"Twister"ed Metal

Well, as most of my friends, family and neighbors know, we had a twister come on through these here parts yesterday. It makes me feel like I am in Wizard of Oz and livin in Kansas or somethin.
Anywho, we lose points for being the smartest tools in the shed yesterday. We were in church when the hailstorm started and then we heard rumblings about a tornado. Bart abruptly said to me,"The windows are open, we're leaving NOW!" I barely even got my seatbelt on before we were driving like maniacs to get home. It was freaky dark outside and I wondered if it really was a tornado, but didn't want to scare my kids more than they already were.

We ran inside to close the windows and Bart realizes that our trampoline is gone. What? I didn't believe it for a minute but sure enough, no trampoline. My really smart husband went outside in tons of mud with his church clothes and shoes on and I finally realized where the trampoline was. It had apparently been picked up, carried across the empty lot and slammed through the railing of our neighbor's deck. It was like it was part of a ring toss that had landed on the post of their railing. It totally tore up the trampoline. After the storm had passed, everyone started coming out to assess the damage. Bart and I walked to the end of our backyard and could see a house across the main street (Arapahoe Rd) that was putting a tarp on it's roof. It must have had a direct hit for that hole to be there. You can follow it across the main road towards our house and see a set of trees in the middle of several that are just completely pulled out of the ground and snapped in half too. Just crazy. At the top of the hill from those trees (moving closer to our house) is another house with 2 sections of it's roof missing. And the street right up from there has almost all of it's trees snapped in half. The street would be 3 houses up from my house. Holy cow! I can't say I saw the funnel or for sure if it came through that close because it was so loud and windy and all the hail, but I'm just saying it was WAY too close for comfort.

WAY TOO CLOSE!
Here are the pictures we took:
The 'twister'ed metal--may she R.I.P.
Died at age 3 months

From our backyard to the neighbors backporch where it landed. Note the missing railing on the right side, but it gives you an idea of the distance.

Up close of the damaged railing and pots

Other stuff strewn about everywhere in all the neighborhoods. The one doesn't show too much, but the neighbors to the right had all of their huge, heavy patio set thrown all over the lawn

Against the house is some of the leftover crazy hail and it shows why the railing stayed--it was pinned against the house.

Around the corner from our house--lots of trees damaged

Neighbors patio was in upheaval

You can see a couple of the marks from the hail

If you look closely on the right side of the green house, you can see a part of the roof missing

You can see it better here when they pulled out the blue tarp

At least we are all safe, which keeps me going when I get irritated at insurance or thinking of buying another trampoline or stupid material things that tend to distract me. At least we are safe and I will hold my kids a little tighter during the next few storms, I'm sure.