Severe Storms

Yesterday, Sunday May 22, we experienced some major storms and storm warnings in Iowa City. There has been concerns about severe thunderstorms this weekend reported on the news for about 3 days now. However, Saturday was supposed to be the "bad weather" day and Sunday was supposed to be beautiful. When Saturday was beautiful, we expected that the storm had past and there was no future problems. Well, the storm had another idea. After church, the kids were napping upstairs and Jon had just gotten home from meetings. Around 2:30pm, the tornado siren went off. Jon and I ran downstairs to check the local weather and make sure it was real and not a test siren. IT WAS REAL. So, we went upstairs and woke up the kids and brought them down to the basement. For the next two hours, we watched the news and got updates about our area and the storm. There were severe thurnderstorms, including constant thunder, lightining, 2-3 inch. hail balls, and tornado sightings in the town just 20 miles down the freeway from Iowa City. The tornados were supposed to travel to just above Iowa City by around 3:30 - 4pm. It wasn't until 4:30 that we ever got any storms here. But, when they came... we got it. The rain fell in buckets over our house, and there was also coin size hail balls. I do love how amazing the thunderstorms are in the mid-west. Well, the tornados did past north of us and thankfully we never saw one. But, we did enjoy a powerful spring rain. And when I say ENJOY, that is just what we did. In our little complex, all the parents sat on the porches, and the kids ran around in the rain, splashing in puddles, and getting soaking wet. It was so fun to watch, and Brad had a great time. (BTW: We did not send him out in the rain until the hailing stopped.) Anyway, here are some pictures to share the fun. It is so hard to get the full rain effect in the pictures and video, but at least you can see Brad playing.

(PICTURES TO COME SOON)

The rain lasted about 30 minutes and then it stopped. By 5:30pm, the sun was out and the weather was beautiful, trying to dry up all that rain water. Emily was so glad that we finally let her down on the sidewalk to walk around. She loves being outside.

It was a good day, but we are tired after worrying and thinking about storms for a Sunday afternoon. I do know that the storm hit really hard in some places and there has been a lot of damage to homes and some lives lost. To these people and towns, we pray that they can be comforted and find peace and that their town will recover from this terrible disaster.