My Fear of Tornadoes

When I was young, I used to have nightmares about tornadoes and sometimes rabid skunks, actually. On Sunday as I was doing final preparations for my first day of school we were hit with a pretty powerful thunderstorm with crazy lightning. It wasn't until I got in my car that I heard the panicked voices of the radio deejays urging people to abandon cars and seek shelter... giving the minute by minute countdown of where the tornado was and in what path it was moving. I raced across town and found shelter at my mom's, never knowing that this tornado was doing so much damage southwest of my home... For the residents of Northwood, my nightmare had come true... except there were no rabid skunks. Thank goodness. When the 35W bridge collapsed near the U of M campus in the Twin Cities, my friend Rebecca pointed out how that horrible event was going to "do wonders for her mother's fear of driving on bridges." I'm afraid this event is only going to strengthen what I'd mostly dismissed as a childhood obsessive concern.

Today there were pictures in the newspaper that made me gasp with horror. Uprooted trees, houses without roofs, bricks ripped out of buildings, cars from a car lot crumpled. Of course, folks in Kansas see this sort of thing all the time in the summer, but not me. My heart goes out to the folks in this small North Dakota town. 57 homes utterly destroyed. 18 people injured. 1 fatality. And truly everyone, every piece of property within the mile wide path of the tornado suffered at least some damage. May every one of those impacted find peace and hope in the helping hand of a neighbor or friend.

***Update***
Here is a link to some pictures of the Northwood Tornado and damage it caused.