Auntie Em

We have had some crazy weather here in northern Illinois today! I knew when I woke up and saw they temp we were in for some serious storms. I was right. By 9 in the morning we had tornado watches...in November! CRAZY.

Me and the boys were out an about when I heard the sirens going off. It was around 3:15pm. Then I saw it, clouds swirling, and I knew I needed to turn the other way. I saw the funnel cloud in the distance (probably 2 miles away) and my heart started beating out of my chest. I drove the opposite direction until I could no longer hear the sirens. The radio said a tornado had touched down and was heading towards the town right next to ours. YIkes! I turned back around and headed home. After I was back on my path home I saw it...HUGE electrical towers down, one laying on the ground, the other two twisted together. There were branches down and the trees looked like they had gone through the shredder. A few mins. later I reached our neighboring town, population..200. I couldn't believe it. Complete devastation. Then I heard on the radio that a school bus had been thrown into a corn field...it was full of students. Their were house with no roofs, foundations with no houses and rescue personnel everywhere. Ambulances, fire trucks and police lights flashed as far as I could see. Then in the middle of it all, a old white church, with stained glass windows complete unharmed. Why? I can only assume my neighbors are questioning why our houses were spared and theirs were eaten up by this monster of a tornado. We live less than 2 miles away.

I pulled in the drive way to see our house perfect and cried. This is the 2nd time in 3 years that a tornado has touched down within 2 miles of our house. The last one was 3 January's ago and our local apple orchard was demolished. Our community rallied together to raise money for the families affected. Red cross set up an emergency station at the fire station down the street.

As I type this I can hear helicopters buzzing around in the air. I'm sure my newly homeless neighbors are getting settled in the fire station still a buzz about what just happened.

Please remember our community in your prayers. It's going to take a LONG time to recover. I will post pictures soon.