Iowa City is in the news this morning after tornadoes ripped through last night. The Kenyons were unscathed, but others around here were not so lucky. The church with no roof that they're showing on national news is just a block from Edward's daycare. Though the daycare building was not damaged it is closed today in cooperation with the call to keep people away from downtown. The University of Iowa canceled classes for the first time in all the years I've been connected to it--almost 15 now!

Even though university classes were canceled, staff were supposed to report to work. However, with Edward's daycare closed and my office in the heart of the downtown destruction, I opted to stay home today, with the endorsement of my boss. It sounds like the best thing will be to stay out of the way and let the clean up crews do their work.

We were huddled in our basement for about an hour starting around 8:30 last night as the sirens blared and radio reports alerted us to possible funnel cloud sightings. The power went out before 9 p.m. and stayed out until about 4:30 this morning. Twice I thought I heard the "freight train" sound associated with tornadoes, but as if it were a few miles away. Turns out, it was only blocks from us. A sorority house was destroyed about eight blocks from here, trees were uprooted and roofs blown off. However, our neighborhood appears to have escaped damage. There's some insulation in our alley, and small branches down from trees. I imaging we'd see leaves down if it were a few weeks from now, but the trees are only just starting to bud.

Edward slept through the whole ordeal. We strapped him into his carseat when we went to the basement, figuring that would be a cozy and secure place for him. Once the lights went out I just rocked the seat a bit and soon enough he was snoring. I sort of wished I'd changed him before that happened, but as it turned out he mostly slept through a diaper change once the danger had passed and went right back to a sound sleep in his crib. That meant he missed his final meal of the evening though, so he was up around 5:30 this morning complaining of an empty stomach.

I've lived in the Midwest all my life and this is really the closest I've ever come to the path of a tornado. I'll be happy to wait another 32 years for my next encounter!