Storms

I am sitting here thinking about how fortunate I am to have my life, home and family. Last Tuesday I experienced a tornado through our neighborhood. The tornado was an F3 at one point and they figure it changed to an F1 by the time it hit my area. I am grateful!

The sirens were going off as I was driving home from work. After a few minutes the wind was increasing so I headed to my basement. I reached the bottom step and heard a swoosh sound and I felt like I was lifted by pressure. After praying, I sat and waited. It sounded like 500 people were upstairs pounding on my floor. My ears were popping and then it was silent.

I carefully walked up to see what had just happened. I looked out my glass door and was horrified what greeted me. Trees split in half. Some on the ground, some on top of homes. My first thought was my neighbor who is blind. She had a part of a tree on her home. My phone was not working well at that moment which made it all the more tense.

Every window I looked out trees were everywhere. Uprooted and scattered. Our street was blocked by trees and downed power lines. I talked to my neighbors all were ok, but in shock. We went to my blind neighbors house and covered a window that had broke and cleaned up the glass. It wasn't until later I realized none of our trees had fallen and our damage was minimal. Some of our neighbors weren't that fortunate.

First I want to post a shout out to the many, many crews, businesses and people who stepped up to help. It doesn't seem huge to offer a cup of free coffee, but when your cold from no power and have just experienced this tragedy it's a wonderful offering.

Second I now know what to do and not do whenever anyone goes through this. Basically reach out. A text of "are you ok?" is great, but "do you need anything?" would have reached a little further.

Why do I write all this on our blog? It is about being in a community of loving and helpful people. I saw this in volunteers and workers I didn't know. No essential oil will cover the multitude of kindness and bonds I experienced after the storm. I have an awesome God and am surrounded by some pretty great people.

"How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!" Psalm 147:1