Being native born Southern Californian's Don and I are "used" to earthquakes. We aren't used to tornados though! Last year in Florida we had a tornado that hit about 15 miles north of us. This year, in Shirley, AR we once again had one that was way too close and hit far too close to "home". The tornado started off in Atkins, about 130 miles south of us. It never left the ground creating damage all along it's path. It hit Clinton which driving, is about 15 miles away. It's actually much closer as the crow flies. It didn't stop there though but continued it's path stopping just short of the Missouri border.
Last week I headed to Clinton to go to Wal-Mart. It's the closest one around and I didn't even think about what I might encounter. Remember I said it's a 15 mile drive? Well it took over an hour to get there! That wasn't even to Wal-Mart! I couldn't believe the damage and destruction. The pictures you see on t.v. and in newspapers just doesn't really convey the scene before you. Seeing entire trees pulled up, houses with their roofs completely gone and places where a house once stood covered in debris instead of the house are amazing! We have lots of trees in Arkansas
and there was a huge area of trees that were all snapped off. What's even more amazing is the neighborhoods where all but one house is gone.We consider ourselves lucky. Lucky that it didn't hit us. This will affect the building around here but shoudn't bother us since we are past that stage. The house is coming along just very slowly and much slower than we would like. Now that you can see it becoming a real house it makes you want it to be completed even faster! The painters are in there now and have been for several weeks. We were told on Friday that they will probably be there for about 2 more! Why does it take professionals a month to paint the interior of a house? :-) Oh well, it will be worth it when it's done!
On Valentine's Day, being the true romantics that we are...Don and I brought home (to the motorhome) a pizza from Pizza Hut and watched Survivor and Celebrity Apprentice! Couldn't miss those! :-)
A lot of our motorhoming friends are now in Lancaster, CA attending the Monaco pre-rally. This is the first rally we've missed in several years but hope to be at the next one which is in July in Michigan! :-)
I put out some bird seed a few days ago to see if I could get some pictures of the local birds. Here's one that I was able to get. I'm going to have to work on getting a little closer but it was too cold on this day to be outside for very long!
There is a website that shows some of the damage around Clinton. It's amazing! It's http://www.clintonark.com/. If you'd like to see the progress of the house, it's at www.picasaweb.google.com/vickileith look under the Emerald Isle, Greers Ferry, I think I'm now on part 8!
1 comment:
As I've said before, welcome to middle America, home of the tornado.
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