We Got Off Lucky

   That tornado hit near an oilfield camp in western North Dakota yesterday, injuring 9 people, one critically. The twister damaged trailers used to house oilfield workers. It could be seen from several miles (kilometers) away, and, according to one witness, was on the ground for about a minute.
   I've been lucky. I've never seen one of those "live and in person". Nor do I wish to. Not to say I haven't been close to one. The night my 2nd son was born, a tornado touched down just 4 kilometers from the hospital we were all in. And once when I was in Helena, Montana, there was a hailstorm the like of which I'd never seen. And I've seen some pretty good hailstorms. And, like an idiot, I bolted for my car and drove off. For all I knew back then, that storm could well have preceded a twister. It didn't.
   And North Dakota wasn't the only location getting severe weather. Just west of us in Saskatoon, a supper hour torrential downpour turned roads into lakes and rivers and caused some flooding. In fact, the rain came down so hard and so fast is popped the covers off manholes.
   I've seen it rain that hard before, when we were in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It poured so hard, the windshield wipers couldn't keep up with it. Luckily where we were, there was no flooding.
   Through all of that, we in Yorkton just got a little smattering of rain, and a bit of a gusty wind.
   Just reinforces the power of nature.

TTFN