I went out to Omaha for My sister's wedding for 10 days.

Quite possibly the oldest bridesmaid in the world:

I got my baby fix:

It stormed almost every day but one.  My daughter was just asking about tornadoes the day before I got these amazing pictures.  We were shopping and she was freaking out because the thunder and lightening was brutal.  I told her that tornadoes mostly pop out of wall clouds and we didn't need to worry.

Well the next day (Friday July 27, 2008) I interrupted her shower to let her know the most amazing wall cloud was coming through.  She shot these photos by the way.  We were at my in-laws in Carter Lake Iowa approximately 1.7 miles north from downtown and the Quest Center where the olympic swimming trials are going on.

Picture one, mom (me) letting daughter know I have witnessed many many wall clouds and it is safe and I know what to look for.  I told her we need to spot rotation in the clouds and a possible debris cloud underneath.

Picture 2, notice my daughter is getting brave and in the street now.  Notice the debris cloud underneath in the lower left corner?  Yea, that's about the time I spotted it too!

We are seeing definite rotation and debris cloud as the storm is moving 1.5-2 miles to the south of us.  Note how we are making our way closer to the house...LOL!

Picture 4:  Yea, it is what it is and before all hell broke loose:

This storm was fast moving and due north of us a big debris cloud was spinning and we could see debris flying all around and it sounded like Mike was rummaging through the kitchen utensil drawer minus him yelling "hun where is the potato peeler?"

My sister (who lives midtown Omaha) called me and screamed "get in the basement something just hit our house!"  We lost cell service.  We zipped downstairs and it was over with almost as quickly as it came through.  After about 15 minutes of rain and wind and hail we popped out of the basement and all you could hear was emergency vehicles all around.  My MIL was MIA for about an hour and pulled in and her car looked like she drove through the jungles with it camouflaged.  She said trees were down everywhere (she works close to where my sister lives.)

We made our way to the old market for dinner a couple of hours later.  The Quest building (where we are just a couple of miles from) had part of it's roof ripped off:

The next day we went to my sister's house.  There was house damage here and there in her neighborhood.  This one is taken from her backyard, 60th and Walnut-ish.  A Walnut tree (go figure) fell on the garage behind her:

Notice the smathering of debris all over the siding.  They were pulverized leaves.  All the homes in the area had them on all four sides.  The national weather service didn't call this a tornado, I am not a meteorologist, nor do I play one online.  Never saw debris on all sides of a house from "Straight Line Winds" only tornadoes.  I saw what I saw and I am sticking to it!  Amazingly enough, with all this destruction, there were only two deaths in Council Bluffs Iowa from a tree falling on a car with people inside of it.

My heart and prayers go out to all who have damaged homes.  I am amazed at the quick response from Omahans to get everything cleaned up.  1000s of homes are still without electricity today. 

Seriously, there is NO PLACE like home.