Posted On: August 4, 2008, 3:01 pm CDT

Posted By: RB

Joe - the tornado couldn't have hurt the book. Someone checked it out last year and hadn't brought it back.

I just hope the book wasn't in one of the collapsed homes. It took the library literally years to find a book that had a Red Cross chapter. And a four-person Table of Contents. And an Index of cards. Judging by the librarian, it was the only thing with a spine under that roof.

But I did hear that the tornado twisted the blacktop pretty bad on the one paved road. Folks have been reported driving in circles until their gas tanks ran dry.

Luckily, school had been closed for the summer so most of the kids were at home. The four children in summer school were at a disadvantage, though. The chairs from the one-room schooolhouse were scattered over a quarter mile, and the teacher had to yell really loud to be heard by the furthest student.

The fire department didn't fare well, unfortunately. Most of the homes destroyed were the two-floor versions, and all the firemen had left was the ladder truck. They had to park 600 feet away from a fire last week just so they could extend the ladder to reach the blaze.

The sheriff has filed a Disability claim with the county. He claims every time he watches his emergency light rotate, he gets flashbacks. The Board denied the claim, stating that the sheriff shouldn't be up on top of the car when the light is active anyhow. But apparently that's where the saddle is.