"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"
The St. Louis Good Friday tornado ended up being a rather close call for us. The storm track is in red; our location is in yellow:
St. Louis Good Friday Tornado, 22 April 2011
Unlike the 2010 Saint Ann tornado, this one did major damage in the area. Thankfully for us, though, the worst thing we suffered was a 12-hour power outage.
This past Saturday afternoon (while my parents were visiting from Indiana, no less!), I live-tweeted our tornado-warning adventure (see here, here, here, and here). The storm was really fast-moving, and came and went in about 30 minutes.
At the time, we were aware of a confirmed tornado about 8 miles from our house, at/near the West County mall in Des Peres. However, it has now been confirmed that the storm spun off a second tornado - one whose path came within about 1/3 of a mile from our house!
Below is the damage-path of the Saint Ann tornado:
Saint Ann Tornado 24 April 2010
Fortunately, it appears that the tornado was dying out by the time it was nearest to us - but someone tell my Dad that next time, he should stay in the basement instead of going outside to see the storm!
While Al Gore was in Europe, predicting that "the entire North Polarized cap will disappear in 5 years" due to global warming, the southern California desert was getting blanketed in snow.
Global-warming induced snow storm in southern California, 15 December 2008
Photo © Julie Shropshire
Irony, thy name is Al Gore.
