Around 1:00am, this morning… an EF2 tornado that was 22 miles long and 400 yards wide, hit Branson, Missouri. As a local radio announcer stated, the tornado “acted as a tourist” and tore a path straight down the famous 76 Country Music Boulevard, and then down Main Street into Downtown Branson. It then bounced up over the Branson Landing and hit Mount Branson, in Hollister. Needless to say, there was a lot of property damage, and there were numerous personal injuries.
However, we were truly blessed, here in Branson Missouri. If this tornado had hit… only two hours earlier, I’m afraid there would have been a major loss of human life. That night, the Presleys’ Theater on the 76-Strip hosted an annual D.A.R.E. Program… it was packed. A mere three hours before the tornado came through, several hundred area students along with their parents, teachers, and a host of police officers, departed the theater. The jam-packed parking lot started emptying, between 9:30pm and 10:00pm. As those several hundred participants started leaving the theater, I feel quite certain that there was a traffic jam on the Strip (which is not a rare problem). I also feel quite certain that many of them stopped at Walmart, or Taco Bell, or at many of the restaurants that would have been open at that time. Even though the Presleys’ Theater was virtually untouched by the tornado, I simply cannot imagine the scenario… had this tornado passed down 76, at the time all of those people were headed home. Thank God the 76-Strip had cleared by the time the tornado hit. Yes, we were truly blessed.
The “season” for Branson, runs mid-March through mid-December. Even though some of the theaters were open, this early… and a few tourists were staying in the local motels and hotels, it was nothing like it’s going to be in a few short weeks. During the season, traffic is bumper-to-bumper on Highway 76… sometimes it’s at a near standstill, for hours. Sometimes, there are “no rooms at the inn”, for the scores of hotels and motels that are lined up and down the 76-Strip… especially during holiday weekends. I cannot imagine the devastation that would most certainly have occurred, had this tornado taken its path down the Strip on Memorial Day Weekend. Yes, we were truly blessed.
You know, we are shocked and we are saddened. A dear friend of mine no longer had a workplace, this morning. An online acquaintance was ready to move into her newly built home, in two weeks… it is now gone. But, sometimes, in the midst of disaster and sorrow, we just have to bow our heads and thank God… thank God for sparing us from what most certainly could have been worse.
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