Twister: SLC Edition

I'm sure some of my midwestern friends have their own tornado stories. I've got my own...and I grew up in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. 

Ten years ago today, I drove right through a tornado...and didn't even know it. I worked at a library in Salt Lake's Avenues neighborhood at the time. I remember it being a gloomy day as I left for work. At one point, I started to notice lots of debris flying through the air. My first thought was that a dumpster had perhaps tipped over. I was only a minute or so away from work when I looked my rear view mirror and saw a tree topple over into the street. "Wow, it's really windy," I remember saying to myself out loud. I wasn't nervous or scared. I was mesmerized more than anything else. Branches, leaves, boxes, a strange blue styrofoam (which I later learned came from a nearby construction site), and garbage was flying everywhere. Hail was coming down hard. I saw another tree fall over as I parked along the street in front of the library. I ran towards the entrance and saw my manager holding the door open screaming, "Hurry!" She closed the door behind me and said, "you're a lucky guy." "Why," I asked. "You just drove through a tornado." They were listening to a news bulletin on the radio. We closed down for the day and I slowly made my way home. Later that night I took my nephew Ricky and drove up to the state capitol building. These were some of the pictures I took. 

I remember people asking me why I kept driving through the storm. What else was I supposed to do? I didn't grow up with midwest psyche of "seek shelter." The possibility of a tornado was the furthest thing from my mind. Luckily, it all turned out okay.