Devastation

Do you remember how I talked about my fascination with storms? Well.....I am still fascinated, but enough is enough. Many of my family and friends have been affected by the storms, tornadoes and flooding that has happened over the past couple weeks. Please keep them all in your thoughts and prayers and hope the weather dries up soon....

Here is a slideshow mostly from Iowa. My brother lives in Cedar Rapids.

My dad lives in Waterloo, as well as my sister-in-law. T here has been major flooding in the Waterloo Cedar Falls area. My dad took this picture of a friend's house.


This picture was taken near Orchard, IA where I use to live. It is 2 miles from my friend's house. She said that they were trapped at their house, surrounded by water. It was like they were sitting on an island with all the flooding.


You can view pictures of my hometown of Osage, IA here. There are also pictures included of Cedar Falls in this slideshow.

Last night we had to go to our basement. We spent about 30 minutes down there waiting for the threat of tornadoes to pass. The main threat was west of us and moving northeast, so I don't think we were in any danger and no tornadoes touched down near us. It is always quite the ordeal. We don't have a nice finished basement so I don't keep nice things down there. When I saw there were tornado warnings in the county to our west I started to get ready. I packed the diaper bag with extra clothes, diapers, wipes, and Tylenol. I packed my camera and lenses, my small camera, my GPS, my new external hard drive with all my digital pictures and then had to pack toys/entertainment for the kids. We needed blankets, chairs to sit on, snacks and drinks. I guess you can never be too prepared. The latest storms in neighboring towns and states have taught us that. I always think "what if a tornado hit my house?" What would I absolutely need??? I really can't start taking all of my scrapbooks, photos, cherished items and favorite clothes with me each time there is a threat of a tornado. What is most important? My kids, my husband & my dog. But you can bet if I have extra time to prepare I am going to take other things down with me too! It was kind of crazy with the girls sitting under the work bench and me trying to contain Ava! I had my laptop downstairs with me so I could watch the radar. Then, I kept remembering those things that I forgot. I kept asking Dana to run back upstairs and grab things. "Look, Dana, the radar shows that it is still at least 5 miles away from us, you have plenty of time!"

In the meantime, my friend who lives West of town was taking these pictures. If you look real close you can see the funnel lowering.


And this is the picture I took after the main threat was over. The calm and beauty after the storm, a rainbow. Unfortunately, my batteries were dead in my good camera so this is the best I could get.


After all of the devastation that has occurred over the past week I was feeling a little guilty about my previous post of "feeling cheated" when I don't get to see a little action. I guess it reminds me that mother nature can be absolutely fascinating and absolutely destructive at the same time. It has taken lives, homes, jobs and has completely changed the lives of many people. Some of them might be family or friends of mine - I have yet to find that out. We must respect the weather and prepare for the worst and pray that everyone we love stays safe. So please keep those affected in your thoughts and prayers.