"It's a Twister!"

My assignment, before my "canon law odyssey" began, was as pastor of two parishes about thirty miles from Louisville in Meade County, KY (St. John the Apostle in Brandenburg and St. Martin of Tours in Flaherty). Two wonderful parishes with wonderful people. Brandenburg is known locally as Kentucky's version of "tornado alley." It seems that whenever there is nasty weather, it is nastiest down that way. Something about the location on the Ohio River, people say, funnels (no pun intended) all the bad weather right there. This reputation was well-earned with the tragic tornado outbreak of Spring 1974, which literally wiped the better part of Brandenburg off the map.

Well I came across some video I shot the morning of Ash Wednesday of 2008, when a relatively small (estimated F1 - F2) tornado struck again. Hiding in the basement with my dog "Sadie," I thought the roof was coming off at one point, which makes me imagine what going through a big tornado must be like. We lucked out: no one was hurt and the only damage the town sustained was that which could be repaired (LOTS of roofs needing to be replaced and LOTS of trees needing to be cleaned up). A few buildings were completely destroyed. Check it out:



Well, all these memories were sparked by a recent impressive photo that a former parishioner sent me that was taken of a funnel cloud over Brandenburg in a storm that hit earlier this month. Check it out: