I just wanted to share some thoughts with you all.
Saturday night Central Illinois was hit with several torandoes. We went into our basement and listened to the news with a battery powered radio once the power went out. It rained very heavily and then everything got quiet. There was a tornado reported south of us but it sounded like it would miss us completely. Needless to say we did not sleep well even after the tornado warning expired at 11 pm.
The next day I was driving to the Gym in the town just south of where I live. There was a particularly nice looking subdivision on that street where all the houses were brick with beautiful landscaping and concrete driveways. Not any more. Two houses were completely destroyed, only 2 or 3 walls left; three more were damaged but still livable, and a farmers barn across the road had been obliterated There was debris everywhere and every tree had been levelled. Luckily nobody was hurt. This was only 1/2 mile from our house.
I stopped to offer assistance and ended up spending the whole day with tractor and chain saw cutting up and piling up broken trees. And I was not alone. Hundreds of people drove by and rubbernecked but 20 or so stopped and offered assistance. At one time there were myself, my wife, 5 other guys with chainsaws, several neighbors, 15 or so random people who had stopped, and the families cutting trees and piling debris.
I wanted to share this as an example of people coming together to help those in need. During a break I asked the home owner who all those people were and he said he had never seen half of them.
Hopefully nobody reading this will never be tornado or other natural disaster victims. But if the unthinkiable happens I also hope that you live in communities like this one where strangers are willing to lend a helping hand.
JT
Saturday night Central Illinois was hit with several torandoes. We went into our basement and listened to the news with a battery powered radio once the power went out. It rained very heavily and then everything got quiet. There was a tornado reported south of us but it sounded like it would miss us completely. Needless to say we did not sleep well even after the tornado warning expired at 11 pm.
The next day I was driving to the Gym in the town just south of where I live. There was a particularly nice looking subdivision on that street where all the houses were brick with beautiful landscaping and concrete driveways. Not any more. Two houses were completely destroyed, only 2 or 3 walls left; three more were damaged but still livable, and a farmers barn across the road had been obliterated There was debris everywhere and every tree had been levelled. Luckily nobody was hurt. This was only 1/2 mile from our house.
I stopped to offer assistance and ended up spending the whole day with tractor and chain saw cutting up and piling up broken trees. And I was not alone. Hundreds of people drove by and rubbernecked but 20 or so stopped and offered assistance. At one time there were myself, my wife, 5 other guys with chainsaws, several neighbors, 15 or so random people who had stopped, and the families cutting trees and piling debris.
I wanted to share this as an example of people coming together to help those in need. During a break I asked the home owner who all those people were and he said he had never seen half of them.
Hopefully nobody reading this will never be tornado or other natural disaster victims. But if the unthinkiable happens I also hope that you live in communities like this one where strangers are willing to lend a helping hand.
JT
