Member-only story
Loss and Gratitude After Tornado
How friends, neighbors and the church helped
A tornado touched down in my community last week. Unlike many natural disasters, a tornado destroys with surgical precision. I only lost my internet for 24 hours, while just a few blocks down, people lost their homes.
Among people in my church community, one of my friends had her car totaled by falling trees. Others lost power for a day or two. One family lost their home.
Their story was somewhat dramatic. The husband opened his front door, planning to go to the store, when he saw the funnel heading towards their house. He ran back inside, gathered his family, and got them all into a closet where they huddled through the storm. While their house was destroyed, no one in the family was injured.
While their insurance will cover the damage to their house, for the better part of the week they were homeless. My pastor and her family took them in.
Other members of the church as well as neighbors rallied to help not just this family but also others who experienced the effects of the tornado.
The church itself was in the path of the twister. So one of the first things that members with construction skills did was to make sure to shore up any damage lest things get worse. A community center across…
