Auntie Em, Auntie Em, It's a Twister, IT'S A TWISTER!!!

It is officially storm season in Wisconsin! Last night we had several tornado's in the south central Wisconsin area. I happened to be having dinner with my friend at a bar called Rookies when a thunderstorm warning flashed across the screen. My friend is SCARED to DEATH of storms. So we decided to stay at the bar until the storm had passed. Well not even 10 minutes later a tornado warning flashed across the screen for the county that I live in. So I tried calling Josh to talk to him and of course I could not get a hold of him. I knew he was outside watching the storm. He finally answered the phone and casually informed me that he was outside with the camera taking pictures of the storm clouds spinning. What an IDIOT!! Of course I would have been doing the same thing if I was home. Whenever I hear warning the first thing I do is head outside!!!

A little while later the tornado warning came through for the area where the bar is. The bartender was watching the doplar and decided the storm was too close for comfort. So he yelled "That's it EVERYONE IN THE BASEMENT!" So we filed through the kitchen and down some dangerous stair into a small cramped office and a liquor supply room. We were down there for only 10-15 minutes then we got the all clear. The coolest part was since we were now behind the storm my girlfriend finally felt comfortable going outside. So we went out and watched the clouds swirling waiting for a funnel cloud to drop.

After leaving the bar I talked to my mother. My sister and her boyfriend went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and they stopped the movie and made everyone get into the hallways. To me I think at dark theatre would be a safe place but apparently not. A tornado did not form but what they call a wall cloud pass over the area hitting Research Park in Madison very heavily which is where I currently work.

As I drove into research park it was a mess. The university soil testing facility lost most of it's roof. There are pieces of metal roofing from the soil testing trailers bent around trees. Trees were completely broken in half or gone. Apparently some of their cows died. The Business Bank on the corner is missing the "ness" and windows were broken out. There is debris everywhere. The daycare across the road lost a lot of it's playground equipment and it's fences were ripped down. The building next door had windows blown out. There was very minimal damage to the building where I work some trees were lost and minor roof damage. We were very lucky. Ir is hard to beleive a "Wall cloud" could cause this much damage. I am glad that it wasn't a "real" tornado I may have been out of a job.