"I've Never Seen a Storm Like That in My Life!"

I am so deeply sorry for not writing in here last night, except not really. We had a tornado in the area. It was the first big tornado since I've been on this planet, almost 26 years. It didn't hit specifically my town, but it hit about 10 miles away and we felt the affects. Our large steel grill fell over, yet our light plastic chairs didn't move an inch. Can you explain that one to me? We had some shingles fall off our roof and lots of tree branches fall all over the yard. I'm incredibly lucky that a branch didn't land on my car, which is directly under a huge tree. My dad and I immediately cleaned up a ton of branches for about an hour after the storm was pretty much over. We lost power for about 4 hours, had it back for about an hour, then lost it again until about 9 this morning. That's why I didn't write in here. I didn't want to waste my 3G data or battery on my phone. A large wooden pole holding wires at the top of my street snapped in half. A tree in the back of my yard is leaning on another tree. It was nuts. This morning, I heard a 7 year old say, "I've never seen a storm like that in my life." I started laughing because obviously she hadn't. I asked my dad and he said he'd never seen anything like it. It was almost surreal to see the damage. We have never seen storms like this in our area. It's a whole new experience for us. Unfortunately, I think the hurricanes and storms are only going to get worse. The most amazing statistic is that only 1 person was injured and no deaths! Thank God! The tornado was 1 mile long and went on for 17 miles. It was pitch black at about 7:15. At 8:15 when it starts to get dark, it was incredibly bright. It's amazing what mother nature can do.