So sad...

Quoted: A powerful tornado killed at least six people as it wiped out Greensburg, Kansas, on Friday night, emergency official Sharon Watson said Saturday. The storm destroyed or seriously damaged about 90 percent of the rural town, the American Red Cross said. Greensburg has about 1,600 residents and is located about 110 miles west of Wichita.

Woohoo. Cheers to my home state for gettin' with the times...haha.

Quoted: On Thursday, the Kansas House vote 119-0 to approve a bill that would prohibit anyone under the age of 15 from marrying in Kansas and would set strict limits for would-be brides or grooms under the age of 18. The Senate approved it a day earlier, 36-4.

Yup, total bummer. I can't believe they choked in the first round AGAIN. Argh. I was looking forward to being in Lawrence next weekend during second rounds. Oh well!

Here are 3 pictures of the huge spruce tree that fell onto our driveway from the storm this past Sunday. Click through to see the larger pictures---I still can't believe it got rooted out of the ground. Sheesh.

Here is video footage from CNN in my hometown showing damage--including these dorms that are just up the street from my neighborhood.

My parents return to Lawrence tomorrow but the storm should've passed through by then so I'm not worried about them flying back in. I wonder how long it'll take to get the huge tree out of our driveway!

Wow, so KU is closed today because 60% of the buildings were damaged. Early pictures I've seen show many of the downtown businesses with blown out windows and twisted awnings. Eeks. It's a good thing this storm hit when it did, or else people may've been hurt.

The storms that hit the Midwest this morning hit my hometown (Lawrence) pretty bad--we live 5 min. away from KU. Fortunately, my parents are on vacation right now and weren't home. There's a gigantic tree at our house that was planted ~20 years ago---apparently, the winds completely rooted it and it fell onto our driveway. Fortunately, it didn't fall in the other direction towards the house or else there'd be a huge hole in my bedroom! Electricity is out for 20,000+ houses including ours---strangely, our guest house had electricity and some family friends of ours were able to rescue the many indoor tropical fish we have in our house with some massively long extension cords to the house so that the water pumps to get the air flowing for the fish. So sad--I'll be heading back home in 1.5 weeks and will see the damage.

Quoted: Severe storms swept through parts of Kansas and Missouri Sunday, with winds that knocked over airplanes at the downtown Kansas City airport and ripped roofs off homes, businesses, and buildings at the University of Kansas.

Yay! A bit of Kansas pride just had to dot this (Thanks Matt H. for the link!). Not only does Google Earth zero in on Lawrence, but it zeros in right to the neighborhood I grew up in a spot that's less than a mile from my house!

Quoted: Google Earth, another cartographic service offered by the company, centers its globe on Lawrence, Kansas