IN SEARCH OF THE RAINBOW (AFTER THE STORM)

These photos were taken last Saturday, January 1st after the tornado/the last winter storm of 2010, came through our neck of the woods, on Friday, December 31st.

I only took photos of the damage seen at the golf course. I did not take photos of the homes with the blue tarps covering the roofs because I respected the privacy of the homeowners who already suffered enough from the damage to their dwellings.

A tornado warning was issued on Thursday evening (December 30th). On Friday morning, the last day of 2010, after breakfast, I started to set up in the basement (the laptop and wireless internet sure come in handy), books and a few essential items while listening to the emergency scanner as our area was under tornado watch. We played ping-pong (the table is portable and sits on top of the pool table). We were safe in our own little world with food and water fully stocked in the storage room. Just like a man, while the siren was blowing loudly, my husband would go upstairs to watch the wind and rain pounding on the kitchen windows. He said he would let me know when he spotted the tornado. I said he might not have enough time to come down the basement.

What a way to end the year! There were reports confirmed that a series of tornadoes elsewhere in Missouri, in the form of powerful wind gust and fast moving storm killed 3 people and caused serious damage, flatting homes and left thousands without power. We saw houses with hole in the roof and windows blew out.

We saw on the news that a tornado also struck Sunset Hills, tearing through an area roughly equivalent to a city block along Lindbergh Boulevard. The tornado leveled homes and at least one business, toppled trucks, and tip utility poles. According to the National Weather Service, the Sunset Hills tornado intensity to be greater than EF3 on the Fujita damage scale, which means the tornado produced "severe damage" and winds around 160 mph.
The NWS also reported that “the maximum damage” for the tornado at the golf course was rated at EF1, with a path length of 1.4 miles (that is half way to our house - scary!) and a maximum width damage of 175 yards.
The EF scale, used to assign a tornado rating based on estimated wind speeds and related to damage, includes ratings from EF0 to EF5. A tornado rated EF1 features winds measured at up to 110 mph.

At around 1:30 p.m., the rain and wind finally stopped and the tornado warning was called off for our area. There were reports of damage in the towns near where we are and we are thankful that we were safe and still had electricity.