"The Sky Just Exploded"

"The sky just exploded. There was debris everywhere. When it went across the road and it hit all the ouses over there...it was something you can't explain. It just exploded."

Those were the words of David Murray who was traveling home on Hwy 51 from Stoughton to McFarland yesterday when a tornado crossed the road in front of him and took out a line of houses on the town's north side. Between Stoughton and Oregon the Ace farm was a heavy casualty -- the buildings are gone, crops flattened, but though damaged, the house miraculously still stands. "Huge corrugated steel grain bins appeared to have been squeezed like beer cans and shoved hundreds of feet" says the Wisconsin State Journal in one report of the tornadoes. Debris from Stoughton was carried nearly 60 miles away to Waukesha County, and one man in Stoughton said he found receipts from Madison stores in his backyward.

In the village of Viola on the Richland-Vernon county line in southwestern Wisconsin (west of Madison), nearly every tree was felled, power lines were down, and about 80 homes destroyed. They have not yet ascertained whether that damage was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds. Towns of Baraboo, West Baraboo and Rock Springs were also communities that lost power. Authorities say it could be days before it is completely restored, the first priority being ruptured gas lines and live wires.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that at least people in this state know what's important during such severe circumstances:

"We saw stuff flying and basically buried our heads," said [Lenny] Peaslee, who was cooking steaks [at the Stoughton Country Club] when somebody shouted to get in the basement. He said some guys grabbed their beers as they raced down the stairs.
"They thought it might be their last one," he said. "They wanted to have one in hand."

Some days it pays to have a sense of humor. Yesterday was definitely one of those days.