A VIKING IN OL' KENTUCKY: It's A Twister!

During my stint in Louisville, I've had my fair share of tornado warnings.

Spent a couple hours in the basement a few times. Probably about four times we actually went to a basement. Only once did a funnel actually touch down.

But on June 22, away from safe at home in UP, I recieved an alert text from UofL warning me of a tornado. Definitely forgot that those were still active, and getting a tornado warning text was a little strange at first.

But unlike any of the ones I was through, this one touched down and actually caused some damage to the campus near the football field and some barns over at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. The tornado was reportedly an EFO, which means it was going about 105mph.  After all my pals said they were okay, I got some relieving news that could have been a lot worse. Eight barns were damaged; some roofs were completely caved in. About 100 horses are displaced, but miraculously not one person or horse was harmed. The pictures are pretty scary.

One of the barns hit was where old-timey trainer Jinks Fires keeps his horses. A hard-knocking guy, he has always been a good trainer but not great. This year one of his horses, Archarcharch, shocked the racing world when he won the Arkansas Derby, and later became one of the favorites in the lead up to the race. Unfortunately the horse broke his leg in the Derby, and finished near the back. He is now standing at stud. Huge disappointment, he is a very talented horse and very easy to look at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg7ORXu-7Rw

Jinks is a very easy guy to talk to, so seeing his barn destroyed was hard to look at.

Here’s hoping that Churchill Downs is able to bounce back quickly, and racing can resume and the horses can all return safely!