Sunday is the 8th Anniversary of the Windsor Tornado [VIDEO]

If you were anywhere near Windsor on May 22nd, 2008 it will most likely stick in your mind for quite a while. Michael Stone, who used to be our morning host, wrote about his experience that day.

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I remember I, along with most everyone else from the stations, was at a Greeley Stampede luncheon at Island Grove Regional Park.

I remember driving over on 392 to Highway 85 and the sky was an eerie orange. As I drove over the winds picked up and I had a feeling something was about to happen.

We got our lunches and had just sat down to eat when all the lights in the building we were in went out. It was also then our cell phones started ringing from those still back at the station that there was a Tornado Warning. All of us jumped up and took off immediately for the station.

We knew we needed to get information out ASAP. As I was driving back from Greeley on 392, I realized I was trailing the tornado and that it had gone straight over Windsor, where the studios are located. It was huge, and I'd seen my share of large tornadoes when I lived in Kansas.

I had no idea what to expect, but I was flying towards town at top speed. When I got to the eastern edge of town I was immediately diverted onto 257 and wasn't allowed on Main Street. I was just blocks from the station and had to make my way through a street full of debris on the road as I wound around through Water Valley to get back to the station. That's when I got my first look at the destruction. Overturned rail cars and damaged homes, some totally destroyed.

After eventually getting back to the station, we all realized the stations were without power. That's when we broke out our small generators to power the studios. The transmitters were still on the air with their location being Pierce.

As I sat in the studio that day watching a veritable army of emergency, police and National Guard pass by my studio window, I realized that while the damage and disruption of people's lives was significant we were fortunate that the tornado struck when it did rather than when folks were home from work and school. It could have been much worse.