1 Year Ago Today

[Ozzie'sperson]

A hellacious storm ripped through various parts of the country, including the St. Louis area. It knocked down buildings, ripped off roofs (including mine, but just most of the shingles, thankfully), downed power lines and trees, flooded streets and plunged more than 750,000 people into darkness ... in 100-degree heat.

I was at Busch Stadium. Getting home -- with no lights, flooded streets, debris everywhere -- was a horrible experience!

We were without power for almost a week. Some people even longer. It was hotter than hell itself, but we were able to seek refuge in the finished family room downstairs where it was still at or near 80 most of the time.

Here's just some of the aftermath:
1) My neighbor's tree fell on the powerline -- ripping my weatherhead RIGHT OFF THE HOUSE. What shingles weren't torn OFF the house, stood straight up (look at top of pci).
2) Here are just some of the shingles littered around my house. And I had already picked up a bunch before I took this!
3) Two days after the first storm, IT HAPPENED AGAIN. Trees and power lines fell on my neighbor's van WHILE SHE WAS IN IT, trying to get it inside the garage during the storm. She was not hurt.
4) Powerpoles were like this everywhere, if not snapped in two. It was freaky.

They are predicting "severe weather" for this afternoon. Please pray that it doesn't come close to what we got last year.

[cheryl000]

Wow, those were some amazing pictures. The storms seem to be getting so much worse. A really bad one came through last night. It was so scary. I will be thinking of you guys tonight. I'm AMAZED that your friend was ok. Thank god she wasn't in a little convertible or something.