Check out this news story... http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/19683459/detail.html. The "mall" was Southlands mall, about 4 miles from our house. We were there. We had lunch, then stopped by a few stores. It started pouring down rain while we were in Wal-mart, but had actually let up a bit when we left. Then we stopped by Bed, Bath & Beyond in search of a soap holder for the new shower (more about that soon!)....We weren't in the store for 5 minutes when the tornado sirens went off and they started making announcements for us to go into the "shelters" aka bathrooms & storage closet. Of course we kept looking around as we slowly made our way up towards the front.
Fifteen minutes later the back window was shattered out of my Jeep, a huge piece of metal from the roof scratched the side & hail pounded down relentlessly. As soon as they would let us out of the back room we decided to brave it and head home. Thank goodness! Shortly afterwards the Police & Fire departments had the whole area blocked off (we passed them on our way out of there!). Based on the news, we're convinced even more damage happened after we left. The place was just a disaster. The shopping cart corrals were thrown all over the place. Some cars had literally been moved or even flipped over. Metal roofing was wrapped around light poles like paper ( I thought it was at first!). The ride home was super loud with all the hail, but we were so glad to get out of there and finally get home. Luckily the hail at home had not been nearly as severe and the tornado never made it that far.
Although my precious Jeep baby did get slammed in that parking lot, we know the damage could have been sooooo much worse! This is what we have to deal with:
Woah! We got rain in Highlands Ranch and could see the dark clouds to the Northeast, but had no idea there were tornadoes in it! That must have been so freaky! I'm glad you're both okay! ~Sarah C
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