The Storm

Somewhere around 6 o'clock this morning we got a heck of a storm. Once again I wasn't abruptly pushed from dreamland by the storm, but rather by Emily galloping into my bed, scared. When I looked over she had the covers over her head. It was right after that that I heard the wind blowing like crazy. I looked over to the deck connected to my bedroom and the sky was a scary green color. I got up and peeked outside and the trees were being whipped hard. A chair on the deck had even fallen over. I figured I better check the weather for any tornado warnings. Not sure what I was thinking when I turned on the tv and didn't have a satellite signal. Duh. Got on the computer and only seen we were under a thunderstorm warning. Ya think??

About a half-hour later my sister called to see if we had power, which we did. She didn't and neither did a large portion of the Quad Cities. Luckily for my sister they have a generator at her house. They lost a lot of trees at her house, a small fence and some of the kids (the kids=my kids) outside toys had been blown to other parts of the yard. She said a large tree fell on their road and no one could get out of their addition.

When I looked outside our larger deck off the living room I saw this:





That would be a large part of a tree from somewhere in our complex and an umbrella from the pool. In the second picture you can see that while the pool is somewhat close to our apartment, the umbrella still traveled a ways to get to where it landed. The other large body of water next to the pool would be the volleyball and tether ball courts.

A lot of the area is still without power. The hospital I work at is running on the backup generators. They say most people wont have power until Wednesday. My dad's apartment complex is also electricity-free. He's staying at my sister's for the time being.

I read today that a family was camping with their seven kids at a campgrounds near here that I used to go to almost every weekend with a friend of mine when I was in Jr. High. Her parents used to park their RV there. They didn't know there was a storm coming so when it hit the dad took the older ones (the kids ages range from 9 months to 12 years) and he put them in his truck and took them somewhere...not sure if it was a shelter on the grounds or what. When he came back a large tree had fallen on their tent and their 4 year old little boy was crushed under it and the 9 month old little girl was critically injured. Another child was hurt badly too but from what I understand she will be ok. It made me sick when I read about it and terribly sad. I hate to see the loss of anyone but even more so when it's a child. Especially one that is the same age as one of your own. Keep them in your thoughts, please.