This took place yesterday afternoon. I have many times been to the small town of Pilger that was completely destroyed.
My prayers are for all those folks in Pilger. Small towns that get hit sometimes don't get the news coverage that larger population centers get when struck with tragedy. In my mind the tragedy is a lot more devastating on a personal level because the entire town bears the damage.
After a year, folks are still cleaning up in Moore, a few miles north of here. Some people might be foolish enough to say they can't wait to "get things back to normal". Sadly that never happens. You can rebuild, but the old town is just gone...in an instant.
I think it may have been 1973 a huge twin-vortices wedge tornado, similar to Pilger's, took out a small town west of here called Union City. It wiped out most of the buildings and a lot of houses. Union City is still there, but a much-changed place.
Do what you can for those folks, they've got a long, hard row to plow for the next few months.
Just glad to hear you and your lovely bride are ok. When I heard about the bad storms I wondered.
Larry P
Mr Penry, I hope all is well your way. SWMBO & me watched some of the mayhem on the news and it's saddening. She's from Omaha and has been in the area several times, and teared up a bit. I guess no relation got hit, but still....
Keep well.
In typical news coverage the focus moves to the biggest or most emotional item very quickly, then jumps to something else just as quickly.
The little town of Reading, Kansas, population 230 +/-, was nearly wiped off the Earth less than 24 hours prior to Joplin, Missouri getting whacked by a tornado in May 2011. People from everywhere went to Joplin to help do something. Only the locals and their friends spent much time working to restore Reading. The Joplin story filled the news media's needs so little Reading was forgotten once Joplin was hit. There was one tiny tidbit of good news for Reading recently when it was announced that the USPS was finally ready to re-establish the Reading post office and end the "temporary" re-routing of all mail.
Similarly, Greensburg, Kansas was hit in 2007 and made the big time news outlets something to work with while about a dozen other small towns got hit the same night by a multitude of tornadoes. The others were ignored for the most part. Greensburg has attracted all sorts of "green" interests simply because of the town's name. There is still outside money and influence being injected into Greensburg.
That was quite an 'unsettled' weather system!
My daughter lives about 70 miles straight south of Pilger.
Here is a picture of hail received at her house, just before 8:30 AM, 8 hours before the tornado hit Pilger!
