Night of Tornado

I almost hate to admit this, but I went driving around on Sunday night after the tornado went through, mainly to try and find out whether my brother and his family were OK. The TV news reports kept repeating that houses on his road had been destroyed, and he wasn't answering the phone, causing my concern and curiosity to be overwhelming.

When no one was looking, I escaped in the Envoy. Not far into the journey it became apparent that many gravel roads were blocked off due to downed power lines. I drove slowly along the paved road a mile north of my brother's place, trying to make out the outline of his buildings. Things looked ominously different than they had before. I pulled into an acquaintance's driveway; there were several people standing in the yard, looking south. I blurted out, "Can you see my brother's house?" I had binoculars with me, and we took turns peering through them. The Morton Building machine shed was obviously ripped open, with the combine visible inside. Bins were dented. The old barn roof had fallen in. About the house, we couldn't tell, though. Then one of the guys took the binoculars up to the second floor of the house to get a better view, coming back down shortly with the good news that the house appeared to still be there.

I left there, and made my way slowly along whatever road was open, going by my sister's house where the driveway was full of cars and pickups and people were up on the roof putting a tarp in place.........then into the town of Dunkerton, which appeared largely untouched by the storm, then out of town again towards my brother's place. Here's a scene from north of Dunkerton that night:
At my brother's corner, I was relieved to see light glowing through the windows of their house. (They had a generator running.) I didn't go down their road due to the downed lines. Look what else was in view........the sun making a sudden, surprising appearance in a sunset of out-of-place beauty!! Unbelievable!! Rain started pouring down again shortly after.
About that time, my cell phone rang.......it was my son, asking, "Mom, where are you? You'd better get home; there's another storm system moving in." Gulp. I made my way back through Dunkerton and then west to try to find an open road to the north. The only available route went by St. John's Lutheran Church, Bennington Township. It was destroyed by the tornado in May of 2000, and proudly rebuilt on the same country road west of Dunkerton. Look........this time, it lost only the top of its steeple (hopefully)!!

These photos look dark because it was nightfall by the time I went by there, and it was raining.

I had to take this adventure on my own, because my husband has better sense than to go driving around right after a tornado has gone through. I don't regret going; I knew it would be OK. Sometimes, I have to circumvent sensible-ness, and please assure me I'm not the only person who occasionally does that!