Last night I decided...tonight is the night I'm going to overcome this. And I was doing good. I was fine when there was a confirmed tornado touchdown approximately 27 miles north of Lincoln (from a storm cell I actually watched move northward). I was even fine when dark clouds started being noticed out west. But, then I looked at the radar and saw there were storms developing to the southwest of Lincoln, and I just knew we were in for a long night. So, I asked Adam if we could go to Liz's house (where there is a basement)..."Just for one more night". He agreed, and we packed up Pug and drove across town.
Once we got to Liz's house, and even on the way to Liz's house, I was doing pretty alright. I felt like a baby for having left the apartment. However, about 15 minutes after getting to Liz's house, they called a Tornado warning for Lancaster County..."heading straight for the city of Lincoln". AHHH!!!
So, here is a picture of the 1st storm moving into Lincoln. This is just west of Lincoln (probably about 15 miles southwest of where Liz's house is located).
So, we sat in the basement, and watched the news. Krissy started calling/texting asking how I was doing, and where I was. I told her we were at Liz's and doing fine. Then she calls and tells me there is a confirmed tornado touchdown just on the university campus (maybe 5 miles southeast of Liz's house). The weather man is always sporadically reporting "confirmed storm spotter tornadic touchdowns in central Lincoln". HOLY CRAP! I was freaking out, but was keeping my cool and reading books to Vivian (not realizing while I was reading...she also peed on my leg! Gross!).
SO, first tornado rolls through pretty quickly. There was a TON of rain. Liz's basement started getting wet, and we were starting to get the kids to "high ground", on the bed! Then, they issue a new tornado warning...(at this point we've already been in the basement for about 45 minutes, and now we were in a warning for another 45 minutes! The kids were getting anxious, and scared).
I've heard from co-workers that the second storm was worse than the 1st. Honestly, since i was downstairs I just heard heavy heavy rain and winds, and didn't distinguish between the two. The second storm didn't have half as many "confirmed" reports of touchdowns as the first...but I do think the wind was much stronger with the first!
All in all...there were NO tornadoes that touched down in Lincoln. There was some flooding throughout Lincoln, and so we decided to stick around Liz's for a bit longer to let the streets drain a bit before heading home. We watched the radar to make sure we'd be alright going home (it's 10:30 now, we arrived at 6:30 or so). We decided it was too cool out for storms developing out west to turn into tornadoes...so we headed home.
We didn't notice much destruction, so it seems like for this time around...Lincoln made it out alright. It seems like the storms really wreaked havoc right after rolling through here.
Here are some more pictures of the storm continuing to move east, into the Omaha area.
Pretty freaky last night. But...we are all safe! Thank Goodness!
On a serious note. I want to Thank God for keeping all in my family safe, and for honestly keeping as many people safe as he did. There were 4 fatalities in Iowa last night around 7:00 a storm rolled through a boy scout camp site. There is no more information other than 4 confirmed deaths. Although this is devastating to everyone who has seen the story, I think it's important to remember, especially after looking at the aftermath of the storm (down trees, demolished buildings, blocked roadways, etc), that God did protect a lot of people last night. Here's a picture of some of the destruction.
There were over 120 total campers there that night. Thank GOD a majority of them were spared. My prayers are with the families of those who lost their children/husbands/family members.
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