On The Edge of the Quad State Storm

 Saturday 11 Dec 2021

 The entire night Friday had been spent watching... praying... prepping as an insane weather system rolled towards us.  The night time temperature here was 73*F. 

 At 10pm news of a bad hit in Kentucky started making the news.  About 80 miles NNW of us a factory had been hit in Mayfield.  People trapped.  Then more reports...  The downtown of this Mayberry-ish town gone.  Destroyed.  Debris was lifted 35,000 ft into the sky.  To give that some context, a commercial jet cruises at that altitude.

 

(Mayfield, KY - to the right is what remains [nothing] of the destroyed factory.) 

At 12 midnight there were 3 tornado reports 30 miles WNW in the Dover, TN area. 

At 12:24 am the Clarksville airport reported a wind gust of 61 miles an hour. 

At 1:15am Bowling Green, KY was hit. 

Because of the weird arching shape of the front line, areas north and west were hit well before we were.     

Around 3am the wind started blowing here.  For the next 20 minutes the thinnest part of a weather band stretching from Texas into Ohio crossed over our home.  This area was spared.  At the same time south of us in Dickson and Greater Nashville was taking a hit.  The Nashville airport recorded a 78 MPH gust (the 3rd highest ever record there). 

I finally went to bed at 7:40am this morning.  Got up at 3pm.  The afternoon temperature is now 46*F (tonight will be around 28*F).  There are a few branches down.  We still have power. 

We are grateful.

If you wish to help in a very real and tangible way, I suggest a donation to Samaritan's Purse.  Semi-trucks were being loaded this very morning to head out to Arkansas and Kentucky.  The crew will be clearing debris and helping people gather what remains.  Blue tarps will be covering roofs to protect against farther damage.  And they will be listening to and holding shocked grief-stricken victims.

https://samaritanspurse.org/     

Edit:  This interview was on Sunday.  Worth watching and confirms what I said about Samaritan's Purse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1lLmgqlUyI