Not In Kansas

If you are familiar with the movie The Wizard of Oz you will be familiar with the phrase, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore".  On the evening of Monday, March 21, our area experienced an outbreak of tornadoes.  I was home concerned about Hubby who was driving home from an appointment in a torrential downpour.  Knowing that our patio door will leak in heavy rains, I went into the linen storage closet to grab some towels.  Almost immediately, our lights began to flicker on and off.  Then they went completely off and stayed that way.

Placing the towels near the area where the leaks usually happen, I went to my comfy recliner.  With the power off I could not raise the footrest but that was fine.  My cell notified me of a text.  It was from our son asking if we were safe.  I replied yes and that his dad had just come home.  Hubby was recounting that as he was driving up to the apartment complex he saw a funnel cloud in the parking lot across the street.  The funnel was lifting up when he saw it.  There was lots of debris being thrown about so he hurried to get into the parking garage.  Hubby recounted once he was in the parking garage the air became more violent.

This video was being taken on the other side of the major intersection of I35 and 45.  Here is a reference photo to give a better understanding of the tornado near us.  The red circle is our apartment.  The pink area shows the approximate path of the tornado as shown in the video.  

We had no damage.  Many others were not so fortunate.  Here are a few photos we took on Tuesday morning as we drove by a few places on the way to pick up our grocery order.  Hubby had a friend in the area of the pictures below.  He wanted to check on him.  Areas with the most damage were blocked by police.  Hubby had to settle on a phone call to check on his buddy.  Buddy was fine but two houses away from his homes were damaged.  Tornadoes are freaky like that.  

A metal wall panel about 1 meter by 3 meters is driven into the ground.  

Along a main street that was partially open.

Top blown off a portion of this house.

This and the following photos are in the shopping area under 

Look to the left and that was the drive-thru bank area.

A sample of tree damage that workers are having to clear out for the next few days/weeks.

Chilis restaurant with parts of room blown away and almost all windows blown out, too.

Bank with part of the wall missing.  Windows were blown out and the drive-thru was severely damaged.

Yes, there were injuries and one death reported in Texas and Oklahoma.  Please, note, to date the National Weather Service has identified 5 separate tornadoes in a 50-mile radius of our home.  There were more tornadoes throughout Texas and Oklahoma.  The following graphic shows probable locations of the additional tornadoes.  

Y'all stay safe out there.  We will do the same.

Janice