Ma Nature's Fury

Here you have it, my "Odd Shots Monday" shot. Bf actually took me on a detour to this spot that he knew about for the sake of an "odd shot" opportunity... so sweet. In order to participate in "Odd Shots", visit Katney's blog. I will post about the very active and deadly weather weekend shortly. Well, as I said, it was a very active and horribly deadly weather weekend. I was out of pocket, forced into a weather hiatus by the Relay for Life, which is finally over for the year. It was a busy weekend for me. I woke early Friday morning (of course, knowing about the potential outbreak in Arkansas) and I head out to the Relay for set-up and preparation around noon. I worked there until about 9AM, Saturday morning, only getting pockets of stolen sleep when I literally fell asleep typing in numbers (I was the accountant). I left and got an hour of sleep, then headed to Mini-Dew's state competition, falling asleep on the way back at about 9:30PM. Rough day. The cool part was that they chose me to go up in the ladder truck to capture "aerial photos" of the relay event. That was thrilling.

It wasn't until I got up Sunday morning, that I learned the extent of the weekend's weather destruction, and only today have the boosted the death toll resulting from Tropical Cyclone Nargis's landfall. Since I have mentioned that, let me go ahead and start with that. I horribly devastating tropical cyclone ravaged the shores of Yangon, the largest city in Mynamar in Southeast Asia, with its population of 6.5 million people. That tropical cyclone slammed into that city with 120 mph winds, which would make that storm the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane on our Saffir-Simpson Scale. Unfortunately, the death toll now has been lifted to almost 4,000 lives lost, up from the estimated 250 I heard on Sunday. Here is a link (click here) to an article about that storm.

Back in the US, I mentioned in my previous blog that there was a potential for a tornadic severe weather event. Unfortunately, it turns out that was a deadly tornadic severe weather event, killing at least 7 people, damaging or destroying about 400 homes. (Check out an article about it by clicking here.)There were a total of 63 tornado reports, with 10 confirmed tornadoes in Arkansas during this outbreak. You know what that does to the trend chart showing an amazing season this year...My heart and heart-felt prayers go out to all those impacted by the storms this weekend.

Of course, Sunday did bring some hope to the wake of devastation. There was a tremendous amount of coverage of the recovery of Greensburg, KS. Greensburg was devastated when a catastrophic EF5 destroyed 95% of that city, one year ago Sunday. There were inspirational stories of survival and rebirth shared throughout the day. Here is an article about the anniversary of that horrific and historic event. (Thanks, Jason for that link.) I can't imagine how difficult it has been for residents of Greensburg, to live through such loss, and to hang in there through the process of revitalizing the town as a "Greeen Town". God bless all of you!

Ciao,
~Dewdrop