I was in the Minneapolis tornadoes of 1965, living in the suburb of Fridley. Our house escaped damage except for a busted living room window, but just a few blocks on either side of us, the homes were reduced to matchstick piles. It’s unbelievable how a direct hit creates such devastation. A neighborhood ends up looking like a landfill that people have been dumping lumber in for years.

And it’s so damn arbitrary, even in the main tornado path. Houses sat almost untouched amid wreckage all around. Or a house lost its roof when those around it had no visible damage.