We live in Kansas…so I guess it was inevitable.
Even so, I never dreamed the events of last night would really happen. But they did, and it was crazy, but pretty amazing at the same time.
Last night, I was photographing Katie and Chris’s gorgeous wedding in Salina (full wedding blog post will come soon). All day, we’d been battling wind and rain, and we’d heard that tornadoes might make an appearance in the evening. Katie and Chris were AWESOME and totally embraced the attitude of “We can’t do anything about it, so why freak out?” They were so calm and easy-going about it all.
Shortly after arriving at their reception, the DJ announced that there was a tornado headed our way and that we all needed to take shelter in the basement locker rooms and golf club cart storage rooms. All 200+ guests and vendors headed to the basement of the country club, where we proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes waiting it out. I took a photo of the bride and I while we were hunkered down, talking about how great this story will be for their kids.
Wasn’t Katie a beautiful bride?!
Everything passed very anti-climatically, and we were all so thankful. Dinner and dancing resumed, and everyone had an amazing time. Just as my time there came to an end, I received several texts and voicemails from my family telling me to get out of Salina now or to spend the night there. I chose to speed home.
After I’d been on the highway about an hour, surrounded by crazy fast winds and un-ending lightning, I found I was sandwiched in between storms, and there was a second one headed towards Salina, and one on the way to Wichita. I made sure my husband Adam and baby Sutton were safe in our basement and stopped midway between the storms in Newton, where I ended up having to stay the night to avoid driving straight into a tornado warning.
I heard reports that 80-90 tornadoes were confirmed in Kansas yesterday, with the biggest one touching down in Wichita. There was some damage, but thank God no one was killed. Salina inhabitants were lucky as well, and I got a couple texts from Katie saying her night was fantastic and everyone was there good.
Craziness…but definitely a night no one will ever forget!
Even so, I never dreamed the events of last night would really happen. But they did, and it was crazy, but pretty amazing at the same time.
Last night, I was photographing Katie and Chris’s gorgeous wedding in Salina (full wedding blog post will come soon). All day, we’d been battling wind and rain, and we’d heard that tornadoes might make an appearance in the evening. Katie and Chris were AWESOME and totally embraced the attitude of “We can’t do anything about it, so why freak out?” They were so calm and easy-going about it all.
Shortly after arriving at their reception, the DJ announced that there was a tornado headed our way and that we all needed to take shelter in the basement locker rooms and golf club cart storage rooms. All 200+ guests and vendors headed to the basement of the country club, where we proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes waiting it out. I took a photo of the bride and I while we were hunkered down, talking about how great this story will be for their kids.
Wasn’t Katie a beautiful bride?!
Everything passed very anti-climatically, and we were all so thankful. Dinner and dancing resumed, and everyone had an amazing time. Just as my time there came to an end, I received several texts and voicemails from my family telling me to get out of Salina now or to spend the night there. I chose to speed home.
After I’d been on the highway about an hour, surrounded by crazy fast winds and un-ending lightning, I found I was sandwiched in between storms, and there was a second one headed towards Salina, and one on the way to Wichita. I made sure my husband Adam and baby Sutton were safe in our basement and stopped midway between the storms in Newton, where I ended up having to stay the night to avoid driving straight into a tornado warning.
I heard reports that 80-90 tornadoes were confirmed in Kansas yesterday, with the biggest one touching down in Wichita. There was some damage, but thank God no one was killed. Salina inhabitants were lucky as well, and I got a couple texts from Katie saying her night was fantastic and everyone was there good.
Craziness…but definitely a night no one will ever forget!
wow that was crazy! I can't believe you drove in that. Ours was an EF3 but the one up near Ellisworth ended up bigger at EF4, just nuts how many we had, I really didn't think they would be right! HA! I would hate to be away from my family during that time. Glad you were safe!
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