Out Like a Lion...

Happy New Year Everyone! The last blog I posted on Thursday gave promises that I would be blogging again the next day to share my goals with you. Well, I had great intentions to do so until Mother Nature decided to smack us all around on the last day of the year.

*enter cheesy Wayne's World flashback effect*

It was very unseasonably warm on Friday, like 68 degrees, and we had been warned by local news weather guys for a few days there might be some storms as the cold front swings by. Our Friday/NYE plans were for my husband to do some drywall hanging at a friends house in South County while I hung out at home by myself until later that evening when I would head back down and hang out. I dropped him off, came home around 11ish am and before I knew it my NOAA weather radio was going off. *sigh* I'm a total weather nerd and a total pansy when it comes to severe weather. Pretty much a big chunk of St. Louis and surrounding counties were under a tornado warning. So here I am at home flipping out because I'm alone and not only am I in the path of the storm my husband is too and by the looks of the radar he was going to get hit the hardest.

I know it's hard to see but the blue dot is the husband's location and the pink dot is where I was.

Eeep. This wasn't going to be good. 

Very like my husband, he kept working in the unfinished addition at his friends house while I cowered in my basement on the phone with my best friend who was in her basement too. By about 1 pm the storm had reached me but thank goodness it had split up around my town and reformed 3-4 miles just north-east of me. I felt so stupid (as usual because I over-react)... it was windy for a second, rained for about 3 minutes (not even hard) and then it was gone. *sigh again* All that adrenaline and no where to use it....  I should've moved some heavy furniture around or something.

Anyways, I get back to the TV and turn it to the news station I was stuck to earlier and --holy crap!-- From Rolla, MO to St. Louis we had 8 tornado's touch down. There were 6 confirmed deaths in the rural area's of Missouri which is just so sad (mobile homes are bad people), but thankfully for the 45 minute early warnings by NOAA a lot of lives were saved. A few tornado's were F nothings, which is very weak almost straight line winds, but we had a couple F2's and one F3. And guess who was just south of that F3? Yeah... the husband, out there hanging drywall like nothing is going on. 

Let me share some images/footage of the area's hit including Sunset Hills, Mo (close to where my husband was):

Robertsville, MO (rural)

Fenton, MO (about 30 min from downtown St. Louis)

Here's video of the church damage and other damage around Fenton

 Sunset Hills, MO (about 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis)

Aerial news video shot of Sunset Hills

Tornado damage by O'Leary's in Sunset Hills

NOAA Official Site Confirming 8 Tornado's with Images and Video Links

* cheesy Wayne's World flash back to present effect*

So 2010 went out like a lion and came in a cold, quiet lamb. I'm glad the husband was safe, but even though there was all this destruction in St. Louis and surrounding urban area's there were no deaths, which is pretty amazing as populated as these areas are. I didn't get to share all my goals with you but if you noticed my text is left aligned. That was a teeny goal/change for my blog... there will be more to come like re-branding and a new actual website. Let's just say this year I plan to have positive surround me... to be healthy and happy, to cherish my family and close friends, to be successful in this furniture adventure and to make new friends through clients and the blogosphere. Hmmm... guess I gave you a small run down anyways eh? 

Have a great first week of 2011 guys and I'll be back to blogging soon!

~ Susan ~