Thanks for the concern Kimmy.

The sirens did go off, but I didn't even hear them. I was upstairs with the TV on low because I was studying. Terry was downstairs in the hottub and heard them, so needless to say, his relaxition period was over. I have one of those weather radios (NOAA) so we put T & P in the basement and listened to that radio to hear exactly what was going on. The closest the really bad stuff got to us was about 30 miles south of us in Joliet where a Walgreens and a gas station were destroyed. Fortunately they said there were no injuries there.

Utica, on the other hand, got a direct hit from a tornado. It's a really small town - quaint comes to mine - and I guess it was pretty much destroyed. As of this morning's news (on my way to work) 4 people had died and some more were still missing. Turns out this touchdown is what spurred the urgent warnings for the Joliet area, probably saving a few lives there. Utica is probably about 45-60 miles from us, a little South and West. It has a sentimental place in our hearts because Terry has been auto-crossing (racing) Corvettes out there since the early 70's.

It was really rather eerie because I was listening to this weather radio and they kept talking about the strong winds and "severe rotation" which spawns a tornado. And all the while it was absolutely calm outside. At that point I was ready to join T & P in the basement, but it kept saying everything was South of us. Believe me, had they said it was in Joliet moving North/Northeast at 35 mph, I would have been down there in a heartbeat!

For some reason that area South of us usually gets hit pretty hard during tornado season. I, personally, would never live/build down there. A few years back almost the entire town of Plainfield was wiped out - including the high school! But for some reason, the storms seem to loose some of their intensity as they get closer to the city. Maybe it's because of all the buildings and such changing the air currents - who knows. We've gotten some pretty severe storms, but this is the closest a tornado has come in the almost 10 years I've been living out that way.

Anyway, now that you know more than you wanted to know - yes, we're all ok. Thanks for asking.

Oh, and the weather radio said the storms were going to hit Naperville at 8:35 pm. I know Rachel is in St Charles which is a little West of Naperville, so she probably got hit at about 8:30. There haven't been any reports of major damage out that way, so hopefully she and her pups are ok.