Leap Day Destruction

A tornado hit Harrisburg, about 50 miles from home, early this morning. So far, there are ten people confirmed dead. As usual, I slept through it, until Heath called to tell me he was all right, since it went right over his job site. Some damage was done there--buildings blown over or destroyed, etc- but it looks like the only people injured at his work were minor injuries. Fortunately, he was able to get out of the way in time. The damage done there is nothing compared to the photos popping up all over facebook. It was just a couple of years ago that this happened only a few miles from Harrisburg, and it is hard to believe it could happen again, and this early in the year.






In this area, you get used to hearing storm sirens--you cannot react to all of them or you would get nothing done. I usually keep on mowing the yard when I hear the sirens. At bed time last nite, the news said to expect strong thunder storms, and it had rained here some by the time I went to sleep at 1:30. I knew it had been raining hard at his work all night, but I certainly did not expect to wake up four hours later to hear that all hell had broken loose. Maybe it killed so many people because it was so early in the morning and msot people were asleep--but there is one strip mall that is completely destroyed and a WalMart, and bank and gas station that have been heavily damaged--had it been business hours, I cannot imagine how many people would have been killed.





This is never easy, no matter where it happens, but for an area that is still not recovered from the last one, and that is economically depressed on the best days, this is particularly difficult to handle. Every minute I hear a new story of someone with a connection to an injured person, or even worse, someone who was killed. So far, I have not known anyone personally, but I am sure that will change.

This sure does not bode well for tornado season in southern Illinois. Pray for everyone effected by this storm.

Oh yeah, and while you are at it, for my Dad who is once again in the hospital--this time in isolation with a staph infection he picked up from his hospital stay last week.