Our first midwest storm

  Saturday night we had the worst storm I have even seen.  I would swear it was a tornado, but I guess they are calling it a microburst.  Whatever you call it, it was bad, I was scared, and it did a ton of damage in our town.

Around 4pm that day, Bobby was on his way back from his reserve training in IL.  He called and told me that the weather was awful, street lights out, people driving slow and pulled off the road, downpour and high winds.  It was 90 degrees and sunny where we were so I didn't think much of it.  Jack and I were headed into town to run errands. 

After our first stop, the sky had changed and you could tell the storm was coming our way so I decided to head to the grocery stop down the street from our house instead of close to where I was.  When I walked into the store, it was still sunny and blue out.  I was in for maybe 15 minutes, we just needed some quick things for dinner, and the sky outside had turned black and it started pouring.  One of the cashiers offered to stay with Jack while I pulled the car up.  By the time I got the car, the winds had picked up and the power went out in the store.  I quickly loaded the groceries and Jack into the car and headed out.  I barely made it 100 yards when the wind picked up so much I swore the car would flip over.  I called Bobby hysterically crying that the car would flip.  I could see the wind and rain and it was horizontal.  That was really all I could see too.  We stayed put since I was too afraid to move.  It lasted about 10 minutes and then I could see where I was going. 

I told Bobby I was going to try to drive home.  We only live 1/4 mile from the store, I could make it.  Well the road to our house had two trees blocking the way so I had to turn around.  When I finally got home, it had started to hail.  I got Jack inside, noticed the dogs had freaked out and scratched the back door to pieces, and then noticed our patio set was missing the umbrella.  When I got closer, I noticed the glass top was shattered all over the deck.

Luckily, Jack, Bobby and I are all fine.  Just shaken up.  Bobby followed the storm most of the way home, but made it home in one piece!  Power was out for about 7000 people in our town and some people still do not have power.  Our town is being pretty great about clean up and restoring the power though.  They have set up a shelter at the community center and have man power from towns all over helping remove downed trees.  Here are some shots from our tour of the damage...