Tornado in Windsor, CO May 22, 2008

Most of this information is going to be a repeat for my family, but a new update for Jeff's family.

As most of you heard there was a class 3 tornado that hit my home town of Windsor, CO on Thursday. I had just gotten home from class at 1pm and decided to watch some TV while eating my lunch. I turned the TV on and it was already set to the Weather Channel. The first thing I heard was, "Tornado in Windsor, Colorado." What? It didn't register at first but quickly I realized that it was going on and immediately called my dad for any information. He didn't answer his phone at first because ironically enough Kelsey had just heard the news too and was calling him from Idaho. They did indeed have a tornado and all of the schools were on lock-down so we couldn't get a hold of Mom for quite a while. I called Jeff at work to tell him what was going on and literally broke down into tears... sobbing tears. While I was talking to him I was watching the footage and had just seen video of damage done to a residential area. I didn't know the area from and arial perspective until I saw the landmarks of our town pool and few baseball diamonds in Chimney Park. That's when everything really hit me and I realized how real it was and how close our old home of 30yrs (just sold 1 month ago) was to the video I had seen. Jeff ran home and we watched the news and live footage online for hours. Thankfully everyone was fine and we were able to get a hold of my mom. She was helping keep the kids as calm as possible during the whole ordeal by playing games, telling stories, and even rocking some of the kids on her lap. Mom and Dad went to Windsor (since they now live in Johnstown, about 12 miles south of Windsor) the following day to check out our old house and take some pictures. Dad says that our home and along 1st street was the edge of the "Destruction Zone." Our home was not damage, thankfully! One of the shed doors was blown off, the east side of our fence was pulled up out of the ground and laid flat (still in one piece though), and the neighbors trampoline was in our Sumac tree. From what Dad reported the worst of the damage was just east and north of us a few blocks. There are a couple families from church that were in the Destruction Zone and lost their homes. When he and Mom went to see the damage the worst of it is blocked off and no one could get in. I'm grateful that my childhood home is still in tact and so grateful that everyone is safe. Above are some pictures that my parents took the day after and there are a few that I've gathered from other postings online from Windsor folks.