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Around 4 PM today I got a text message (something unusual) from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sistaur. A tornado struck a block or two away from her house. The message also said that she, and her housemate, and their pets, were okkay. No electricity or wired phone service, emergency vehicles all over, and just to top it off, a gas leak a block (or two?) over.
In April a tornado hit very close to my folks. Now in May, one hit very close to my sister. Can we have a nice, DULL rest of the year?
No, I'm not going to Minneapolis to visit or anything. My sister & her housemate have places to stay (and take pets) if need be. I'll be doing my part by staying out the way.
Many places I knew are no longer there. There was a tornado (I'll take my folks word over the official non-reports of a "probable tornado" - they saw the thing.)
Their home property was, evidently, unaffected beyond the power outage and they're running a generator for now. Not that far away, the old Highway 51 Truckstop (it had ceased truckstop operation years ago when a bypass was built) is damaged if not gone. The auto dealer I bought my first car from is gone. Many buildings are damaged if they are still there at all. The area is a mess and likely will be for quite a while.
All this was just this evening. Last night there were storms in my area. From the reports I've heard (some from the spotters themselves) various bits of Iowa also aren't there any more. This morning I got an e-mail from my folks asking if things were OK here. This evening I got a call letting me know that they were OK. Not everything is OK, of course. I expect there will be more (bad) news.
