Tornado!

[ramanth]

A tornado touched down tonight in Williamston. Andy and the pets are okay. Our apartment took no damage but some houses lost roofs and there are trees down.

Prayers for those seriously affected. It's been a very active night. We've had at least 4 tornado warnings through out the night and there are still more storms to come.

[chocolatepuppy]

Oh geez, I hate tornados! I'm glad you and yours are ok. Prayers out to those who need them.

[Cinder & Smoke]

A tornado touched down tonight in Williamston.
Andy and the pets are okay.
Our apartment took no damage ...

... there are still more storms to come.

THANKS, God - for keepin the Kim & Andy Tribe safe!

Do you guys have a *basement* in that building?
Maybe set up "camp" down there with the Herd till the storms pass?

Stay SAFE!!
{{{Hugs}}}

[ramanth]

No basement but we're on the first floor and we take shelter in the main bath.

I shouldn't say there is no damage to the apartment... no damage we can see but Andy reported emergency vehicles in the parking lot.

We have no power of course.

Cars and a semi were blown off the highway near the Williamston exit.

Getting home will be interesting.

[ramanth]

More rotation has been spotted with Williamston in the line of fire. Yeesh!!

[CountryWolf07]

Eeek! Stay safe!!

[ramanth]

Part of a sub division has been evacuated due to a gas main break. Yikes!

The rotation has formed into a tornado and hopefully it'll miss the Williamston area but it doesn't look like it.

[ramanth]

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Sorry to leave you all in the dark like that. Like Phred said we didn't get power back until around 6:15 p.m. on Friday. Ironically, only the power to the buildings in our complex on our side of the creek got power back that night. The rest of the complex and Williamston were still without power.

The emergency vehicles Andy saw were the local response team beginning to set up shop. They along with the Red Cross set up on our road with free food and other supplies for those in need.

It was an EF2 (winds up to 120 mph) that touched down less than a 1/2 mile east of us.

By the time we got home tonight, we were happy to see that power was back to most of the city. McDonalds was open again with a sign that said "Still Standing, Let's Eat!" and the Speedway gas station next door already had two new pumps! We were amazed!

Lots of cleanup left to do but the town has rallied.

Sadly two people died 7 miles away from town when their home was tossed into a lake and they drowned. It was a couple spending the first night in their new home.

Here's local news coverage:

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/10675581.html

[Miss Z]

Yikes! I'm glad you were all kept safe!

That's awful about that poor couple.

[k9krazee]

I'm a little late on this, but I'm glad to hear you guys are safe, Kimmy! I got home Friday night and had no idea that anything had happened until I saw the news. I immediately thought of you and Andy. I guess there were two tornadoes within miles of our house but they didn't touch down.