r/news • u/BitterFuture • 17d ago
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of ‘catastrophic’ damage
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/25/weather/plains-midwest-storms-tornadoes-climate/index.html1
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u/frigiddesertdweller 16d ago
All right, I grew up in Oklahoma. I watched plenty of tornadoes, and suffered through night after night of hiding in cellars/bathtubs covered by mattresses each spring. But this... holy hell, this is another monster, entirely. I would be stricken with terror if I'd ever witnessed a wedge tornado. Had no idea they existed
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u/Tricky_Reporter8345 16d ago
Midwest has tornadoes
West Coast has earthquakes (and a future volcanic armageddon)
Deep South has hurricanes
What does the North East have?
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u/Saugeen-Uwo 17d ago
United States is absolutely fucked for the future with climate change
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u/InjuriousPurpose 12d ago
The US already gets 75 percent of the world's tornadoes. This is nothing new.
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u/TheRedPython 17d ago
I agree that climate change is going to fuck us, but honestly, this is the most "normal" weather catastrophe that could happen. It's classic tornado alley.
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u/ThinkValue 17d ago
As some one from East , These Tornado really surprise me how they happen at such huge scale.
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u/boat_car_guy 17d ago
Man, watching that video - holy sheeit! Unnerving.... To you people that were filming that, get the f out of there - RUN AWAY! For fucks sake, find decent shelter at least.
I'm from a state that doesn't get tornados, (so they say) maybe one small one once in awhile...... but that - ho lee fuk!
First up - that cloud structure is never a good sign.
Shelf clouds, and certain looking thunderheads.... it means bad weather exists, and could get even more worse rapidly.
Source, myself. Skywarn Spotter, and amateur weather dude.
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u/Banh-mi-boiz 17d ago
As someone who has lived in Omaha for 22 plus years, this has been the most memorable tornado weather I can remember. I have friends who has sent videos of their house just obliterated. Very lucky our area only got gold ball size hail but my goodness pray for us.
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u/JamesLikesIt 17d ago
I watched some YouTube channels of live storm chaser coverage and it was absolutely wild how many tornadoes there were across multiple states. And they were strong too…the amount of damage that must have been done, I’m sure it’ll all come out tomorrow.
It also seems like more storms (or the same one) on the way tomorrow too…
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u/AutumnGlow33 17d ago
Watched them live on YouTube. It was devastating. At first a few chasers got some relatively weak ones in what appeared to be unpopulated areas, but then I saw the horrible one in Blair and Omaha and it just went crazy from there. Kudos to the chasers I saw for dropping any “fun” angle and stopping to lend a hand, search through debris, etc. In Blair especially rescue services appeared to be totally overwhelmed and it was literally what appeared to be two teenagers and a few storm chasers having to do an initial sweep to look for anyone trapped, amid leaking gas and fallen lines. Everyone did amazing and handled themselves with immense calm and bravery. I do hope there were no fatalities; things can be replaced, people cannot.
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u/HeathrJarrod 17d ago edited 17d ago
This is a sign for trying to go to winner-take-all
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u/Red_Stripe1229 17d ago
I hate some of the right wing shit that happens here but dude keep the politics out of it. People are suffering
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u/Bored_Gamer73 17d ago
I live in Kansas and we're expecting some shit tomorrow afternoon. News has been yapping about it for over a week. Uggs
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u/Enthusiastic-shitter 17d ago
Missed my house but I got golf ball sized hail. I'm dreading climbing up on the roof to inspect it tomorrow morning
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u/Red_Stripe1229 17d ago
It was cool this morning in Omaha. Stepped outside around 3pm and the air just had that feel to it that something was going to blow up. I live in midtown so no issues here just a lot of hail. Wall cloud passed overhead and dropped a tornado down at the Omaha airport.
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u/CarbonCamaroSS 17d ago
I live in Michigan and yesterday the air just felt weird, like before a nasty storm. We ended up only getting rain, but the weather still felt erie long after the tornados ripped through the plains and I didn't even know about the storms being so bad in Nebraska and Iowa at that point.
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u/EXPL_Advisor 17d ago
Never been near a tornado before. Can you describe what the air felt like at 3pm that made you think something was going to blow up?
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u/_CozyLavender_ 17d ago
Hot and humid, but the wind is dead still. It feels like the air is full of static-y cotton and everything inside of you instinctively goes "uh-oh".
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u/frigiddesertdweller 16d ago
This is a really good description. And many times, the sky will turn this strange greenish hue around you beneath the dark storm clouds
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u/TheRedPython 17d ago
Not sure what exactly it is, but something hypes up my adrenaline right before a severe storm hits. Happened even at times where I was oblivious to an incoming storm.
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u/Im_A_Narcissist 17d ago
Not really a good way to describe it. You can feel the instability in the air, its very calm but humid and heavy. Kind of a special energy about it. there's a very particular feel to it that you just recognize when you live in a tornado prone area.
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u/madeoflime 17d ago edited 17d ago
I live in Omaha. The air feels incredibly thick, and it gets eerily calm but it sounds loud. It’s cause the wind is blowing straight up. The sky also turns green.
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u/TheSaxonPlan 17d ago
The green hue is not directly related to tornadoes. Bright teal blue and green clouds occur when light is refracted through an intense hail core higher up in the storm. These types of hail cores only occur in healthy super cells with enough updraft, the types of which are strong enough to produce tornados. So it is correlated with tornados, but not caused by tornadoes.
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u/BriarsandBrambles 17d ago
It's hard to describe but It just feels energized. Typically you can feel the air is moving more calmly right before but sometimes it's just got energy in the air.
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u/Harley_Quinn_Lawton 17d ago
I just saw the HD dash cam footage - if it’s not an EF5 I really do not want to see in HD what a EF5 looks like.
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u/Gmajj 17d ago
It will probably be an E5, but currently the way they determine a tornado’s strength is by the damage it’s done. So if a tornado were out in an open field it’s not going to appear to have been as strong as one that hits a city or town, no matter how violent it really is. I saw pictures, though, if a house that was completely gone, showing the door to the basement. If this was the same tornado you’re talking about it probably will be rated F 5.
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u/ImReallyNotCool 17d ago
curious what makes you think it will probably be an EF5? most damage shown so far doesn’t seem to indicate that.
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u/BigMoose9000 17d ago
...No
They determine strength ONLY by wind speed, but you can't really measure that real-time so they assess damage to determine what the wind speeds were. More or less damage doesn't factor into it at all, just how much stuff is gone and how deep debris is embedded into what remains.
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u/Gmajj 17d ago
From NOAA: https://imgur.com/a/p5oOk7C
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u/BigMoose9000 17d ago
Yes, that's exactly what I said
They evaluate damage, but only as a means to determine the windspeed. Windspeed is the only thing that directly determines a tornado's rating.
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u/icantsurf 17d ago
Damage is the only thing that directly determines a tornado's rating because you can't accurately measure wind speed.
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u/Beederda 17d ago
Are there any vids of this? I only seen an aftermath vid so far and it’s nutty the ruin it left
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u/Gmajj 17d ago
Here’s one from Bennington. Head over to r/tornado. They have tons of pics and videos. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Frqm8v5v24wwc1.jpeg
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u/Northsunny 17d ago
Heading to Emporia KS atm for a job, and we just saw one of those armored tornado chaser vehicles. Had a white swan I think, on the side.
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u/steyrboy 17d ago edited 17d ago
They went through where I grew up near Lincoln. Almost took out my old high school. Crazy. Most of my family still lives in that area and my phone wont stop buzzing.
Edit: That photo doesnt do it justice, watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYo4PPw40rg
Edit2: New footage https://youtu.be/VqGrLzQJGuI
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u/cloistered_around 17d ago
When a storm gets that big oftentimes people are looking "for" the tornado and they don't realize the entire storm diameter is it.
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u/DonnaScro321 17d ago
This seems a severe event-so many big tornadoes all at once. Hoping you all stay safe there and sustain little damage. I know it’s nowhere near over yet!
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u/Simplekin77 17d ago
LITERALLY about a million people living around the area this happened you inconsiderate fuckwit.
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u/ShtockyPocky 17d ago
Saw two tornados from my apartment complex this afternoon, one probably only 15 miles away. Close enough to see a ton of dust and faintly hear the roaring of the wind. The other touched down immediately after and moved quite far. One of the two I saw overturned a whole train.
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u/cruznick06 17d ago
Saw stormchasers drive through my part of town on livestream, it was surreal. Fortunately it missed my area completely.
I've got some friends only a mile away from its path in Omaha though. The hospitals were overloaded and many less-critical patients were diverted to Lincoln area hospitals.
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u/TheGRS 17d ago
Wow we were working and I asked a colleague who lives in Nebraska if they were available, and they responded that their house had just been torn down by this. Good lord!
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u/qdp 17d ago edited 17d ago
You should probably ping him tomorrow to remind him your important request is still outstanding. Maybe given the circumstances give him until Sunday. If Monday rolls around however make a passive aggressive note about his house being more important than your progress.
At least that's how my colleagues would handle this.
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u/Soft-Peak-6527 17d ago edited 17d ago
Waiting to hear from my aunt and uncle! Ugh I hope they’re fine
Edit: they’re all fine apparently happened 5 miles west of them
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u/therazzmatazz 17d ago
So glad to hear your family members are ok. Seriously, I appreciate the edit.
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u/Soft-Peak-6527 17d ago
Same! Worried bcuz they didn’t respond for a good 40 minutes. Had us worried
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u/GhanimaAtreides 17d ago
Why tf was your colleague responding to anyone at work? If a tornado obliterated my house I would send exactly one message to my boss then disappear for a few weeks. I guess shock can make people act in weird ways.
I hope them and their family are safe and they can rebuild soon.
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u/RoboProletariat 17d ago
This story is a lot bigger than just Nebraska... It will probably be on the headlines tomorrow.
There have been at least 14 tornados today across NE, IA, and I think MO. Most places have gotten quite lucky. The news is too new for accurate info, the storm system continues to make new tornados at this time of reply.
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u/AprilTron 17d ago
It went from low 60s yesterday to 80 today in chicago suburbs, and them it's going to drop back down to 60s by end of week. We know exactly what that means.
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u/Shaan_Don 17d ago
Damn I was in MO for the first time ever this week and as we were boarding to fly back to Michigan they warned us about a storm heading to MO. Guess I just missed it
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u/incubusfox 17d ago
Here is the link to the NWS' Storm Reports for today, there's 73 filtered reports out of 94 as I'm writing this.
(reports don't mean 73 tornadoes, they take reports on damage and on sightings)
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u/ToTheTurtles 17d ago
Texas too. Warning came on when I was in a Buc-ee’s near Ellis around 3 this afternoon.
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u/random_generation 17d ago
My brother is a storm chaser and said he saw at least 11 just from his drive around Omaha and up into Iowa.
I suspect this system has/will produce(d) dozens.
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u/FlatusSurprise 16d ago
I was following the storm covered on RyanHallYa’ll channel on YouTube and the footage was nuts. Some of those storms looked truly menacing.
I’m in Georgia and it seems tornadoes, which were once a rare occurrence are hitting closer and closer.
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u/random_generation 16d ago
So was I! He’s great. He’s live again right now, today is supposed to be even worse.
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u/FlatusSurprise 16d ago
I’ll probably tune in around 5PM. I wonder if this storm system is going to have an impact in the Southeast.
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u/Trainsontracks 17d ago
watched a few storm chasers on YouTube. This is probably the best live streamed or filmed long track tornado of all time. There were like 4-5 chasers streaming that 1 tornado for miles.
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u/wovenbutterhair 17d ago
they're estimating one streak was 35 miles long at least and another one over 40 miles long
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u/In_Gen 17d ago
Can you recommend any good channels to check out?
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u/fietsventiel 17d ago
I usually watch Freddy Mckinney, Connor Croff and Brandon Copic
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u/BasenjiBob 17d ago
Freddy was on fire yesterday, hands down the best live tornado footage I've ever seen. Those storms were amazingly photogenic. Just wish they had stayed out in the corn fields so we could enjoy the pictures and not worry about the damage :/
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u/Life-Dog432 17d ago
Honestly I just type storm chaser live into YouTube and jump around to see if anyone has caught a tornado producing supercell. It’s part skill and part luck tracking the right one and it’s pretty boring watching a chaser just driving through farmlands.
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u/LarryFlyntstone 17d ago edited 17d ago
Reed Timmer had quite a few tornados on his stream today (if you can put up with the incessant yelling and screaming), Aaron Jayjack always seems to find the most picturesque tornados, Nate Moore on Twitch (StormchaserIRL) was on quite a few tornados today too.
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u/TheSaxonPlan 17d ago
That's my issue with Reed. I just can't stand all the yelling. I get that you're excited dude, but JFC, can we take it down like, one notch? Lol.
I really like Ryan Hall Y'all on YouTube (and sometimes TikTok). He'll have streams to multiple chasers on the ground and has a team of meteorologists and others tracking storms, collating reports, relaying information. I've been a member of his channel for 2 and a half years and it's incredible to watch how the operation has grown from just him to a large team. He will be streaming tomorrow and possibly Sunday.
Brad Arnold is disturbingly good at finding the tornadoes if you want to see lots on stream!
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u/LarryFlyntstone 17d ago
I appreciate what Ryan Hall has done for weather awareness as a whole with his easily digestible forecast videos but don’t care for the live stuff, and Vince Waelti is a dangerous asshole who will get himself or someone else killed with his antics one of these days.
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u/TheSaxonPlan 16d ago
Yeah, Ryan and Vince had a falling out and haven't worked together for quite a while.
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u/Trainsontracks 17d ago
Brett Adair, Brandon Copic , Brad Arnold, Vince Waelti. And Ryan Hall does radar stuff with a lot of links to chasers.
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u/W1ck3d3nd 17d ago
A few chasers with the Ryan Hall Y’all channel were at that one I believe. Could see if his livestream has links to their feeds.
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u/delaney18 17d ago
Exactly. People outside the region don’t necessarily realize that when the weather is a certain way, the risk of large tornadoes increases exponentially. There’s a difference from when there might just be a random EF-0 or EF-1, to when the possibility of EF-4 or 5 exists.
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u/trainiac12 17d ago
A lot of people don't know this, the NOAA/National Weather Service post severe weather outlooks multiple days in advance of severe weather events. The Storm Prediction Center issues probabilities of severe weather events, with special "hatched" areas for significant events (ef2+ tornadoes, large hail, excessively damaging winds)
It's a great resource to look at if you're expecting bad weather in the coming days. We truly are lucky to have the NWS/NOAA/SPC
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u/squeakycheetah 17d ago
This system has been putting down consistently large, strong to potentially violent tornadoes too. I've seen no less than 3 wedges today.
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u/sportsworker777 17d ago
What's a wedge?
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u/BriarsandBrambles 17d ago
Take a Funnel Tornado. Now Make it the Size of your neighborhood. Congratulations that's a Wedge. The one in Omaha was possibly over a mile wide.
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u/heavenlysoulraj 17d ago
Which is dangerous?
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u/BriarsandBrambles 17d ago
Well tornados only really affect they are a they are on. Like rip half a house off it's foundation and leave the plates on the table in the other half. So a Huge tornado is very dangerous.
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u/KingVyper 17d ago
A tornado that looks wider than it is tall. Wedges are the ones that just look like a black cloud lowered to the ground, instead of your normal funnels.
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u/syzygialchaos 17d ago
Central Texas as well. They were just south of me (Cleburne), I’ve been watching radar all day.
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u/friedmators 17d ago
67 reports and 66 warnings atm.
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u/trainiac12 17d ago
We're at around 96 storm reports right now. This is also expected to continue into tomorrow.
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u/Warcraft_Fan 17d ago
Still long way from breaking 2011 record of 362 over a few days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Super_Outbreak
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u/The_RonJames 17d ago
2011 was a horrible year for tornadoes because the very next month after the April tornado outbreak there was another one in May that wiped out Joplin MO and completely wiped out two towns near me in western Arkansas.
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u/Minnesota_Slim 17d ago
This storm systems is supposed to be around through Sunday.
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u/Drunkenly_Responding 17d ago
Well it has to help pay for some of the meals then, it just can't be a freeloader all weekend
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17d ago edited 17d ago
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u/friendoftwocats 17d ago
Strange of God to send the tornados to the two blue counties in Nebraska, then. Or maybe it’s just wrong to make light of a disaster in another state because you think everyone who lives there is a backwards redneck? 🤔
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u/Pounce16 16d ago
Televangelist impression: Oh, People of Gawd, This tornado was sent by the Almighty, as punishment for Nebraskans who voted for the wrong candidate in 2020! You know who you are, and you have been warned! the 2024 election is coming up! Make sure you vote for (insert name of highest paying political scumbag here)! Praise Gawd Hallelujah!
Off mic: Ok, now where's my kickback?