The View from Inside the Storm – Firsthand Account of the 2012 Sweet Corn Festival Parade Storm [Video]

Rodney and I had a front row seat for the storm that ripped through Gibson County Tuesday evening. We were in the Sweet Corn Festival Parade.

I had the camera rolling for a blog about what it was like to "be" in a parade. We saw the storm clouds roll in, thought nothing of it. We even checked the weather radar with my cousin Chris Richardson, who was co-ordinating the parade lineup and had the "go, no-go" call for the parade.

Chris called the National Weather Service. They told him it was tracking to the Southeast. He called the Fire Chief, Jim Deffendahl, and told him to start the parade. That was just before 6pm.

And then the sirens went off. Watch the time on the truck radio. It's 6:20. We rode out the storm for five and a-half minutes. I have never seen that much hail, THAT LARGE, in my life. Yes, I thought it was a tornado, I watched the trees twist and bend. It was the most frightened I've been in a very long time. Yes, I muttered some very choice words.

The truck lost its windshield and its very dinged up from the baseball and golf ball-size hail. My car has a lovely circle on the windshield from the hail that hit it. I'm writing this from the parking lot of Denny's in Oakland City. We still don't have power and probably won't until sometime tomorrow. But you know what? That's ok, because we're all ok.