Two tornadoes strike my home town

This isn't really gay related except for maybe the fact I'm gay and the tornadoes have affected me, my family, extended family and friends. Just wanted to update everyone about what has happened.

John has posted, "The scariest tornado you will never see" on the AMERICAblog main page detailing the monster twister that hit Joplin, Missouri. Almost simultaneously and about sixty miles southwest the following tornadoes were hitting my home town, and my mother's ranch. Mom experienced no property damage, but her boyfriend saw the second tornado form and briefly touch down near my mother's natural water fall. The tornado moved east and gained intensity and destroyed the roof of a neighbor. It then destroyed several homes in the small town of Zena, Oklahoma.

My cousin, Brian Beauchamp, lives about a mile away from me in Dallas, Texas. I meet both he and his girlfriend, Jenna Hoffman, about once a month for dinner. She has reported that her grandmother's house is on Grand Lake where the first tornado in the video formed. All the homes in front of her grandmother are now gone and, inadvertently, they now literally have lake front property due to the twister.

My little sister, Lauren Lee, was born in Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Missouri where they've had to take the victims from St. Johns. So, of course, I've got family and friends who have a lot of connections to these particular tornadoes that hit. We were very fortunate, as there was almost no property damage at my Mom's ranch. I was raised hearing the sad and horrific story of the tornado that struck Bernice, Oklahoma in the late 1940's and killed my great great grandmother and her sister. The men in my family were out in the field and laid in a depression while the storm exploded their house and blew the women down a chat road.

One would think that living in tornado alley would make it easier to deal with tornadoes but, if anything, it makes them appear more threatening when you actually see the life altering devastation they can deliver in just minutes. My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of this tragedy.

My cousin, Brian Beauchamp, lives about a mile away from me in Dallas, Texas. I meet both he and his girlfriend, Jenna Hoffman, about once a month for dinner. She has reported that her grandmother's house is on Grand Lake where the first tornado in the video formed. All the homes in front of her grandmother are now gone and, inadvertently, they now literally have lake front property due to the twister.

My little sister, Lauren Lee, was born in Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Missouri where they've had to take the victims from St. Johns. So, of course, I've got family and friends who have a lot of connections to these particular tornadoes that hit. We were very fortunate, as there was almost no property damage at my Mom's ranch. I was raised hearing the sad and horrific story of the tornado that struck Bernice, Oklahoma in the late 1940's and killed my great great grandmother and her sister. The men in my family were out in the field and laid in a depression while the storm exploded their house and blew the women down a chat road.

One would think that living in tornado alley would make it easier to deal with tornadoes but, if anything, it makes them appear more threatening when you actually see the life altering devastation they can deliver in just minutes. My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of this tragedy.