The Calm After the Storm

Last night, the Ozarks experienced one of the worst January tornado storms seen in awhile. It lasted from about 8pm to 5am. There were several fatalities, a lot homes were destroyed, even the weathermen had to take shelter. Needless to say, we got very little sleep and woke up to a lot of debris and damage in the neighboring area. And me--being the good blogger I am--drove around like a lunatic so I could take pics of the damage in the Highlandville area. A lot of mailboxes got the crap beat out of them by the monster hail. There were about a dozen or so on Glossip road that looked like someone took a baseball bat to them.This is the church at the Highlandville intersection about a mile from our home. The entire intersection did not fare well. The traffic lights were down, the auction barn across the street lost its roof, the gas station was full of debris, and several horse sheds were blown to "smithereens"! These trees are on the same side of the street as the church. This tree had been pulled up from its roots. Look how tall it is compared to the men standing below it! Storms such as these are good reminders of just how little control we have over our lives. Sometimes I think we--as a society--get too comfortable knowing we are in control of everything. When in reality, there is very little one person can do to survive winds powerful enough to pull fully grown tress from the ground and rip roofs off of large buildings. Perhaps we should try to stay a little "more grounded" when it comes to asserting our place on earth--no pun intended!