Wow, tornados too close to home today!

Yes, thanks for asking, he got ahold of us late that same night. He said he heard the sirens and ran outside to see... of course he smacked himself in the head for being an idiot later... he said it got within 6 blocks of his house and dropped some debris in the yard but didn't do any damage to their house. Too close for comfort! His son walked down to the damaged area and took some pictures and sent them to us. What a mess, cars on top of cars, semi's knocked off the road, a freight train got knocked clear off the tracks. They had a helicopter fly over the area and took some footage for the local news and it was worse just southwest of them. Whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Nothing left of some houses but the foundations. It's funny that you mentioned Wal-Mart because one of the pictures he sent us was from their Wal-Mart. The tornado ripped an air conditioning unit off the roof and threw it into the parking lot hitting a truck which was pushed in to several cars. There was a semi truck in the parking lot that was completely knocked over on it's side too. But that was it, they just got grazed. The local news crew was at a farm that was completely destroyed talking to the owners and there was a dog in the background running around barking. The reporter was standing in front of this huge tree that had been snapped in half, he had the cameraman take footage of the dog and he said "See that little dog, his name is Lukey. Though everyone is calling him Lucky now because during the tornado, he was tied up to this tree!" Even with all the destruction around everyone kind of chuckled.

Oh wow! You should post some of those pictures! I am so glad your friends family and home where okay. They got lucky! Oh and he sounds like my Dad - walking out to see it. I'd be in the floor from fainting! I wonder if I'd even make it to my basement - LOL. And that's a really cute story about that dog! Isn't it odd that animals tend to survive in a situation where most humans wouldn't have?

I remember hearing about that storm on CNN, they showed video of the damage in Woodbridge and I was surprised. You don't hear about tornados over there too often. Thanks! :D

Maquoketa is a bit north of us and they got hit with the storm too. The tornado hit just south of us. It was moving almost due south southwest to north northeast so every town along that line got hit with high winds, hail, heavy rain and but just the one tornado south of us thank goodness. From what I understand there were no fatalities and only a few injuries during the tornado. But lots of property damage. I haven't heard anything about damage in Maquoketa other than trees and branches down.

Hi Lloyd, Yes fortunately he e-mailed us late last night. He said the tornado passed within 6 blocks of his house and dropped some debris in his yard but no damage was done and he and his family are fine. His son walked down and took some pictures of the Toyota dealership about 7 blocks up his street and found one car had been picked up and thrown across the lot and landing on top of another car. Some 123 cars were damaged by debris. Then he walked over to the Walmart around the corner and found a semi overturned. Quite a blow! Thanks :D

Yep we're both kind of on the edge of tornado alley. We don't usually get big ones but lots of F0 or F1 around the area. This one was big, they estimate it was an F3. Sure took out a lot of houses, some are just gone, nothing but sticks left. I've seen a lot of tornados in my time too and more funnel clouds than I can count but when a big one hits that close to home when friends are involved ... I got the heebeejeebees.. LOL. Our drummer said he watched the tornado hit 6 blocks from his house and they got debris in their yard but no damage. His son walked down the street and took a bunch of pictures and he sent me some... wow is all I could say. Thanks :D

I'm happy it didn't get too bad down there! Boy oh boy susieq, you went from tornado alley to hurricane alley! LOL!