Thought and prayers for those devasted in Joplin Mo.

What a disaster.
I hope those that made it thru are able to rebuild soon, etc.

See those cows? An udder disaster.

Yes let’s hope they get their life back together soon. I'm from the mid-west originally I know firsthand what a mid-west twister can do. Of all the natural disasters I would put a twister at or near the top of the list of nasty stuff. Living in Florida now I can say hurricanes blow - but they don’t just drop out of the sky at less than a moment’s notice. Earthquakes yes just have a margarita ready to be shaken been in a few. Title wave and volcano’s are bad news not as common as the above.

My neighbor has been erecting cell towers in the area for several months. They took their boom truck and skid steer in to town this week to help out.
He was showing me pictures on his phone...
a photo of a BIG tree, with a pair of large steel rails wrapped tightly against it, and on the other side the cab and rear end of 2 1/2 ton, box/delivery truck
a D8 CAT tossed about 50 yards, they weigh ~15 tons
incredible power!
The search & rescue folks are expecting the death toll to increase.

Joplin was originally a coal, strip mining town.
Most of the old, homes wiped off earth were worth from $40 to $60K and will cost double that to replace.
Lots of similarities to Katrina/New Orleans.

Except that N.O. knew it was coming! 2 days before it, I predicted the levee would break. IMHO, it's only similiar b/c of the devastation. Otherwise, totally opposite.

I spent many hours volunteering in the Relaint center (astrodome complex) for the 'evacuees'

New Orleans is a major accident waiting to happen all over again. They live below sea level!
Old Dikes, etc.

And we all live on a tiny blue planet hurtling through the hostile void of space on our way to an inevitable collision with some "heavenly body" that could turn our lives to hell in the blink of an eye.
Moral: It could happen to any of us.