"Why are we pulling over?"

I nervously asked Steve yesterday afternoon.

We had been driving in pounding rains for miles as we made our way east of Hannibal, Missouri and into our home state of Illinois.

All during that rain soaked drive, Steve and Keith had been pointing out the “unsafe” drivers who would pull over onto the shoulder to wait out the storm.

Suddenly....we were one of them and I had to ask why???

“The tornado sirens are going off.” Steve calmly replied.

And that is when Susan Snippets started to get a little worried.

We were huddled in our vehicle under a concrete overpass waiting for the sirens’ wails to cease.

When we could no longer hear them, only the sound of the unrelenting rain, Steve started to drive again.

Shortly thereafter, we heard the emergency vehicle sirens and saw their unmistakable flashing lights.

Steve, being in the business of rescue, informed us that he was pretty sure they were “staging” due to a tornado touchdown.

And unfortunately, he was correct.

There was an SUV turned over in the median, a pick up truck with its rear window blown out and a Casey’s General Store off to our right – completely flattened by the tornado’s unpredictable swath of devastation.

Many hours later, we arrived home, at which point I think Judy said it best as to how we all felt when she proclaimed “I want to get out and kiss the ground!”

thankfully home safe and sound