Tornado w/rain, hail, 70 mph wind

Oh. My. Goodness. We had a tornado touch down about 3 miles from here, taking a roof off a large store. The wind was ferocious! It whipped water underneath our back door, creating a large puddle on our family room floor. We spotted that quickly and wiped it up. We also shoved towels against it so no more would come in. A leaf is perfectly plastered in the middle of the glass door. Our back yard which looked so nice a couple of hours ago has small branches littering it. It was flooded during the deluge, and the hail dropped for about 15 minutes. The garage totally flooded. But the house is secure.

My husband's workplace lost power and saw major hailstones. They were reported at 1 3/4" to 2" across. He was about 1 1/2 miles from the touchdown. They're working on battery power now.

After the storm was over, we ventured out and saw the road completely covered by a foot of water about 6 houses away. There is a major storm drainage system right there, and it was overwhelmed! The water took about an hour to go down. I was yelling at the kids to get out of the ditches and stay in the road because I was afraid it would be over their heads. Several of the homes (ours included) had rivers running between them. I kid thee not. A storm chaser vehicle passed while the kids played. Do I need to tell you they had a ball? And I forgot my camera!

I'm on the phone with my hubby, and he says the tornado touchdown looks like straight-line winds ripped straight through it. I hope no one was hurt. Trees are down all over. He's having a hard time coming south to come home. He says road crews are working amazingly quickly clearing roadways. That's good 'cause another storm is coming in. I hope our trees hold. Jim's getting closer to home. Yay!