Reason #429 why I don't like storms

I am not one of those crazy people who love it when it storms. Frankly, it scares the crap out of me. Wanna know why? For this reason: http://www.kcci.com/index.html Click on any one of the six videos in the middle of the page. Not good.

Living in Iowa for all of my life, tornadoes have been a part that just comes with the "wonderful" weather we have here. The tornado drills start in preschool and you continue doing them all through high school. They sound the warning sirens the first Wednesday of every month just to make sure they work. Living here you just know tornadoes could--and do--happen all the time. Knowing that just scares me even more.

Like many people have said that were affected by the tornado that leveled more than half a town, you don't think it will happen to you. The town that is gone is only about 15 miles from where I grew up--I drove through the town many-a-time. Over 200 homes totally GONE--nothing left but splinters. Think about all the memories and momentoes you have in your house being spread out over two states. Seriously, last night on the news they were asking people in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois to send any debris that may have gone that far back to the town.

Seriously, it is just a little too much like Twister. In the movie, the storm chasers were waiting for the ever elusive F5 tornado. The one that went through Parkersburg was an EF5 (of course the weather service changed their rating scale, but same thing). There is like a 1/10th of 1% chance of these types of tornadoes happening. But they do. The thing I find most ironic is this tornado hit just about 20 miles from the house used at the end of the movie (it was in Eldora, IA).

The stories of survival from this tornado are amazing. The devastation is overwhelming. The community is pulling together and vowing to re-build. Now, let's not have any more tornadoes this spring, okay?