Friday, August 19, 2005

Light of Day

My office is located right at the heart of last night's tornado path here in Fort Atkinson. I checked out the area in the dark last night, and it looked bad enough then. By the light of day, it looks worse, but we have much to be thankful for here. Large trees, some of which were probably over 100 years old, were snapped in half. One street has trees snapped in half on nearly every property. Two tall metal balls lay near my office-they used to be some business's roof. Despite all of this, buildings withstood the onslaught very well. With the exception of some signs and one business's roof, most structural damage seemed to be cause by falling trees. I've heard of no reports of injury. Additionally, the area the tornado went through included the Fireside Dinner theater. Had the tornado been more severe, there would have been many injuries and possibly deaths in that area of town, as there is also a hotel, a Shopko, a bar, a restaurant, and a bowling alley in the path of the damage. We were very fortunate here yesterday. Very fortunate.

I am not going to be taking photographs of the damage. Crews are already working on clean up, and I also don't feel like taking "after" photos of what was somebody's fears last night.

No comments: