Tornado Country Residents...

[speedsix]

...let's pray for those folks who've been wiped out by weather this week...several killed...tore up Harrisburg, IL where WildBill's from...hope all his family and friends were spared...whole lotta folks lost their homes/businesses...looks bad...

[Oldgringo]

I think Wildbill is from Harrisburg, PA. The Oldgringo went from the 7th through the middle of the 11th grade in Harrisburg, IL and hasn't been back in a half century. Given the goofy gun laws in Illinois and now the destruction from above, I reckon I'll wait a while longer to visit.

[speedsix]

...I read it wrong when I searched it...you said you were from Harrisburg, IL...I stumbled on the quotes...I knew it was ONE of you elderly gentlemen... ( now I've got you BOTH gunnin' for me...my day's worthwhile)...

[Keith B]

I was in the area when the line of storms went through Southeast Missouri about 4:30 in the morning. The line stretched up through southern Illinois into Harrisburg. We had a tornado warning for the southern portion of the county about 10 miles south of where I was. Never had a confirmation of a tornado, but that is pretty open farm country. Did have a tornado Northeast of us about 10 miles that rolled a mobile home and killed the man and injured the woman. As we were watching the regional television station right after the warning for our location spotters were reporting the Harrisburg tornado on the ground. As daylight broke they started showing the devastation. Pretty hard hit. Initial reports were 10 dead, with 2 being children, but those proved to be incorrect and was only 6 adults total. Over 100 injured though. Then, yesterday's devastation in Indiana and Kentucky really added to the toll.

I feel with the location of the jet stream is and the fact we have had a very mild winter, the Gulf and south Pacific waters are a lot warmer and these factors are going to contribute to a much higher amount of storms over the next few months.

Please pass the word to anyone you know in tornado alley and make sure they have a NOAA Weather Radio with SAME technology so at a minimum they can get alerted to any Tornado warnings for their location.