This is surveillance footage from inside and outside a bank as an F5 tornado ripped through Parkersburg, Iowa Memorial Day weekend with winds exceeding 200mph. Several angles from the interior of the bank show windows exploding and debris flying in every direction. The exterior security camera captured the tornado leveling a house that was located across the street from the bank. No one was inside the bank at the time, though this series of storms killed eight people in the Parkersburg area.

Interior Bank Security Camera Footage - Weather.com

Exterior Bank Security Camera Raw Footage - Weather.com

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This morning at 4:37am a magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook the Midwest and Southenrn Illinois. Local news channel WAVE-TV was on the air as their studio began to shake during the weather report. Its funny, as the weatherman nervously continues through his weather report as studio lights shake overhead and external cameras bobble around, and his female co-anchor considers hiding under her desk.

View Video [USA Today]

Additional videos from the studio [WAVE-TV]

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On Wednesday, February 20th, sometime around 9:36pm CST, (coincidentally, nearly the same exact time as the total lunar eclipse) the Navy successfully hit the decaying spy satellite USA-193 with a missile launched from a ship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

45-minutes ago from the AFP:

The US Defense Department said late Wednesday it had successfully used a ship-board missile to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite before it plummeted to Earth.

“At approximately 10:26 pm today (0326 GMT Thursday), a US Navy Aegis warship, the USS Lake Erie, fired a single modified tactical standard missile 3, hitting the satellite approximately 247 kilometers (133 nautical miles) over the Pacific Ocean as it travelled in space more than 17,000 miles (44,000 kilometers) per hour,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

The Pentagon reports that it could be 24 hours before they know if their primary objective, to destroy the large fuel tank full of toxic hydrazine propellant, was successful or not, though they do report viewing an explosion on impact.

Debris from the explosion will begin falling and burning up in the earth’s atmosphere immediately, and could continue for days. I don’t know about you, but if you’re in the projected ground path of where the satellite should have been, thats a ripe invitation to head outside and watch for an impromptu meteor debris shower over the next few nights.

On any accord, let’s pray to the Gods of All Things Awesome that somebody is going to share some video of the missile-on-satellite action. Please!

US shoots down rogue spy satellite - AFP

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President Bush has approved a plan by the Pentagon to use a Navy missile to shoot down the defunct spy satellite that has been falling from orbit since late January. Originally, the National Security Council considered letting the satellite re-enter the earth’s atmosphere on its own accord, betting on the fact that whatever small chunks weren’t burnt to a crisp would land harmlessly in an ocean or unpopulated area. Turns out, they don’t want to take that chance. “This is all about trying to reduce the danger to human beings,” Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey said in an AP story. I’d bet that its also about the fact that this is a spy satellite after all, and they can’t have that top-secret equipment, no matter how crispy, fall into the wrong hands.

No specific date has been set, yet it is probable that the window of opportunity to blast the satellite before it enters the atmosphere will be within the next two weeks. My hope is that they will let us know when to expect the “PEW! PEW! PEW!” action so we can all grab our lawn chairs and enjoy the fireworks.

The Associated Press: US Plans to Shoot Down Broken Satellite

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