In the tornado zone

It's not exactly Joplin or Alabama, but Minneapolis residents had a tangle with a tornado on Sunday that left several neighborhoods in disarray.

It's been awhile since I've covered a storm of this magnitude. When you are ultra-local and your coverage area is small, you miss several of the big stories and working in a bubble is sometimes extremely frustrating. Even though the neighborhood was technically not in our viewing area, it was close enough for our residents and agencies to be impacted.

The disaster zone had many of the same characteristics that you will see in any disaster area: people gawking, lawmakers touring, chainsaws buzzing, police manning barricades, media crews swarming, and news choppers circling. Many people still seemed dazed. Lawmakers pledged to help. Good Samaritans arrived with water, food, muscle, and helpful attitudes. There will have been cleanup for days to come.

Thankfully in our small town, we are fine. We got hail and wind, but that's it.