More storms hit the Heartland.

OK, so I'm totally over this season. All these Severe Weather Watches and various warnings are really getting old, and I'm tired of being afraid. Tonight was no exception, course.

The past few days we've been really lucky and have had pretty nice weather. Humid, of course, but nice nonetheless. Well, today I kept hearing that we had a severe weather warning, but never really had time to look at the weather report to see where the storm was. We had plans to go to a BBQ tonight, so Chris and I went to the store to grab dessert right after he picked me up from work. So, we walk out of Hy-Vee (similar to a Safeway), and we see the clouds looming overhead, and quickly moving our direction. We both let out an "Oh shit", and quickly got into the car to get home On the way home we, of course, found ourselves stuck behind the slowest, stupidest driver ever (well, typical Council Bluffs). Shortly after we left the Hy-Vee parking lot it began t rain. Then it began to rain harder. The radio station we were listening to was reporting 60 mph winds in midtown Omaha, and a storm that was moving about 50 mph east...our direction. Then it began to hail, hard. Not too large, maybe marble size...but enough of that, mixed with very heavy rain, made it extremely difficult to see, and drive. After navigating various obsticles - including stupid drivers, a wading pool that decided to blow across the street into our car, flying branches, and a downed tree on our road - we got home safely and ran inside, bringing only the parishables with us. Shortly after we arrived home the tornado sirens started going off. We weren't too worried though since the storm seemed to pass really quickly and it was already getting sunny outside again.

The whole thing was really scary, but the aftermath was what was really amazing. You really gain a new respect for nature after seeing the pictures we did. There were trees uprooted all over the city, houses with their shingles and roofs ripped off, and trees and parts of trees strewn all over the city streets. Two people died today in Council Bluffs - not too far from my clinic - from a fallen tree. The Qwest center where the Olympic swimming trials are being held had part of its roof ripped off. Crazy stuff. Our local sports guy said he'd never seen anything like it. I've been hearing that a lot this season. Makes me think what else Mother Nature has in store for us.
Below are some pictures we got off the local news websites. This weaher is just amazing. If you want to learn more about the storms check out http://www.wowt.com/ or http://www.ketv.com/.