A day in the life...remembering May 22, 2004

The day had started out as any other, sunny and warm. That afternoon there had been a small thunderstorm--nothing exciting--rain and a few rumbles of thunder. Usually after the thunderstorm, it cools off. Not this time. It got hot and humid, the humidity had to have easily been in the upper 80s, low 90s. On this particular day, May 22, 2004 marked the start of pre-season baseball tournements, which i had to help run consessions for. Towards mid-afternoon, the games were in full swing (no pun intended). Because it was so hot out that day, we were going through sno-cones like mad. During a lull in the action, I was standing at the window talking with my friend, Ian. What we talked about, i dont remember, because i had noticed dark clouds off to the west (sorry 'bout that, Ian). I had been noticing these dark clouds for the past hour or so. The thing that got me, was how increasingly dark they were getting. Earlier, I had thought maybe we would get another thunderstorm; but as i was standing there, these clouds had gone from being a dark blue, to a dark navy blue, to almost black. This had me thinking that for sure we were going to get a bad storm. I went up to my car to listen to the radio, when i heard this:

"The National Weather Service in Hastings Has Issued a Tornado Warning for Buffalo and Hall counties in south-central Nebraska until 10:00 CDT Tonight."

Well, that explains why the clouds are so dark. I didnt have a camera with me that day, but I got in my car and drove to about a half mile west of town anyway. I had never seen clouds that dark in my whole life!! As i was watching this thing come in, they broke in with another weather report. This time it was for Adams county. This had me worried. So i hightailed my butt back to town. I parked my car, hopped on my bike, and went over to the other ball field where my mom was. She had been helping with consessions as well. Naturally, being my mother, she yelled at me for being on my bike. She told me to get my @$$ home. I got home, put my bike away, and ran inside. Loving the weather like i do, i ran BACK outside to the front yard to watch this thing some more. Wouldnt you know it, though? My mom had told one of our neighbors that if she saw me, i was to be in the house. Well she saw me; and after a few "Pleases" and giving her the puppy-dog look a couple times, I reluctantly went back inside. I despretly wanted to go out and look at the clouds. Until they blew the siren. At that point i turned into a baby and ran to the basement. After the shock of what was happening passed, i went back up stairs. It was windier then CRAP!!! 75-80 MPH cross winds battered our house for what seemed like an eternity!! After the storm had passed, we all went outside on our back porch. There was major tree damage, it was a mess. I then got on my bike and went around to survey the damage. I went to go turn a corner and narrowly missed running into an entire tree that had fallen across the road. On my way back to the house, i stopped and talked to my other neighbor, who had heard from someone that there was talk of ANOTHER storm coming in. That night really sucked, not only were we without power, but i had a sinus infection. Long night, it was. Next day, we had lots of work to do. We had leaves plastered to our house, lost a couple shingles, a big limb in the front yard. That was about it for us, as far as damage goes. That was a day i will not soon forget.