St Louis Tornados

It's never dull around here.. Arrived at our daughters home outside St Louis Thursday evening.. Long and uneventful trip.. dog was great, suffered in silence..
We had bad thunderstorms thru that evening, but nothing like the nexty day...Good Friday!! Mid-afternoon, tornado and thunderstorm warnings were flying.. About 7:00, things really started to get serious..
We were watching the weather Channel constantly and having live reporters in the area is never a good sign!! They had a projected path of the advancing storm cells, and our Edwardsville was in the center of the path!!
Reports started coming in of tornados touching down across the Mississippi in Missouri.. still right on that projected line!! Crossing to our side of the river, touchdowns were reported coming closer and closer, some reported damage right where our son-in-laws manufacturing facility was located.. Our skies were darkening. and Edwardsville was mentioned by one of the reporters as being right in the path!! Now, that's scary!! Watching the progress of the storms, it was zeroing in on us!!
The kids have a finished lower level game room and that was our destination.. I took the wine and dog blankets downstairs and down we went..
We continually watched the weather channel and local coverage.. the rain was pelting down, then the sirens went off!! Very eerie!! wind suddenly picked up and swirled and howled.. then complete quiet!!! It was all over in the space of a minute!!
According to reports the next day.. the tornado went over us, but never touched down!! It had been sporadically touching down all along its path, and we were lucky enough to get passed over.. It was later determined it was an F4 tornado, only one level from the most damaging..
Seeing the extensive damage the next day, it was a most sobering reminder of how lucky we were..
Our Easter dinner was delicious.. ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and deviled eggs.. cherry pie for dessert..
Hitting the road for home tomorrow.. expecting more rain here.. get us home!!!