Twister, anyone?

There were some rather fierce storms last night in Wisconsin. Sirens were going off about every few minutes, signaling tornadoes were in the area. There were a few sightings in our immediate area and one would have come right through here, had it not dissipated a town or two beforehand. A total of about two dozen tornadoes were spotted throughout the state just after most families were finishing up with their evening meals.

The news this morning of last night's events depict quite another story for other areas of our state. About an hour and a half southwest of us, near our capital city of Madison, the towns of Stoughton and Viola were hit hard. Reports indicate that in Stoughton, about 15 homes were completely destroyed and around 35 others have "moderate to severe" damage.

Residents of Stoughton were still cleaning up after a devastating fire to a local Lutheran church and Christian school when the twister hit the town. In Viola, the approximation of homes damaged is between 70 to 80 residences. A gas leak was also reported, forcing the evacuation of 200 residents in the Stoughton area. The death of one person has also been reported as a result of area tornadoes last night.

There were reports of semi tractor-trailers being flipped, pick-ups left upside down in the remains of homes, trees simply "laying down", and the roof of the local country club being torn off. The executive chef of the country club, true to Wisconsin form, was reported as saying ``We were ... hiding behind the bar, we had beer, anyway.''