Tornado Aftermath

We ventured out this weekend to see the damage from Friday's tornado and although we were lucky and it could have been so much worse it was still a little sobering as to the power of such storms.

 This is how the tornado looked from my vantage point as it came straight toward the hospital.  The inserted picture is of a building I believe was just a short distance from the hospital.

 There were many such trees uprooted across town.  The worst area for trees was at one of the oldest and most popular parks in town.  One hundred year old trees just plucked from the ground.  So sad, it will take years to establish trees like the ones lost.

 There were only a few buildings as severely damaged as this one but one was just a couple of blocks from our house.  We were sooooo lucky.

There was also more collateral damage from the storm.  Mike's world was greatly upset by the storm.  His normal route to Subway Sandwich shop has been blocked by electrical lines and fallen trees.  In addition, his sunglasses broke and again his route to the optical shop is blocked.  He really didn't get rattled by the tornado but the disruption of his routine put him in a daze all weekend.  He was really confused and out of it.  By last night he was talking suicide.  We talked for quite awhile and I told him his routine would get back on track and his reaction was an over reaction to the situation.  He was still saying he was thinking about suicide so I tried to tell him we would get him to Subway today and to the optical shop.  Now, this is what grabbed me.  His response was, "Well, I can't go until after the nurse comes at 9:00am and I go to aerobics at 10:00."  I said, well, how are you going to do all that if you kill yourself tonight?  Then he laughed.  Fortunately he sounds much better this morning.  We've arranged for someone to take him to the optical shop and to Subway.  He will see his psychiatrist tomorrow.  He sure keeps me on my toes!