Thursday, May 8, 2008

Whew! Morning of Storms

Just under a week ago, we were struck by some very serious storm cells across our area. This morning, they struck yet again.

Tupelo was hit by an high-end EF2 tornado, maybe a lowend EF3 around 8 am this morning. The farm store we visit, Scrugg's is sitting without much of their roof...and a whole lot of wet merchandise inside (the roof damage triggered their fire alarm sprinklers...). The several wood and tin storage buildings in their lot for sale were splintered into parts -- a section of 2x4 was literally implanted in the exterior of the block building. Several semi-trailer storage trucks were flipped about the parking lot as well.

One of the buildings at the Furniture Mart, near the airport, was twisted and pulled apart as well. Several trucks along HWY 45 were rolled, and sadly, several of the huge oaks along the front of Lowe's were totally uprooted and ripped to pieces.

I know, it is a true blessing no one was injured. That section of Tupelo is major business-dense.... Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Lowe's, Scruggs, The Mall at Barnes Crossing, MDOT headquarters...you name it, it's in that 4 mile section there. It could have been a terrible thing had it occurred later in the morning. But, the trees...we aren't talking some normal trees here. These were century old beauties....most close to 3.5 ft in diameter. They have lasted countless storms over their lifetime, not to mention they withstood the building and populus explosion of developers in that area. Now, they are simply scrap. I hope they at least are salvaged for useful wood and not merely chipped up like the rest of the storm debris.

By noon the cells had drifted over into Alabama, but there have only been reports of wall clouds that direction, somewhere around Winfield, and some nasty lightening and heavy rains toward Birmingham. Luckily, they lessened in strength as they continued east.

I thought the news channel would have some of the photo's they have shared today online, but I sure can't find them there. LOL....our "digital source for news" seems to be a bit behind the 'digital' times, I guess. Oh well...if you've seen one up-turned tree or semi trailer, I suppose you've seen them all.

Here are some photo's online -- mind you, I have dinosaur-dial-up here so I've only seen one of the photo's shared. I know nothing about the content of any other photo's shared here.

Here is The DJournal blog with some photo's of the storms as well...

And the iReport sharing...and his photo's are on CNN, also...

If anyone comes across better ones, let me know. My mother and Grandmother are having conniptions up north as the Weather Channel shared some of our storms, which promptly set my phone to ringing this morning with questions as to exactly where we are in the county, what we planned to do if the storm blew this direction (it did skirt right over us with nasty clouds, but nothing more than hard rains and a ton of lightening), etc. Grandmother's worry, you know. And a Grandmother 700 miles away with Weather Channel access and a road atlas is not a good thing!

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Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Shared by glenda

I am glad that you all are ok. I know we had some nasty stuff our way also.. I think it calmed down only to boil back up when it got near us.. but thankfully no one and nothing that i am aware of was hurt.
God bless
glenda

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Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Shared by Handmaiden

Thanks for the site for sewing machine maintenance. The man who used to help me with my machines retired(he was 85). I have several machines and the infromation will help me alot. I enjoy your site.

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Friday, May 9, 2008 - Glad you are okay....

Shared by Mary

We were wondering how close those storms were to you! I don't have the Weather Channel....because I live in a forest! LOL All I heard was Tupelo, and knew that it was close to you! Hope all is well with all the kiddos...talk to you later.
Mary

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Friday, May 9, 2008 - The Sheep

Shared by Mary

Why is there a picture of a sheep by my entry??? I mean really....I think sheep stink! How do I change that? People might think I'm a farmer. I'm just a city girl transplanted to the country!! LOL

~~LOL....you sort of are a farmer you know....how many chickens now? and dogs? and cats? and birds? you're close....
either way, the sheep avatar is just the stock avatar for folks who haven't chosen one when they sign in here, or come in as just a guest. You're stuck with it :o)
Deanna

Edited by HandsNHearts on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 12:42

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Friday, May 9, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Shared by Keeblur

The storms we had night before last were pretty interesting as well. We had thought that all the "bad" stuff was about 5-10 miles north of us. Last night we happened to watch the news and they had a picture of a funnel cloud one mile north of our house! God is wonderful and gracious in His protection!
Vicki

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Friday, May 9, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Shared by leighannwhitten