Storms, flooding hit home in a small way for my wife and me

If you live there, you really need no travel guides or GPS equipment, or road maps, or anything else to help you find "Tornado Alley," that part of the southern and central Plains area smacked regularly in the spring and summer by, well, TORNADOES, of course.

Yet who would've thought the greatest problems roaring up and down Tornado Alley would be almost "tornado-less" torrential rainstorms??

We've experienced literally dozens of tornadoes and tornadic storms in my neck of the woods (southwest Missouri) already this year. Many folks in and around our community have lost homes and suffered injuries from tornadoes.

Yesterday we got hit by rains and flooding that were more damaging than any winds, hail, and tornadoes yet this year to our community. We haven't gone through the terrors of 31-foot flood crests on the rivers like the poor folks in Iowa, but we got a real taste that left our basement flooded, as well as homes flooded and cars stranded all over our city. We had around 4 inches of rain (3.88 measured at the official weather service site) yesterday. I swear most of it came down during the 30 minutes I was trying to get in and out of a bank lobby.

My wife, Shirley, and I truly can be thankful that nothing precious was lost in our brief basement flooding. Our two kids and their homes were spared any trouble. On the whole, the rain and flooding we "suffered" through was just depressing and irritating. But it served to give us a feeling for the misery many, many people are suffering today throughout the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers' drainage systems across the upper Plains and upper Midwest.

I join the many folks praying for people who have suffered the damages nature's onslaught has visited upon our country this year.
[tags]stormy weather, torrential downpours, tornadoes, flooding, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]

June 14, 2008 | Filed Under Weather News