I think a tornado passed just blocks west of us. We heard the train noise and the wind, which had been eerily quiet and calm suddenly picked up wildly. So we went into my walk-in closet, the only inner room in the house that didn’t have any mirrors or windows, and waited it out. Shortly thereafter, we lost power. It stayed off for probably 10 minutes or so, which was a lot less time than I expected. With the power loss shutting television and heating fans off, we could clearly hear the train sound and the wind. But it only lasted a few moments and then was gone.

By the time we got power back and TiVo finally rebooted, the "hook echo" thing on the
radar was almost into downtown. When they replayed the radar over the last hour, we could see that that hook was almost on top of us at one point. Whoa.

I think I like Twister better when it’s on my dvd player and my teevee than when it’s over my house.

I’m pooped. And another round is coming.

Please be praying for all the kids at Union University (and their worried parents). It sounds like they got hit pretty hard, especially the dorms — where most of the students were at the time the twister hit. Baptist Press sent out an email alert, stating:

Union University in Jackson, Tenn., sustained heavy tornado damage Tuesday evening at approximately 7 pm when a line of heavy thunderstorms rushed through the area.

At 8:15 central, news and information director, Tim Ellsworth, reported that students were still trapped by debris in their dorms. At least four of those students have been rescued. Dorms in both the men’s and women’s areas have been destroyed.

"We currently have no serious injuries that we know of and rescue operations are still continuing," Ellsworth said. "Many buildings sustained heavy damage."

One student called into WKRN to report on his experience and while he
was on the  phone the weather folks were able to  rewind their radar
and see the clear hook echo and "sheer markers"/rotation they had on
their radar at the very time the student said Union got hit. Wild.