Massive tornadoes rip trough my city, surrounding cities

[m0de]

[quick edit: My location displayed on ffr says Joliet, although im actually from wilmington/coal city. Its just easier to say joliet.]

At around 11:30 am this morning, a massive storm rolled through my city. 30 minutes after the storm hit, the tornado sirens went off. My girlfriend and I took shelter in my bathroom seeing as I dont have a basement. You could hear the wind and debris hitting my house. It only lasted for about 5-10 minutes, but felt like hours. Once things calmed down, I looked outside to find lots of downed branches, and scattered debris. Nothing too serious, but it was pretty scary. There was no real damage to my house, or any other house on my block.

Later I had found out that the tornado took out a restaurant in my neighborhood, along with gas stations, a tobacco store, and several other businesses. All these businesses were only around 7 minutes from my home. I was mere minutes away from the path of this massive tornado! Below are some pictures of the damage it caused.

heres a link to a video of the same tornado that passed minutes from my house. here it moved north of me a bit, and I wasnt in any danger from its path anymore:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202389496883830










and heres some of the aftermath:


this was a sports bar. i was here with my girlfriend not long ago.





a bedroom of a house completely exposed














that hole is the basement of the house where the family took shelter. they had to climb through the ruble to get out...





once they got out, this is what the saw








my thoughts and prayers go out to all of the families. very sad.