Tornado Hits Close to Home in Colorado

Last Sunday I boarded a plane to Denver, Colorado, to visit my sister, who lived in a small town just a few miles out of the major city, for a few weeks. The week went well and while the weather was nothing compared to the dry heat of Texas with cloudless skies and little rain, it wasn't too bad. That is, until Wednesday. The inclement weather and lack of sun ruined our plans for a nice day out and as a large storm brewed.

Last night and this morning, May 22, the winds picked up quite a bit. Rain, hail, and wind made for a terrible storm. The storm got so bad that we actually lost power, so we couldn't watch the news or turn on the lights until it was restored. It was quite a scary storm, but luckily we were able to find a batter-powered radio, which we used to listen to the radio broadcast news.

We learned that a few tornadoes had touched down in northern Colorado. The first of which was near Platteville, Colorado. The second of which hit Johnstown, Colorado. And a third, more powerful tornado, touched down in Windsor, Colorado (a town we had visited just a few days before). This more powerful tornado knocked cars on their sides, tore through neighborhoods, and even took the life of a man at a campground. With so much destruction that had taken place, I was happy to be safe and to have the house with little damage.

When we came out of the house to look around for damage we found dents on one of my sister's cars that had been left out front while the other two were in the garage. The hail that had fallen as the storm passed over caused the dents. The picnic table and chairs in the backyard were strewn about and many of her potted plants had been overturned. A glass window on a shed that was out in the backyard had been broken during the storm, but we were glad that it was a shed window and not a house window. Other than the previously listed things, there wasn't too much destruction around the property, but as we drove down the street of her neighborhood we saw that there was a large tree that was on its side because of the strong winds brought in by the storm.

Later on today we learned that another tornado touched down in Laramie, Wyoming and that a couple roads were closed down due to the severity of the storm. We also learned that the tornado that hit Windsor was an estimated mile wide. The storm caused so much damage, but thankfully, there were relatively few injuries compared to the amount of people who were affected by the inclement weather.

So far we only know of the one man who died and while that is a tragedy, I'm glad that so many people survived. The storm could have been a disaster, there were many buildings that were leveled and there was even a day care that got hit, but the children had already been evacuated. Hopefully, there haven't been any more fatalities or injuries. It is a shame that so much property was destroyed, but it's better to have things destroyed than to have people hurt or killed.

I truly didn't expect anything like this to happen on my vacation to visit my sister. I expected sunny skies and fun days out, but this has served as a reminder that even when you're on vacation, bad things can still happen and we need to be aware of our surroundings and prepared for whatever may happen.