It was 15 years ago that we had our own wild ride with a tornado. It affected the family business, our home and my grandfather's farm. I remember standing in our restaurant with a front row seat to the storm. It happened so quickly, we didn't even think to duck and take cover. The sky grew black and we watched the wind madly ripple across the wheat field; and then we could see nothing for the rain and wind out the windows.
When it cleared I could see in the distance my parents' house, once surrounded by woods, now with light streaming in where trees once stood. Power was out, but we were able to call and they had taken cover in the bathtub...no basement. Dad said to go check on gramps.
I drove down the road to grandad's house where a tree was laying on the barn, on the house and on the garage. I went in the house expecting to find my 82 year old grandfather motionless from heart failure. Instead he was sitting still in his lazy-boy, near the large picture window that now had a tree through it.
It was a weak tornado that did minor damage over a 1/2 mile path. We lost 14 trees in our woods alone. The picture is from a tree that was twisted off about 3' from the ground.
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