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R.I.P. Billy

At what appeared to be a new level in a fantastic career, Billy left us with no warning. Funny how we used to watch info-mercials only when we were bored or suffering from insomnia. Billy made the world fun and better yet, really believed in people, encouraged creativity and was an all-around wholesome guy. It is hard to believe the number of people we all "knew" in one week.

Farrah

The world has lost a class act that left us all with many good memories.

T O U C H D O W N !

HE HE! Remember our film producer from Veritas Pictures in Canada? Many of you have heard the story of how he came to Nebraska and got his first taste of a twister a few weeks ago. Well, as luck would have it, poor James got it again.

Yep, yesterday afternoon we started to watch a storm system head into Ontario and guess what? TOUCHDOWN!

James quickly let us know that somehow he had inadvertently brought a little more home from Nebraska than he originally thought...wonder if he should have declared this at the border?

Another day on tour

Well, today we are at the Chillocothee, Illinois Library. Cheyenne still does not feel good after her bout with the heat yesterday but we are making through the day. The events have been strange, but good. Each event has been on a different subject (Tornadoes, Lightning Science and Research, Earthquakes, Home Disaster Kits, etc) and the folks are coming to every event! That usually does not happen. Usually they will come to one or two, but these folks are staying all day!

Cheyenne made an observation I have to agree with about this town- the people here seem very intelligent and seem to really want to learn things. That is sometimes (unfortunately) rare. I think that this libary has made a good impression on the town- you can tell the people here read a lot and we have met a lot of folks that home school.

Well, with all that said, we have one more event we are going to do and then it is back to the motel so Cheyenne can get some rest.

R.I.P. Michael

To our trucker friends...

Best wishes for safe travel guys. The past few days has been fun and we enjoyed meeting you! Get that wind farm stuff delivered and we'll see ya soon!

The tour continues...

We had the best day ever at the Gridley Library today. Gridley, Illinois was a GREAT place to be today! Many thanks to everyone that came out!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Cory and Jim worked the western half of Nebraska's storms while Jeff and pete followed the activity eastward until it petered out.
And we all live to chase another day...

A long week ahead on many highways

(Picture: Cheyenne on Route 66 in Lexington, Illinois)

8 days left in the Illinois tour. Eddy and Cheyenne hit old Route 66 today with stops in Lexington and Towanda. Back in Nebraska, all eyes are on the weather again as slight risks are sighted for the week. Greg and Marie were out late last night in the storms in Iowa leaving off where Eddy and Cheyenne took over until the storms died in the middle of the night. While in Iowa, reports are that the storms spawned up to 20 tornadoes last night as the skies grew dark.

While the threat of severe weather continues for Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, the team is going to stay on top of the forecasts with Chasing4Life chasers in Western and Central Nebraska, Central Iowa, Northern Illinois and Central Illinois through the end of the week.

The Killing Fields

This past week was incredibly revealing. During the recent storms, many of which were extremely severe and deadly, the baseball fields were full; or shall we call them "The Killing Fields"?
When a construction company has employees out in the field, policy and law require that those men and women are removed from the field when lightning begins to strike in the area or when the atmosphere turns tornadic and the area is in a warning. Not so with local ball games.
More than 5 times in the past week just in our own area we watched coaches and fans alike make the decision to continue to play ball after the area was in a tornado warning, in fact, one game was played after tornadoes were witnessed ON THE GROUND in the same county!
Phone calls made to coaches ON THE FIELD made no difference, and calls made to parents at the game brought no results either. Is this how important sports are? Is this really where America's mentality is when it comes to worshipping the almighty game?
These young boys and girls are out in the open fields trusting that their coach, their parents and even their local government will protect them!
I realize that there are Park Districts around the country with rules and procedures for use of parks for athletics and that this situation would never occur in those municipalities- I am referring to the absolutely insane mentality of those in rural areas that continued to play ball with stands packed full of parents and fans despite the NWS issued WARNINGS!
This will not be the last time this is brought up in a Chasing4Life blog, in fact, consider this the first installment of MANY as we begin to research and investigate just who has policies and who doesn't, who ultimately decides if our childen live or die, and what we can do in areas where ignorance, thus far, has truly been bliss...

A break?

Well, the storms have subsided for the most part and that means summer heat and office work and touring. This week the team will be regrouping a bit, working on everyday work and our Illinois continues throughout Central Illinois for one more week.

Exciting Week

By now you have all seen the footage of the Aurora, NE tornado. We could not be any more proud of our chasers, than we are right now. From the funnels that began clear out in Custer County to the EF1 in Gibbon to the EF2 in Aurora, we got it all!
Cathy beat the storm to Timberlake Camp after filming the tornado West of Grand Island, while Jim went live on the air with KRVN Radio. Meanwhile; Pete and Jeff stayed with it all and got great footage while broadcasting live through KHAS TV.
The consise reports, Steady camera work, Safe driving, and excellent forecasting all came together to show what an organized team can do. The chase was coordinated by Cory, Eddy, and Cheyenne throughout the night.
Nobody has had much sleep since then as the team has met with news media, assisted in damage reports and coverage, and continued to chase (Greg in Marshall County, Iowa in the mid-morning hours today and Eddy and Cheyenne in Illinois until mid-morning today as well.)
If you would like to see the footage from the Wednesday night storms, go to: http://www.severewxchaser.com/
Media inquiries should be directed to info@chasing4life.org

I'm ready for my close up...

While the team is getting ready for Thunder Run, they have also been spending a lot of time on camera. Veritus Pictures from Toronto, Canada has been here for a week filming a full-length documentary on the chase team called "Chasing With Heart". director James Buffin has made our lives an absolute blast this wek, but to be honest, it has been grueling as well. The hours have been incredibly long, and we are in awe of how much work goes into full-length feature film!

Today was spent out and about following a morning in Ravenna, Nebraska interviewing folks about historic storms at the Ravenna Senior Center. Last night we were at Central Community College presenting a special presentation entitled "Remembering The Lessons- The Grand Island Seven". The place was packed and we got to meet meteorologist Larry Wirth last night!

Yesterday morning we shot at KRVN radio in Lexington and cut severe weather PSA's.

We have Veritus out storm chasing, down in Kansas, at local resturaunts, shared our homes with him, covered hundreds of miles and...well, you'll have to wait for the release.

Tomorrow is a work day for the team, and Saturday we head out to Oconto, Nebraska for Thunder Run! Make sure you hit www.chaseteamfanclub.com and click on EVENTS or visit www.chasing4life.org and click on THUNDER RUN.

We'll check back in, folks, but it may be a few days! Stay safe this weekend.