A Recovery From Disaster

Greg and I went to West Liberty for 3 days to see where we could plug in to try to help the wonderful folks there. The generous members from our church sent us on our way with our Vue packed so full of food, clothes, blankets and toiletries that we hardly had room for our little suitcases, it was awesome!!!!!! We arrived Friday, and knew it was going to be a shock to our systems to see the damage. I thought I was prepared, but I was wrong. I had seen the pictures and the footage, just like I had seen of so many towns before. But, I had never seen it first hand, nor had I seen it happen to a place that I love. As we got into town, I was speechless, and really all I could do is sob. I saw the beautiful downtown churches, reduced to piles of brick. The adorable downtown full of quaint shops and charm with the roofs ripped off, broken windows and crumbled walls. The restaurant where our cousin was working when the tornado hit, was nothing but a foundation and a few half walls. The huge trees all over town split like toothpicks. Then we pulled into Granny's house to see how little was left of what she and Papaw Johnson worked their whole lives for. It was all surreal, to the point that you can hardly comprehend what you are looking at. After lots of tears and hugs, we got to work digging through the rubble to see what we could salvage. So many wonderful people ~ Wayne and Connie along with their friends, Tonya and Riley, Uncle Ira, and many others, had already helped Patty salvage so many precious things from the house. Lots and lots of pictures, photo albums, cook books, quilts, kitchen pots and pans. So many things that could not have been replaced, even Papaw Johnson's collage diploma and discharge papers from WWII! We found several more items during our search. Then we headed to the site where the Southern Baptist Church had set up a disaster relief center and took our donations from our church there.
On Saturday after spending more time at the house cleaning up, we went to Woodsbend, a nearby small town where Greg's dad grew up, to see if the old farm he was raised on survived. It did, but many neighbors were not as lucky. Just up the road, my friend and Aaron's teacher Jenny Vance's aunt and uncle lost their lives in the twister. We then headed to cousin Connies, to start sorting through everything that had been pulled out of the house during the week. We saved, sorted and pitched things for hours, and things are much more organized now. Thank you Connie and Wayne for storing everything in your barn!
Sunday we met with the insurance adjusters for a few hours, getting all of that squared away before we headed for home. I got to see and hug almost everyone I wanted to, it was just so good to see them all alive and well. The amount of people coming in to help from all over is amazing! 3 men showed up in the yard from Lexington with chain saws, asking if they could help chop up the downed trees for us for no pay. They just wanted to be a blessing to anyone they could. The love for the town is coming out in the hard work everyone is doing, and it is encouraging, to say the least! In all honesty, I didn't want to come home yet. There is simply too much to do. But, we will be back soon. A big thanks to Aunt Paula for staying with Aaron while we were gone!