This has to be the stormiest year I can remember, one of the worst years for tornadoes and severe storms ever. This weekend Sullivan hosted the 25th annual Meramac Community Fair and last night would have wrapped it up with entertainment by Alderwood Band followed by Craig Morgan. While the Alderwood Band was able to start off, Morgan never took the stage due to a large wall cloud entering the fairgrounds with some rotation at the base of it and chasing everyone from the fairgrounds in fear, just before dark settled in last night. Some of our firefighters observed it and said it appeared to come down within feet of the ground before raising back up into the sky and moving northeast. I was able to view a few photos of it taken by amateur shooters and have to admit it did have a scarey look to it.

While all this was going on, I was at work in fire dispatch in St Louis County last night and we had a rough night of storms as well. Just before the first set of many storms rolled through, a Burlington Northern Train derailed in Shrewsbury, one of the six cities I dispatch for, and damaged a trestle, setting off a chain of events that lasted all through the night for those of us in the dispatch center.

After dispatching a first alarm assignment of several trucks to assist the Shrewsbury Fire Department with the derailment and subsequent evacuation of several homes and buildings in the area, storms began rolling through our area from northwest to southeast and we saw heavy rains driven by wind and dangerous lightning in one storm after the other. The wind knocked down power lines and a few trees, some on to homes in the area, and the lightning set off several alarms in homes and businesses, prompting our center to dispatch firefighters and police officers to many calls for the next few hours. By 3 am, all of the firefighters were back in their stations for the remainder of the night, or so we thought…and a few minutes later, we received a 911 call from a resident of Clayton who told us her neighbors home was on fire…a large home and well involved with heavy flames…I dispatched a first alarm assignment once again and on arrival, the bat chief requested a second alarm and so we sent even more firefighters and equipment to the fire….and woke up a few fire chiefs as well. This call lasted until I was relieved at my post by another dispatcher and I was able to then drive home and get some rest….prob the longest and busiest night I have ever seen in several years there.

I took today off to hopefully go rockhunting, but was way too tired to do so today…but did manage to capture a nice sunset tonight…