Tuesday, May 24, 2011

passing through a different joplin

When people in the mid-section of the U.S. wish for spring, we seem to forget about the wild storms that spring can bring, and this spring has been the worst.  There have been a record number of tornadoes and violent thunderstorms, and the destruction has been unbelievable this year.  Victims of this past Sunday's storms stretched from Arkansas to here in Minnesota.

The worst damage happened in Joplin, Missouri, a city of 50,000 people that Jerry and I drove through on our road trip last month.  A major portion of that city has been destroyed and would look nothing like what we saw.  And much closer to home, Sunday's storm did major damage in North Minneapolis, in an area where I lived for a while in the early '90s.  Tom was visiting us Sunday, and we heard the sirens but didn't head for cover.  I guess we should pay attention:  this one was a little too close.  Ah, sweet spring.

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