New Year's Eve Storms

Well, 2010 is certainly ending with a bang here in St. Louis.

This morning, we had storms that resulted in a fast moving, powerful tornado. Matt was looking out the back door when it came through. He heard it coming and wrangled everyone into the basement. We are so thankful that our home was spared. Although our house & cars are covered with little bits of insulation from someone's house.  we sustained no damage.  But many homes all around ours did not escape unharmed. Even as I write this, I can hear emergency sirens all around our home.

This house is just 100 yards from our house.

The siding was ripped off, many of the roof shingles are missing, and a second story window even blew out the front of their home and onto the driveway:

About 300 yards from our home is a major intersection. There are some restaurants, businesses and churches.
This car was parked in a McDonald's parking lot:

This is St. Paul's church and school: The church sustained roof damage:

And the building where the priests live is pretty much missing the roof and one wall.

Light posts were knocked over:

And this truck just blew over onto its side.

I took this picture while standing on what was left of a retaining wall, looking over the edge.

Half the town was shut down.

This is right up the road I drive to take Riley to day care.

This church is right up the road from our home. They sustained serious damage.

A few miles away, in Sunset Hills, MO, we found even more damage.
I know the family that lives here; please pray for them.

Approximately six homes were completely destroyed.

Look closely at this photo. You can see a small black car that was blown off the the parking lot and onto its side on the grass:

Debris was everywhere, and we had to be very careful as we walked around. We found broken glass and boards almost a quarter mile away from the heaviest damage.

The best thing about this whole ordeal is that there are no serious injuries and no fatalities in either of these locations. People were in the homes that were destroyed, but they took cover and the Lord protected them.