No Points Please. Sunset & Prayer Photo

Photographer’s Note

A sad photograph .. no points please .. just your thoughts for those who are in need.

Just to let you all know we are all fine ..
but one person was killed and hundreds were made homeless in my county last week.

Last Thursday (May 22, 2008)

It was my older daughter's last day of school before summer break. The were releasing the students early (at 11:30) ..

She goes to school at a select school in the town of Windsor about 12 miles northwest of our home in Greeley.

We decided to make a day of it .. pick her up from school at 11:30 .. take both our daughters another 20 Northwest up to the city of Fort Collins to our favorite Indian restaurant for lunch .. Then headed Southwest into the foothills of the mountains to the town of Loveland to the small gluten free grocery store on the edge of town (my wife and both daughters are allergic to gluten) .. and then head home to meet my son as he arrives home from Denver in the evening.

As we reached my daughter's school it started to rain heavily.

As we left the school and headed North on the way to Fort Collins it started to hail .. and hail perhaps harder than any hail I have ever driven through .. we gradually drove out of it as we got to Fort Collins ... at the time we were wishing we had gone into Windsor instead of heading straight North so we would have found a place in town to duck under to get out of the hail ..

Ft. Collins and Loveland were typical spring days ... as we were headed back home into Greeley from Loveland .. traffic was gridlocked .. signs of devastation started appearing .. the telephone poles were all sheared off .. the big State Farm Insurance headquarters was a mess .. it is a big glass building and many windows were blown out .. traffic signals were bent at 90º angles to their proper position .. their were some mobile homes and one typical house at the "missile silo park" that were essentially kindling .. the clouds were still pretty ominous ..

We got the radio on .. (and got home) .. apparently a huge tornado ripped right up through that area .. right behind us into Windsor .. right by my daughter's school (missed her school by a block and us by about 10 minutes) ... devastated much of Eastern Windsor ... flattened neighborhoods ... A person was killed in Greeley around the missile silo park area that we drove by .. Unbelievably nobody was killed in Windsor .. if we had come straight home from school or turned into town (like we were wishing we had) we would have driven right into it ..

The town of Windsor has a population of about 16,000 ... hundreds of homes were destroyed in the Southeast side of the town.

I have a few images of the actual devastation .. but after going through them I just felt uncomfortable posting such direct destruction of people's lives. I found this old picture better communicated my thoughts than any picture of this weeks devastation.

John

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/22/colorado.tornado.video/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/22/colorado.tornado.video/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto

AROBN54, xuaxo, stego, worldcitizen, adores, gunbud, gracious, jemaflor, Buin, fulvio52, nicol_g, jaywalker, bakes888, feather, derek3755, Charo, vbbreizh, plimrn, jrj, Atousa has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

AROBN54 (10791) 2008-05-28 13:16

Hello, John,
my heart and prayers go out to those affected by that tornado. And my thanks that you and your family were spared. God bless and keep you all...
Shelly

danyy (69465) 2008-05-28 13:18 [Comment]

Show Comment

xuaxo (5835) 2008-05-28 14:18

Hi John,
Our thoughts are with those peoples and families.
My respects.
I'm thinking about people in other areas of the world too, like China or Myanmar.
Francisco (in Portugal).

stego (22478) 2008-05-28 14:27

Hi John,
I am sorry for the sad events. You pay the victims touching homage with this wonderful sunset.
My respects, José.

worldcitizen (2305) 2008-05-28 15:18 [Comment]

Show Comment

adores (15769) 2008-05-28 15:36

Hi John!
I've seen some images on TV, seems we had lots of natural disasters these last days.
That must be a terrible feeling, I'm glad you're all ok.
Very nice homage to the victims, this sunset is really beautiful.

gneufeld (15235) 2008-05-28 17:02

Hi John,
Great family sort of day cut abruptly by disaster. Our thoughts and prayers to you and yours. Blessings. Gerald

parbo (11026) 2008-05-28 18:00 [Comment]

Show Comment

gunbud (28163) 2008-05-28 19:16

Hi John,
This beautiful evening sky testifies that nature can change in a blick of the eye. Heart felt sorrow and prayers go out to all the victims of the sudden tornado. It is good to see your family is well.
Regards, Tom

UnTrained (0) 2008-05-28 22:36

Hi John,
bad news and we must be aware that nature is often taking some apart everywhere on our world. Maybe this could put us more together than divide us from each other. All my wishes with those who lost live and health or got other damage.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

gracious (20017) 2008-05-29 2:56

Hello John,
My heart goes to those who are affected by the tornado as we had seen from the TV around the world and am glad to know you and family are alright!
take care and god bless!
Tony

jemaflor (39759) 2008-05-29 3:23

Hi John,
Good idea for this so beautiful shot to tell us about these sad news in our country ... Impressive !

Buin (38280) 2008-05-29 8:40

Hallo John!
Thank you for this impressive picture and your sensitive note. I heard about this desaster in television here and I saw pictures. Horrible - but I think, men have to bear such events more and more often in the future.
It is getting warmer and warmer on earth - and warmth is nothing else than - energy!
Greetings - and take care!
Frank

evanrizo (456) 2008-05-29 8:58

Hi John,
So much I understood a very tragic and awful biome, and very pity. Also we can see that we people are so small and feckless in front of strong nature phenomenon.
I hope we people after all our biomes we will be foresighted.
Sorry for my English.

fulvio52 (8314) 2008-05-29 11:14

Hi John,
glad to hear you and your dear ones are safe.
My heart and thoughts are with all those folks affected by the tornado.
God bless y'all.
Fulvio.

jaywalker (12308) 2008-05-29 15:05

Hi John, I am glad to hear you & your family escaped the troubles, however my thoughts go out to all those that were effected by the tornado, & to the family & friends of the person who lost their life, you take care Wilson.

bakes888 (18353) 2008-05-30 2:18

Hi John. Thanks for not showing the devastation, I get more than enough of that on the news broadcasts. I understand the US is having one of the worst tornado seasons ever. I only hope it is a short season and quits real soon. Pleased to hear you and yours are all OK. Wonderful tribute photo.
Take care, Paul.

feather (50154) 2008-05-30 2:51

It is a dreadful situation and our thoughts are with the people affected by the tragedy. You must be thinking somebody "up there" had His eye on you to make you go the other way. With a near miss like that the situation must hit you even harder if that is possible. Good choice of image.
Kath

[2]

derek3755 (2341) 2008-05-30 10:42

Hi John

Nice to hear that you and your family are safe and well. Prayers go out to everyone affected by the tornado.

Regards
Derek

Charo (31811) 2008-06-01 15:22

Hola John,
Preciosa toma y bellísimo cielo con esa espectacular nube llena de color. Buen trabajo amigo.
Cordialmente
Charo

pboehringer (770) 2008-06-01 19:11

John,
glad that you got out of this so well.
Your image despite not showing the real tornado that did all these destructions gives the right background. Wonderful shpaed and colored clouds like these are exactly the killers and destroyers. I saw something similar to that last year in Oregon and was totally drawn to it, taking picures one after the other and thinking to myself "awesome thermal inversion" withouth thinking of the real danger that approached quickly and flattened the whole camp ground in 5 mnutes.
Peter

[2]

jimkilgallon (0) 2008-06-01 20:49 [Comment]

Show Comment

vbbreizh (2622) 2008-06-06 2:51

Hi John,
A beautiful shot but a tragic story.
All my wishes my friend,
regards,
Gilles

plimrn (19720) 2008-06-06 12:42

Hi John,
Events like this remind us that only health , love & joy are important; and that all any of us have is right now. I know what you mean about not posting images of other's devastation.
HLJ, Pat

jrj (34779) 2008-06-11 8:08

A fine photo John to go with this tragic description of the event that almost hit you and yours that day.
sometimes one may wonder how come that some are spared with just the smallest og margins. Wishing you all well.

Atousa (3466) 2008-06-13 21:28

Salam John,
Really sorry to hear about the bad news..and thanks to God that you n your family are all fine..tc
All the best, Atousa

batalay (21205) 2008-06-14 22:15

Hello John,

What a poignant note! And what an inspiring photograph. You reveal a kind and sensitive character, which usually comes through in all your notes.

Warm regards,

Bulent

jwmunro (6255) 2008-06-21 12:31

Hello John -

Boy, was that a storm. Here in Lakewood around noon we had huge TStorms building all around. I spotted one over Golden and told my wife that some place is going to get hammered with that storm cloud. I know this one was not the one that hit Windsor but every cell was a monster that day. Glad you and your kids were not hurt. This is a very peaceful image after the damage of the day and it is amazing what a little sun and some color can do. Well seen and captured.

Thank you for sharing.

John