Thursday, May 10, 2007

LIFE IN THE MIDWEST...



I was surfing MSN today during a lull in the activity at work and ran across these satellite photos of the small town of Greensburg, Kansas before and after the tornado last Friday evening leveled about 90% of the town. I'd heard of the story and that the entire town was virtually destroyed, but I hadn't really put it in perspective till I saw these photos. Here is another site with some amazing pictures of what this storm did.

This tornado was deemed an F5. The highest rating on the Fujita scale.

Having lived in the midwest my entire life, I knock on wood when I say I have never seen a tornado, nor do I ever hope to see one. I've seen and experienced many storms that had spawned tornados in fairly close proximity to me, but I've never witnessed an actual tornado on the ground. The closest Ive come to seeing one was just a few years ago. I was out mowing my lawn, hoping to get it finished before the rain started. Severe storms were forcasted for the afternoon so I was keeping a close eye on the sky as I finished the lawn. Just as I was putting the mower back in the garage, I stood in the front yard and watched the storm clouds passing over-head. They were actually spinning and dipping slightly as if small tornados were trying to form and make their way to the ground. Listening to the weather reports just minutes after seeing that, I learned that these clouds had actually devoloped minor tonados as they headed east from where I was.

I can't imagine how devastating it would be to lose everything you own and possibly people you know, to a storm like this. My heart goes out to the people of Greensburg, Kansas as they deal with this tragedy.

2 Comments:

Blogger Matt said...

Wow. I had seen some other pictures after this tornado, but these aerial shots are unbelievable. An entire town wiped out ... I can't even fathom.

I have seen tornadoes before (when I lived in the Midwest) and was actually in one when I was about 10 years old. Scary stuff.

7:25 PM, May 11, 2007  
Blogger Michael said...

Thanks for posting these pictures--it really gives a startling reality of the devestation in Greensberg.

8:41 AM, May 17, 2007  

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