We're all right. We were actually camping in Shell Rock which after seeing some of the other damage around I think we really lucked out. When it started getting nasty we headed to my inlaws house about 2.5 miles away to seek shelter. Some of us guys were kinda standing around outside and now after seeing the video of the tornado I'm pretty sure we saw it but didn't realize that's what it was due to the size of it. We thought it was just a bunch of clouds moving in. When it started getting closer we all moved to the basement. After about 5-10 min. We kinda snuck up the staircase to catch a glimpse and the sun was out and the birds were chirping. So we walked outside and all we could hear was a very LOUD ROARING noise, sounded just like thunder but it didn't stop. So i'm sure we missed the Tornado by just a very little margin. Right before the tornado got to us Sarah got paged out to go help out in Parkersburg, (she's an EMT on Clarksville's Ambulance) after we were sure things were safe she took off to help out where she could. She ended up getting home about 10:30 last night and she went back down this morning for a couple hours to help out. Her words to me were that you can't believe it until you see it. It just flattened everything. Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera before we left the campground and Sarah didn't think to grab it before she went down to P-burg this morning.

We did go down to New Hartford this afternoon to look around and on the North side of town in the new addition and right down Beaver Valley road it's pretty much wiped out. I was going to take a picture of a house. It's a 2 story cape cod style house that was picked right up off the foundation and is now sitting basically on the shoulder of the road. I could look right into the 2nd story dormers as I drove by. When I went to take a picture of it sitting next to the road some people came around from behind the rubble and kind of had an angry look on their face so out of respect to them I set the camera down and kept driving. I do have some other family that lives in and around Parkersburg and got some pictures from them and Sarah took a couple with her Cell phone. So here they are: Sarah's Cell pics (sorry about the quality but it's a cell phone):

 


This house is literally sitting in the High School Parking lot now.



 

Here are some pictures that I got from some relatives:












I'm pretty sure this is Kwik Star:

My one family member also has a plane that he took up this morning and got some aerial pics:







That one building in the middle with the 3 roofs kinda is a new bank that's still standing.  They have 24 hr. security on that right now.







This is a picture of the high school.  Pretty much totally destroyed.







Here is KWIK STAR again.  You can see the semi in the middle the store "was" to the right of it in the picture.  You can see the steel from the overhang.

Just got an email from my brother with a couple YOUTUBE links as well:

My uncle lives in P'burg his house is still standing but the roof and a few walls are gone, his business A&P Cooling and Heating on the other hand was completely leveled.  I will be going out tomorrow to help out, here are a few pics of his house and shop, they were all ok, thank god for basements.

Here are some pics of his business and home.









Its not gonna be any fun cleaning that up......I'm just glad they are ok.

Glad to hear you are ok. I lived through a F5 and must say those buggers are dreadful. The pictures are nothing compared to seeing it with your own eyes.  It pains me to think of everyones lose over there.

My heart and prayers go out to those folks. If anyone knows of anyone that needs some help please let me know.

i got some pics of new hartford I will post tomorrow, this was one bad weekend

Are they letting people come in and volunteer or are they blocking it off. I wanna go help if it is possible?

everything is still blocked off for the most part to people other than residents and people with large equipment. Sunday was a very scary day for us all. there were two tornados that touched down just outside of Cedar Falls also.

Here is some video from my garage just north of CF


http://app4.websitetonight.com/projects/3/2/4/5/32459/uploads/100_0401.wmv

Wow

Scary....just plain scary!

I hope that the injuries were few.  Stuff, houses, etc can be replaced.  I've lived through 2 tornado's in my little town (Galva) and it becomes very surreal.   I remember the sound of chainsaws for weeks.Â

My prayers go out to all those people.