A Hail Storm in Midway....

 Hail from storm in Midway!

September 7, 2012 ~ Today started off to be a great day! I was getting a lot accomplished and finally getting caught up on things at the office and some personal projects I was working on. The guys were working on the barn and about to have the roof completed and I was on my way to meet my friend Shelly DeVore in town. Brandon was heading up to the barn as the rain storm was on it's way and wanted to help them get to a stopping point just before it started to rain.

I saw it getting darker in town but nothing out of the normal when it gets ready to storm. I called Brandon to check to see how the barn was coming (to see if the roof was all on) and what the weather was like there. (We are only about 7 minutes from Columbia) He said they were getting a piece of metal screwed down and the storm just blew up right on top of them. (They did not get all of the metal on the roof before the storm hit) At this point it was raining. I hung up and arrived to meet Shelly. I get a text from Brandon that said we have hail... I tried to call him but the phones weren't working. I tried to call the shop and couldn't get through. I started to get a little worried and didn't know if I should stay put or head home. I waited for about 5 minutes then it started to get really dark in town. I decided I was heading to Midway as I needed to see if everything was OK and talk to Brandon. Finally he called. I could barely hear him (his phone had gotten wet) but he said they had just went through a tornado and hail was from golf ball size to softball size and there was lots of damage. By this point I was freaking.... I drove as fast as I could to get home. There was minor hail in town and lots of rain. As I got back to the shop everyone's cars were damaged from the massage hail. Our buildings were peppered with dents everywhere, our vans / trucks were dinged and dented and the windshields in 5 out of 8 vans were broken. (The other 3 vans were in town) Our employees cars were destroyed and possibly totaled from the damage. Brandon was there and was like a drowned rat. He had some major adrenaline pumping as did the other guys. At the barn they had a small tornado they were a part of. The link to the video is below from my YouTube videos (Hail Storm in Midway)

  http://youtu.be/8oraZFKE0Iw
 
It's crazy how a storm can turn so brutal in a matter of moments. It appears that the Midway area was the main area damaged from this storm. Our barn is across from Elizabeth Street and the path of destruction was right in that area (other areas were affected as well but seems like this is where it went after leaving our barn location) and went onto Elizabeth Street which is where mom and dads house is. They are all OK and no one was home. The street looked like a yard with grass not a road as the broken tree limbs, leaves and bark covered everything. It was so crazy and unreal to see all of this but so thankful that no one was hurt. It is all material things that can and will be replaced. Teachers and staff at Midway Heights... great job with taking care of the kids while all this was going on. I'm glad it wasn't an hour later when all the kiddos were on a bus heading home. Scary enough to be a part of this but even scarier without safe places to go. Special thank you to the guys from Boone Electric. They had tons of outages and worked really hard to get them all back on. Between the damages to everyone's houses, businesses, cars I am so very thankful that no one was hurt. 

 Midway took a minor beating but I can assure you... we always come back stronger!