Yesterday was interesting and devastating for so many. It was May 5 of 1975 when I experienced my first Tornado. Working in downtown Omaha at the time I watched as in the distance The Tornado marched its way up 72nd Street. It would be hours before I found the husband, as we separately sheltered at the Red Lion Hotel Lobby with hundred’s of other people pacing like the walking dead. All in shock and disbelief. We were not personally impacted by that storm but, for our 20 something selves, it was a scary experience. One we hoped never to have to experience again. Until yesterday.

The local and national weather channels had done such a good job of for-warning us, of the potential for bad storms. I had a couple of appointments yesterday morning and jokingly made a comment about “tornadogedon”. Florida always made a joke about snowmagedon when the weather people would forecast 10″ of snow and we would get 1″! Anyway, I got home about 2:00 and it was cold kind of chilly. I thought no way. It’s too cold for bad weather so I just carried on with my day. The husband got home about an hour later and I made that comment to him. He said well it’s warm now. About 1/2 hour later my phone went off.

Hmm, probably a good time to turn on the TV. Watching for a 1/2 hour or so the sirens went off. Still not overly concerned because you know, it’s just not hot enough for a tornado, I continued to monitor from the comfort of my home office. Every now and then getting up and looking outside. We can’t ever really see anything because the trees are so large, and there really isn’t a horizon. I don’t usually worry about tornados anymore as we’ve had so many false alarms.

Let me just say yesterday was way different. My daughter lives just west of Omaha in Valley NE, and I watched in horror as I was counting the funnel clouds on the screen moving not far from where she and her family lives. Earlier I had sent a text to take cover. She informed me she was with the grand boys at the Valley library. A bank in its former life the library has a vault. That is where they took shelter. Well I suppose you can’t get any safer than that. All were safe and no damage at their home but, my SIL is employed as an independent contractor and that business was heavily damaged.

This is very bad. I don’t know if this will prove to be as bad or worse than the 75 tornado but, I know it is one big mess that will take years to get back to normal. In 75 the tornado hit a densely populated business area. This time it seems that it was mostly private residences, and many where the neighborhoods are wiped out. One of our newer lake communities with million dollar homes was very heavily hit. I’ve been in a couple of those homes, and it is such a lovely community, and I know it will be again. Thankfully no one was killed and most injuries have been minor as people rise from the rubble and re-emerge from their destroyed homes.

The clean up has already begun, and I won’t be making jokes about tornado’s ever again.

I had intended to write a post about Quester’s day, but I will leave that for the next post.

As we are expecting more bad weather today, I will leave you with the request to stay safe. My sister is heading home from Indiana today after her month long road trip. She will be driving right back into it.

Thanks for stopping

Shelley