Apologies to Piglet. You may, if you wish, thwack me mercilessly with the VLF. When I first began working on genealogy I quickly skimmed the sections of Goodspeed and other county histories relating to weather, etc. Ho-hum. But I’ve come to recognize these events as signposts. (Not exactly a light bulb tuning on -- more like a bolt of lightening that awakened me!) I live in Springfield, Mo, in a area between the storms. Sunday I heard the bulletin on the radio regarding a probable tornado near Granby. It was expected to reach Verona by (around) 7:30 and Springfield by (around) 8:10. Another storm was reported in Dade and Cedar counties. I sat on my front steps facing west, watching the approaching storms and listening to the radio. There was almost immediate coverage of the storm that hit Stockton (Cedar County) reporting that the entire downtown was destroyed, all five schools were damaged and the court house there suffered structural damage. Friends of mine were at their cabin at Stockton Lake and knew absolutely nothing about the events until their son called from Springfield. At my residence there was heavy rain for about 10 minutes but no wind and no hail. I was concerned about the lack of information coming from Lawrence County. Somehow the phrase “no news is good news” was ringing very hollow. I tried to reach my sisters in Aurora but “all circuits were busy.” When I finally reached a sister at 11:00 pm she said they hadn’t gotten a drop of rain from the storm and hardly even a breeze at their house. As the storm was hitting Battlefield (where both the police station and the fire department were destroyed by the storm) I could see the ugly black storm clouds to my north and south but the western sky began to clear. I watched a large flock of birds take to the air and begin flying in vortex pattern across a beautiful clean blue western sky. They stayed in the air in that tornado pattern until the storm south of us had nearly passed into Webster county. There were a few cumulus, bleached a stunning white by the sun and then shaded pink as the sun began to set. Debris began to appear in the sky as if it had just popped through some kind of space warp. Pieces of concrete, insulation, aluminum siding, magazines, bills and bank statements rained from the sky across Springfield. The mail was from Monett, Verona, Marionville and as far north as Lamar. Much of it was coated with ice. Officials said the debris has been carried so high that it might take a couple of hours before it had all fallen. One 1996 cancelled check from Stockton ended up in Columbia, Mo. We had evidence of the destruction pummeling our neighborhoods before official reports or newscasts gave us much information about Lawrence county. The Lawrence County Chieftain and the Monett Times will have excellent coverage of the event. Today’s Springfield Leader has 17 pages of storm coverage. I’m certain many of the residents of the areas hardest hit are grieving over the loss of historical buildings and documents. I’m also sure they are burdened with the pressing weight of immediate needs such as restoring power and communications, safety, shelter, clothing, food and water. They have friends and family, livestock and pets to bury. Miles of fence are in need of repair because surviving livestock wander the county. One sign north of Aurora reads “Help Or Go Away” because the roads that can be traveled safely are congested with sightseers. Now, picture the storms before Red Cross, Salvation Army, Homeland Security, etc. Judy