Interesting afternoon, yesterday.
My business partner stopped at my office and asked: "Is that the sirens I hear?" Yup, sure is. So, outside we go (the authorities sound the civil defense sirens which means to "take cover" as tornadoes are about; around here, the sirens are the signal for everyone to go outside and gawk, which I did).
Holy smokes! Tornadoes everywhere! A big 'un about 15 miles west of town, another big 'un about 10 miles west, 2 smaller ones touched down at the airport about 3 miles west of town, and several north and east. Had one client, who operates a welding shop on his farmstead get a call from his daughter telling him a twister was headed for him. Sure enough, he sees it about a mile away. He and his wife contemplated going into the crawl space of his house but opt instead to pile into the pickup and take off. Good thing they did: the farmstead took a direct hit while he sat watching and completely blew the place to smithereens, right down to the concrete pad of his house.
My son was pinned down at work over in Minnesota where the twisters killed 1 person, criticallly injured another and blew some guy out of sight (still haven't found him) at our favorite bait shop/convenience store at the lake.
There were so many twisters around that I met several folks who had pictures on their cell phones. All in all, an interesting evening.
Wadena, MN really got hammered.
So, prayers out for families of those killed and for survivors who lost homes and businesses.
My business partner stopped at my office and asked: "Is that the sirens I hear?" Yup, sure is. So, outside we go (the authorities sound the civil defense sirens which means to "take cover" as tornadoes are about; around here, the sirens are the signal for everyone to go outside and gawk, which I did).
Holy smokes! Tornadoes everywhere! A big 'un about 15 miles west of town, another big 'un about 10 miles west, 2 smaller ones touched down at the airport about 3 miles west of town, and several north and east. Had one client, who operates a welding shop on his farmstead get a call from his daughter telling him a twister was headed for him. Sure enough, he sees it about a mile away. He and his wife contemplated going into the crawl space of his house but opt instead to pile into the pickup and take off. Good thing they did: the farmstead took a direct hit while he sat watching and completely blew the place to smithereens, right down to the concrete pad of his house.
My son was pinned down at work over in Minnesota where the twisters killed 1 person, criticallly injured another and blew some guy out of sight (still haven't found him) at our favorite bait shop/convenience store at the lake.
There were so many twisters around that I met several folks who had pictures on their cell phones. All in all, an interesting evening.
Wadena, MN really got hammered.
So, prayers out for families of those killed and for survivors who lost homes and businesses.
