Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sedalia-the latest tornado victim

Ugh, I'm getting really, really tired of reports of tornadoes every.single.day. Enough is enough. And Missouri has seen it's fair share, mmmmmkay? The death toll in poor Joplin is now at 125 and still many people unaccounted for.

The latest Missouri city to get hit hard is Sedalia. This one hit home. You see, my dad is from Sedalia and nearly all of his family is still there-aunts, uncles, cousins....and his father. Now, you never hear me talking about these people because, well, we're not close. My dad escaped them many years ago. Yes, I have a grandfather that I don't even know. I know my immediate family doesn't really care that we don't know them, but I'm the sappy one and I sometimes get sad and a little angry that we don't know them. I've reconnected with some of my cousins through Facebook, but still don't really know them. Still, when I heard Sedalia got hit, I was instantly worried about my family members. I think it's safe to say I'm related to at least half of that city. For realsies-hillbillies like to procreate. Just sayin. Anyhoo, there were some tense moments yesterday as my cousin posted that she couldn't reach our grandfather. Now, I don't like him much at all, but I certainly don't want anything bad to happen to him. He is, after all, my grandfather (noticed I didn't say my grandpa-he doesn't deserve that honor). Later in the night she was able to confirm that my aunt had reached another family member in Sedalia and confirmed that our grandfather was safe, as were the rest of my relatives. That made me happy. One of my distant cousins posted pics on Facebook and, the damage was scary looking, I'm so glad no one died.

Then here in St. Louis, we had our own tornado scares last night. I just heard that they evacuated my office building at 4:45. They NEVER do that, so you know this weather was for real. It took me an hour to get home, mostly because my eyes were on the sky, looking for any sort of rotation in those scary looking clouds. When I got home, it was raining so hard that my umbrella was pointless, and there was golf ball sized hail in my yard. But, I'm happy to report, no tornadoes in my neighborhood. There was a report of one nearby, but I didn't hear about any damage. And, just two exits up from me, they were getting four-inch in diameter hail. FOUR inches! Can you even imagine that? Makes me quite grateful I have a garage.

It's raining yet again this morning. Rain I can handle, but if we could get a respite from the tornadoes, that'd be great. Thanks.

No comments: