just some of our ramblings:

I’ve never been one to be afraid of the weather, but the storms that roared through (over? around?) Somerset last week nearly made me soil myself. ed. note: Nearly?

At first it was sunny and nice, with some gusty winds. Then the sky started looking a little funky:

Then it started looking a little like this:

Ka-pow! Lightning!:

Then stuff started gettin’ weird:

About that time my old buddy David Wooton from back in East KY gave me a call. He was watching the news and, apparently, there was a tornado in our area. Here it ’tis in the foreground (the one in the background was just developing and heading east to make some news):

There were a few minutes of uncertainty about the direction of the storm. During the confusion the funnel cloud kept getting closer, so I decided that it’d probably be a good idea for esposa, the kids, my neighbors, their caregivers and the animals to get into the neighbor’s basement. I’m not going to lie, it was scary. Not knowing if the storm is going to make a direct hit and trying to get everyone you care for in a safe (?) place isn’t fun and I do not wish to ever do it again.

After getting everyone downstairs I ran back up to continue taking frantic photographs for as long as I could. When I got back outside, the storm looked like this:

Then it got all like this (that’s my house in the foreground):

And then it moved on to the east, en route to East Bernstadt, which was completely destroyed:

Words can’t express the mixture of fear, awe, relief and sadness (reports from East Bernstadt and other parts of the state were rolling in throughout the night) we felt as the evening marched on. If I never again in my life hear the sirens, feel the air or see the funnel cloud barrel towards me, well, that’ll be all right by me.

Have a look at some of the other photos that I took HERE.