Tornado Damage

This blog goes out to all those hurt in the recent tornado outbreak in the south. I have seen a lot on the news about the damage that has been caused and the death toll that has racked up because of the damage. It makes me think about the several tornadoes that I have personally seen living in Kansas. We used to go out every time that it stormed and "chased" tornadoes I have seen quite a few and watched some pretty amazing sites with my own bare eyes. Now don’t get me wrong I have never been as close as they show in the movie Twister but I have been closer than most would want to be. The point of all this is that I always thought that they were an amazing site. I often dreamed of getting closer to one and watching as it tore through the fields around my house. But that is all they were for me and my friends, just some amazing source of entertainment. That was just how it was growing up in south east kansas. We knew that every year that there would be tornadoes and we would probably go a few days without power because of one.

I think that is why the devastation was so great in the areas that these hit this year. I like most people from around here know when a tornado is possible. Most people that have lived here all their lives know if the clouds are just right or the rain falls in just the right way then a tornado is either coming or about to. I don’t believe that the people in these areas know that feeling. I would imagine that they just thought that there was a bad storm coming but they would be fine. I'm not saying that they were dumb or something like that just didn’t have the knowledge that living around these things for 28 years gives you.

That also goes for saying that when a tornado comes down in Kansas it can be the biggest tornado ever recorded, it could cut a path two miles wide and a hundred miles long, the difference is in Kansas that tornado might hit two houses through all that destruction so the death tolls are not ever as high as they were down in Alabama. This is the other main reason that the loss is so staggering for a tornado to kill three hundred people in Kansas it would have to take out most of the sate unless it hit Wichita, Topeka, or Kansas City.

My heart goes out to all those affected by the storms this past week and I pray that everything will get put back in its place and that those lost will be in a better place now.