Winter White, Following Massive Tornadoes in Our Area~

We had some snow on the ground Monday and the sky had the most wonderful feel to it, following the storms from the weekend...
 One day 75 to over 100 mph winds in areas just a wee bit north and south of us with temperatures in the upper 60's and 70's.  Frightening winds, massive, destructive tornadoes causing more devastation in our area then since 1974.
 There is something that happens just prior to a tornado, as far as what I can tell...the sky seems to turn a greenish hue and I may be terribly wrong about this, but when we have had them even very near, it seems that the thunder storms that were strong, suddenly calm just before the tornado warning sirens begin to go off...  
 I truly hate those sirens and yet am thankful for them.  The system however failed us this past front, for the 2 warning alerts came 10 minutes after the warnings had passed...that would have been no good to us, had the storm come a little closer to our dwelling place.
 Two days after the tornadoes came and destroyed everything in their path, taking many lives, we had snowfall...about 5 inches at our home, with a little less in the city.  
There was a sense of cleaning away a little of the memory of the fear that gripped the area only 60 hours before.  
 We took a drive along the Ohio River and when we reached Shawnee Park, the presence of these 2 mighty smoke stacks peering high above the tree line, upward into the winter sky...the lovely Canada Geese, calmly resting in the snow, overlooking the river...lovely spring growth beginning to emerge, there was a sense of peace!
 My heart aches deeply for those lost lives, for the families, for the people who have no homes.  Some mail from Henryville, Indiana, the worst hit area, is turning up over 100 miles away.  Photographs, albums, books, memories have been torn away in less than 30 seconds.  It is very rare for any one tornado to stay on the ground for very long and yet the estimates are in that it was the first of two massive tornadoes that caused all of the worst damage.  The reports have indicated it was on the ground for 45 minutes!  The system spawned many, too many smaller twisters causing damage from Tennessee to Illinois.  It is highly unusual to have tornadoes here this early.  We even had 2 warnings back in January, and I do not ever recall that happening before.  
Friday morning those people sat together as a family, having breakfast, sending their children to school, saying goodbye to spouses as they left for work and then they came home...home to nothing, everything that had been their life, their livelihood taken away up in the winds and thrown about like bits of dust. 
I appreciate so much the kindness of your comments, your messages, e-mails wondering about us...we are fine and we are so very thankful! Tornado season began early.  It can happen any month of the year, but most warnings for us begin in March and end in June, so we have a long few months coming and we pray the worst is over...
Nature, we have no control over nature!
 

 I dedicate this post to the people that were in the line of these massive storms and I lift them up in my heart thoughts!

May God bless each of them~

I invite you to check out more 'Skywatch Friday' posts from around the world at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/