Scary indeed. The section of the front that passed over our place was narrow, so we really didn't get it as bad as those directly to the north and south of us.

We were watching the news, though, and it looked like some of the areas near Ft. Worth got hammered pretty bad. The weather guys seem strangely reticent about attributing all those overturned semis and missing church roofs to tornadoes, but it sure quacks like a duck from where I'm sitting.

Foo, thanks for the update. I was thinking of you guys as well, particularly since right after I posted, the weather channel showed that storm band passing across the Frisco/McKinney area. I'm glad to hear you weren't hit hard.

I flew in to DFW for a layover last Friday just as the storm hit the area. After we de-planed, they suspended exterior ground operations so the ground crews could take cover. Shortly after, they told people in the terminal to move away from the windows and announced the tornado warning. Then they continued to land planes as the sky went black. People, including me, did not take the warning seriously enough. In one unforgettable visual vignette during those dark moments, a pair of young girls did cartwheels through the corridor, as their parents strolled behind them. I only lost an hour because of the storm. It seemed like nothing.

Then, today I drove through the damage caused in Americus Ga, before Easter, by a tornado one mile wide, that left a three mile track of utter destruction. Huge trees were broken off forty feet from the ground, houses crushed, and a thick carpet of nothing but splinters where forests once stood in rural, wealthy subdivisions. Two people died. How the others in the area survived was only by the grace of God, a present-day miracle.

It reminded me that even a small but fast-moving tornado in the right spot could have killed hundreds in DFW.

And THAT was nothing to what I've seen in the Gulf Coast in the last two weeks: thousands of square miles of broken trees, flooded homes, and a wake of shattered lives and dreams. The demolition isn't even done in the major metropolitan areas of New Orleans. They are still hurting. They are heavily advertising for people to go to the Jazz Fest this weekend, to help bring some of the economy back. It will take years or decades. From Mobile, Alabama to Houston, Texas the rebuilding continues. Do not forget them, please. Do what you can to help. I'm plugging Habitat for Humanity in particular.

I won't be messing with God, "mother nature," or Texas, any time soon.

Larry, feel free to use these pages to plug Habitat anytime you wish. It's a worthy cause, and you're to be commended for your commitment to it.