Partly

For those of you who don't know, I live in Merrill, WI. A small town in north central Wisconsin which is all over the news the past day because Mother Nature dropped a couple of tornados on us yesterday. The sirens in town went off three times. Were we were, we got very little rain, very little wind, and our electricity never went out. However, it was spooky out -- the air was still and heavy, the clouds that odd green-grey.

At 6:22 I twittered this: It started thundering here about 5 minutes ago. It hasn't stopped. No rain. Rather unsettling. #DoNotLike #storm. Turns out that right around then a tornado was taking out a large part of the neighborhood around the airport. The airport this is about a 1/2 mile from were we live.

My folks and brother (who both live about 5 miles to the north of us) called shortly after that to let me know that they "were fine" which freaked me out. Turns out my brother videoed the tornado that passed just a 1/4 mile south of their places.

No one was seriously hurt. Houses and business are gone, but the people are safe. More than half the town was without power. We had it but a block or two in every direction and they were dark. We went out and helped my brother bail his basement until he could get power to his sump pump. My folks had their generator hooked up, so they were good to go for the night.

I went out to their place again today and then drove to the east side of town to check on my Aunt's place (for reference they live at least 15 miles apart). They were without power, too, and had a foot of water in their basement. They had just gotten a generator and set it up. Of course, five minutes later the power came on. *headshake* The power came on at my folks' place around two, so I think the power company is doing a great job getting the outlying areas up and running.

Anyhow, while I was out I took a bunch of pictures of the damage. Just on the road to where we were going. We didn't drive through any of the hardest it areas, but there was plenty of damage where we drove. I posted my pics over on my facebook album along with comments. (Non-facebook people can see it now. Sorry about that.)

For some shots of the really badly damaged areas, check out this video of Gov. Walker's visit. I saw a video that showed the aerial view of the damage, but I can't find it anywhere online.

In that piece Sen. Duffy says: "As I'm driving in, I see 10 people in one yard and 12 and 8 in another and they all have their saws out and I think that says a lot about our community," said Duffy.. And that's so true. Most of the work is being done by those who just have a chainsaw and a truck. School was out today and to see what 17-year-old young men will do when faced with a disaster, check out this article and video.

Our town may be small and it may not be the richest in the state, but we know how to work and we know how to help each other. Not a bad face to show the world, really.