hit house. Three quarters of the roof was missing, insulation was strewn all over their yard, metal siding had wrapped around utility lines (really bizarre sight) and a magnificent old tree lay on its side with roots reaching into the air. This is the first time I have seen tornado damage up close and personal, and my heart aches for the families whose houses were so badly damaged. Especially amazing is the fact the houses 1.5 blocks away show no damage. Not even a limb down or extra leaves on the ground. Truly amazing how so much energy can be focused in such a small area.

We live on the other side of town and got nothing worse than some thunder and lightning with a bit of a heavy downpour. Two years ago though, we lived 1/2 mile from my in-laws and would have been in the middle of Saturday morning's fury.

I'm thinking we might need to budget for a storm cellar as our current house has no basement and not even a particularly well-enclosed interior room to hang out in during a tornado warning.

M.W. - still having chills