Well I came home sick last night and knowing there were some severe storms, possibly tornadic activity coming our way through the night, I went to bed as early as I could and of course the first storms hit about 4 am and the wind blowing into my bedroom window brought me right out of a deep sleep….I texted my supervisor and warned her it was a bit windy and coming through my town and likely headed toward St Louis County…she couldnt believe I was awake that hour of the morning after going home sick, lol. I felt a sense of responsibility about warning them at least.

I then slept through the next storm about 5 am, when my mom later told me that the second storm actually had more wind with it, but I remember I had shut my bedroom window so likely didnt hear it that time.

When I finally woke up about 9:30 and opened the front door to let the house air out…I found this large limb waiting on the front porch, inches from my door, to greet me….

..this afternoon when the storms fired up, and boy did they fire up…we had notice that one was south of Rolla and coming right at Cuba and then Sullivan, and it had prompted tornado warnings south of Rolla and for us in advance of it, so I boxed up all my nicer crystals and minerals and packed them to the basement…thinking they are going to stay down there til the season is over.

We had a vehicle accident call about 4 pm and so Missy and I headed that way, two miles west of town on I-44 and while out there on a hilltop, I spotted what looked like a wall cloud over Bourbon…shot this photo of it…

…we had mostly flash flooding more than anything else, but after seeing what the folks in Joplin have had to endure the last few days…..its just really scarey when the clouds darken down and roll in….and our thoughts and prayers are still with the folks down in southwest Missouri, especially the Joplin area and now the Sedalia area, as the city of Sedalia took a direct hit from a severe tornado this afternoon as well…