Tornadoes rip across the South....

[QueenDillyDally]

:( How very sad.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080206/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather

[blueskygirl]

It was a very scary, loud, and sleepless night last night for sure. So much was destroyed this morning, the damage in my neighborhood is a lot worse than they're reporting on local or national news. :(

[QueenDillyDally]

It was a very scary, loud, and sleepless night last night for sure. So much was destroyed this morning, the damage in my neighborhood is a lot worse than they're reporting on local or national news. :(

How awful for you & your family. My thoughts are with everyone down there.

[akacharlotte]

It was scary last night. We spent about 15 minutes hanging out in the closet during the first storm. It appears the worst was to our west, and north so lucky for us but very bad for those in that area. The worst that we got was pretty significantly sized hail. We did hear the tornado sirens last night.

I was asleep when the 2nd storm came through and did not even wake up. DH did and said it was bad but we are still here this morning and our house and those around us are all still standing.

Union University in Jackson was hit very hard. 12 students were trapped but the last report I saw on the news stated 4 had been rescued and the remaining had been on the phone with the university president.

blueskygirl-That is awful that your neighborhood was hit so hard. I hope everyone is ok!

[coquelicot]

If I'd been looking out my window after that natural-gas explosion, I probably could have seen the reddish glow from it. According to the local paper, it could be seen up to 25 miles away. People in the closest town to my house were taking pictures of the glow and emailing them to the local TV station. I figured they just lived a lot closer, but maybe they weren't...

Some of my co-workers live in or near Macon County, TN, and didn't make it in today either due to lost power or blocked roads. As far as I know, they're okay and didn't have any damage.

My house was fine. A couple of those storms heading for Nashville made me nervous because if they had gone more east and less north, they would have hit our house. I was up for about 2 hours early this morning making sure that we were in the clear. I can't sleep during storms, anyway. Needless to say, I'm exhausted today. DH slept through the overnight round. I don't know how he does it.

My DH is originally from one of the small towns in KY that got hit, but he and his family moved away from there when he was in HS. His parents lost power, but the storm missed them. We don't know about his aunt and uncle, though. They still live in that town.

[Phen]

One of the tornadoes touched down about 5 miles from our house.

DH's co-worker took these photos on the way to the office today; this was a warehouse. (actually, not sure that it was a warehouse; it might've been a home or an animal clinic, I can't tell which it was, I just know where he was taking photos)
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh92/iwalker8/IMG_0018.jpg

Last night we watched on the news a live shot of a funnel cloud touching down in Southaven (a Memphis suburb). It was terrifying and we are 60 miles away! A friend's daughter in Memphis found parts of the mall that collapsed on her patio, and she lives 8 miles from the mall.

[akacharlotte]

Holy crap Phen! I'm glad you are ok. 5 miles is way too close for comfort.

That picture is just so telling. I did not see the pictures of the Sears store at the mall until this morning. It was much worse than I imagined.

coquelicot-I'm glad you are ok. I hope your aunt and uncle are ok as well.

[ambula704]

We had the storms in our area last night (western KY) and it was scary! What made it bad was that our cable went out early on...so I had no idea where the storm was or when it was coming (we did have radio but it was very fuzzy)...anyway, when our towns alarms started I got VERY nervous.

We were lucky...no tornadoes here...but my thoughts and prayers are with those who lost lives and homes!

[Jess71903]

My mom works in Southaven and lives in Olive Branch and she said it was bad there. I used to work in Atkins, AR, where one huge tornado hit and we live just south of Clinton, where another one hit. We are find and didn't get much here. It was a scary night, though! Here is a picture from www.katv.com (local news) taken by Monty Collum of Atkins:
http://arkansasmatters.com/media/gif/MontyCollum2008-02-05-1202261004.gif