Tornado in March

I heard on the news how a tornado in Western PA in March is very unlikely. But, it happened. Somehow, nobody was killed but a lot of people have a lot of cleaning up to do near where I grew up. I've never had something like this happen so close to home (literally) and my heart is saddened over the recovery.



Being the map aficionado I am, here's my perspective of it. The path (red) ripped through right by a house where I was babysat as a kid (off the screen left) then by the high school & middle school, past my cousin's church and then over into the neighborhood where I used to ride my bike. Then, (perhaps because of the hill-valley topography) it must have went back up in the clouds. I don't know much about tornadoes but if it had continued, my grandparents may have been right in the path (black circle). Thank God for that. I grew up in the green circle.

Here's some more shots:
Roofs just torn off of houses. How powerful.





At the high school, it took off part of an auditorium roof...

...and took down the scoreboard and other parts at the stadium.


Just left speechless.

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On a lighter note, I was all planned to write a blog Wednesday night with stories of how we dodged marble-sized hail at track practice, a great announcement, a funny story, and basketball update. So, here they are:

*With many generous donations by many great people, I have hit my target for fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association. The deadline is mid-April, so I figure I'm just going to keep asking and see how much more we can raise. If you are interested in donating, click here.

*Training has been going well. I had a 11 (supposed to be 12) mile run with 7 miles at half marathon pace on Wednesday morning. I was unsure if I'd be able to hit the pace that early, that cold, and on my own. But, I hit it and was excited about that. Due to my schedule this week with track meets, I then had to run 12 this (Thursday) morning. I was going to complain to Beth Wednesday night about the back to back hard running days. However, I remembered over the weekend she did a 4-hour bike ride then 2-hour run Sunday followed up by a 2-hour run on Monday. No sympathy in the Shutt house! But, aside from some sluggish hills, I plodded along at my desired pace and got it done. Whew!

*My brackets are busted (nothing new). Too bad Pitt lost (hee hee). Penn State played a tough game, much of it without their 2nd best player Jeff Brooks due to foul trouble and then re-separating his shoulder. In spite of all that they lost on a last-second off-balanced jumper. Arizona had a good first weekend (both close games--whew!) but now has a tough matchup against Duke tonight. I would consider Duke the big favorite, but I guess you never know. That's why they call it March Madness. The only trouble is the game isn't going to start until almost 10pm (past my bedtime). I guess I'll just have to check out the score when I get up.

Time to watch some hoops.