I married a Polack...: Thunderstorm

Bloomington experienced a pretty hefty thunderstorm yesterday evening. Nicklas had a baseball game scheduled for 5:30 and when I checked the radar at 4:30, there was a large red blob moving toward the city. I met the family at the ball park at 5:15 where everyone was standing around, waiting for the Parks Dept. to call off the games. That never happened so by 5:20 people were packing up their families and heading home. The recent tornados in Joplin have made people extra cautious. One father commented to me that he was leaving and heading for his basement. I thought that was a good idea until I realized we live in an apartment and we don't have a basement. It's been a long time since I've lived somewhere without a basement!

The parking lot was crazy; everyone was trying to leave at the same time. Cars creeped along and then the storm hit. Winds of 80 mph. The Polack had Seeger and they were one of the first to leave parking lot. They were driving when the wind hit. Nicklas and I were still waiting in line to leave. We watched a few trees that were once upright suddenly bend over by 45 degrees. A few deer ran through the parking lot, between cars, obviously panicked about the weather. The wind was shaking my car and I was worred about the convertable in front of me, with it's soft roof. The teenage parks and rec staff where trying to get the ball park and batting cages closed up. After several minutes, the cars began creeping forward again. When we finally got to the exit, I realized we weren't able to turn right because trees had fallen on the road. A utility pole across from the exit of the ball field was snappled in half, the electrical wire flying around the road. As we slowly made our way through town, trees were down in several places. Most homes didn't have electricity. We drove past the mall, several restaurants and places of business. No electricity. None of the stoplights were working, including the one to turn on to our street. As I drove to the apartment, I could see that everything on the left side of the street was dark. Everything on the right side - including our apartment - was lit up. More than 12,000 homes were without electricity last night night. We never lost ours though.

Thankfully the storm passed quickly and no injuries have been reported. Several cars were totaled and my friend had a tree fall onto her son's playset and through a window to her new home. Trees also fell on several homes and apartmets. Luckily, most students have left campus for the summer so many places were vacant. There are a few trees down around the building I work in. I took some pictures to share.