aww hail naw

it has been the year of ridiculously horrible weather and this past wednesday, i was caught in it. it all started because my mom needed to get some things from target so she asked if i would go with her and come on, i never pass up a trip to target. my dad said be careful, there's a storm coming. but we ignored it and said we'll be fine. after doing our shopping we are approaching the register and i notice everyone around me starts getting phone calls and i start to wonder. then my phone rings with my dad on the other end saying "don't leave, the tornado sirens are going off. keep shopping." then all of the target employees come rushing at us saying everyone has to get to the back of the store. we slowly walk our way back to the storage area where they block us in. i'd say there were about 40 people there employees included. here's a photo before things got interesting.

and then, the hail started. it was deafeningly loud beating against the metal roof over top of us. not being able to see what's going on outside we all sit wondering while i frantically try to pull up the radar on my iphone. and then it gets so loud i start to get a little worried and i look to the door at the end of the hallway and see water start seeping in through the bottom of the doors. and to make matters worse, this is precisely the time the power goes out. everyone started screaming and the target employees starting yelling for everyone to get down. i'm not going to lie guys, it felt like i was in a movie. these things don't happen in real life. for the first time it hit me that i could be in the first tornado sitting in the storage area of a target. the generators kicked back on some power and everyone sat on the stone cold cement floors in silence listening for this pounding to end. after about 15 minutes it finally let up but the target employees said we had to wait 8 more minutes until the tornado warning was over. they finally were going to let us go when they then announced another storm was coming but we could leave if we wanted. about 10 others around us looked at each other and started running for the doors. we got to the front doors and the automatic door had been ripped off it's hinges and there was golf ball size hail covering the ground. i wish i would have taken a picture of that but i we were in get-home-as-fast-as-humanly-possible mode. we then noticed that our car as dents all over the top and sides from the hail and it also manage to shatter the passenger side mirror. i looked at my mom and said "drive."

it looked like a war zone. leaves covered the roads and all of the stop lights were out. when we turn at the stop light in the photo above there was a mini van stuck on top of a large tree that must have fallen right in front of them. many places were flooded and we saw several cars with shattered windshields and busted out windows. it's so crazy to think what mother nature can do! i'm glad we are safe and we made it home before the "next storm" ( that never really came ) came.