Tornado!!!

I could barely believe it. Of course, at 5:30 it started raining. First, it was light, and shortly thereafter it was harder. I was glad that I had decided to take the subway in that morning. I wasn't feeling very well, and heard there might be rain during the ride time home. I thought best not to risk getting any sicker. My plan was to stop at the grocery en route home and pick up the necessary sicky items: emergency, tea, tomato soup, and grill cheese makings. And at 5:30 it started raining. Of course.

But then... the rain turned to hail, and I received a message from Notify New York for a tornado warning in Brooklyn for the next half hour. I figure it would be best to wait until the warning past, and avoid the tornado. Especially since the hail was getting bigger. Suddenly... the sky went BLACK. And then it went WHITE. And then the rain stopped. Upon exiting my work building, the trees in the courtyard were down:


After stopping for sicky supplies, I couldn't help but notice that there were fallen trees all the way home:



Just around the block from me, someone's roof was blown off:



Even my poor little trees didn't stand a chance against the wind:


Our courtyard was flooded:


And our rooftop was a mess:


For someone studying emergency management, it was such a trill to see all the effects of a tornado. I have never experienced one. I really cannot wait until I'm part of a team that works to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from these types of events.