Stunned silence

In Colorado here, we worry as much about tornadoes as much as we do hurricanes or earthquakes or maybe nuclear war.
So the mile-wide tornado that just tore through our neighbors yesterday didn't so much as destroy homes, although it did that, and flattened cars, although it did that too. It also stunned us, just completely reduced us to blinking, silent journalists as we worked on one of the stories of the century.
Yes, I'm fine, and yes, the family is fine, and yes, even our home is, thankfully, OK. A few miles down the road, people were not so fortunate, and that's what I covered this afteroon. I am completely, totally drained. I really don't even know what to feel.
I was a reporter in Kansas for a number of years, and I covered a few tornadoes that demolished homes, but I've never seen the kind of complete devastation I saw today. I've seen a home or two destroyed, but this was block after block after block of crushed homes.
I've said this before, but I'm always amazed at how generous people are during these events. All I had to do was show up with a notepad and people told me their stories. I really think they wanted to this time. I'd like to think it seemed to help. All I could do was sit there, take notes and shake my head.
I'm sorry, I said, and cursed how hollow it sounded, even if it was sincere.
You can check out over coverage today on our Web site. But as of right now, I'm going to go home.
And I'm going to hug my kids.