Disaster Relief - Pleasant Grove (con't)

Here are more of the pictures from the day Criss and I helped in Pleasant Grove.  One thing that struck me was the things we saw in the trees.  Below you can see someone's bedding.

This is one of several trees that had metal wrapped around it from the strong winds.  You can also see someone's shirt towards the top of the tree.
 

Just as the weathermen always tell us, if anything was left, it was the center of the house.

 

Look carefully at the closet in this final picture.  Everything around it has been destroyed, and yet, in the middle of it all sits this closet with all of the clothes still hanging in it.

What a perfect picture of our lives.  When life is in turmoil and everything is a mess around us, may we have the peace of God within us.

"He who dwells in the shelter fo the Most High

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord,

My refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust."

Psalm 91:1-2

Janel

Disaster Relief - Pleasant Grove

Sunday morning, Criss and I volunteered at a church in Pleasant Grove that is providing supplies, food, and other services to those affected by the tornadoes.  Here are some of the pictures I took of the area while we were there.

Sometimes a lonely driveway was the only sign that a house once occupied the ravaged parcel of land.  (Note the driveway to the left in the picture below.)



We were amazed by the mangled steel beems.

I'll have to post the rest of the pictures later.  Seeing it all in person made my stomach churn.  Continue to pray for all those affected by the storms.

Janel

The Aftermath - Alabama Tornadoes - Part 3

Tomorrow will mark one week since the tornadoes destroyed our area.  Power has been restored to the majority of the nearly 1 million households originally without electricity.  The death toll for our state is currently somewhere around 250, but hundreds are still missing.

It is hard to fathom the extent of the damage.  The news agencies continue to report on additional cities that have yet to make the news.  There are just too many to report.  Well-known cities, like Tuscaloosa, received immediate help, while it was several days before some of the smaller communities received assistance.  One scene from the movie Twister continues to run through my mind:

Joey:   Now, that was a good size twister. What was it, an F3?
Bill:   Solid F2.
Melissa:   See, now you have lost me again.
Bill:   It's the Fujita scale. It measures a tornado's intensity by how much it eats.
Melissa:   Eats?
Bill:   Destroys.
Laurence:   That one we encountered back there was a strong F2, possibly an F3.
Beltzer:   Maybe we'll see some 4's.
Haynes:   That would be sweet!
Bill:   4 is good. 4 will relocate your house very efficiently.
Melissa:   Is there an F5?

[Everyone goes dead silent]
Melissa:   What would that be like?
Jason 'Preacher' Rowe:   The Finger of God.

~ Twister quote taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117998/quotes

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness that we were spared.

After Wednesday’s storms, we spent the night at home (still unable to get out of the driveway due to the downed power lines).  The next day, someone from Criss’ work came to help him try to get his work truck out of the yard.  With the help of a 2x4, tree cutters, and a little tree climbing, they were able to fish the lines out of a tree so that we could leave the house. 

Songs from Louie The Lightning Bug continue to run through my mind.  When the lines first fell, I stressed to the children the importance of never playing around power lines.  Now that they’ve seen their dad climb a tree to knock them down and we’ve been driving over them for a week, I’ve resorted to stressing that in the future, they should never again be around or drive over downed power lines. J

Thursday morning, Criss headed to work while I got us packed for what I knew would be several days at Criss’ parents’ house.  That is another thing I am extremely thankful for – Criss’ parents live a county south of us, and they still had power.

Part of the problem with the power being out is that my kids have such unique health needs involving special diets.  Criss and I could live on dry cereal and bread for a while if we needed to, but the kids HAVE to have their special food or they can end up a total mess.  I was able to move their bread (that I special order from Florida 32 loaves at a time and keep in my mom’s freezer) and the 20+ bags of Silas’ chicken nuggets that I had just bought while they were on sale and get them to my in-laws’ freezer before it all ruined.

This is something that people rarely think about during crises such at this – the impact is has on children with special needs and their families.  I cannot even imagine having to stay at a shelter for even a day with my children.  There would most likely be absolutely nothing that Silas could eat.  If he was forced to eat whatever was available, he could be having those terrible screaming spells within a day or two – all while sitting in a shelter with hundreds of other people.  (Don’t you know they’d love us.  They’d probably take up a special collection just to get rid of us.J)

After four days without power, we were able to return home Saturday evening.  Autumn was finally able to return to school today.  Communication has been difficult, and I continue to hear reports of family and friends who have been affected by the tornadoes.

What are we to do when we are faced with such heartache and devastation?  The Bible tells us to focus on the truth (Philippians 4:8), but sometimes the truth is not pretty.  What do we do when (literally or figuratively) we have a mile wide tornado heading straight for us?  Is God any less good?  Is He any less in control?  Of course not!

There have been times that I’ve sat here waiting on results from the children’s doctors – results that could greatly alter the course of our lives.  I have learned that it’s not about denying reality and pretending like nothing’s wrong.  It’s about facing the hard realities of life head on and choosing to believe that no matter what the outcome, my God will get me through.  And with each new problem that arises, I choose to say, “God, even in this, I will trust You.”  It’s not about believing He will remove every storm.  It’s knowing He’s the One getting me through the storm. 

I hope you will find Him in whatever “storm” you are facing today.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, ESV)

“So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)

Janel

The Aftermath - Alabama Tornadoes - Part 2

Tornado Warnings are a common occurrence in Alabama this time of year.  Mostly we have a few small tornadoes that affect just one house or street.  Rarely, an entire community will be affected.  With this storm, they were warning us days ahead of time that it could be bad.

Since Criss couldn’t get his truck out of the yard to get to work (see last post), he was home with us.  All of the food in the refrigerator was about to ruin, so Criss started grilling everything he could.  Thankfully, it was time for me to buy groceries, so there wasn’t too much food in there.  At one point, my mom parked down the road with a bag of ice, and Criss walked through a patch of woods to retrieve it from her.  That enabled us to put a few things on ice in a cooler.

Later in the day, the power company and county clean-up crews drove by and merely pushed the downed tree and pole over to the side of the road for everyone to start driving over the lines.  With that, I knew we were not a top priority and we would be without power for a good while.  The problem was the lines were still draped through a tree and blocking us from leaving our house.

If you live in an area prone to tornadoes, they always tell you to go to the center room on the lowest floor of the house.  Since we live in a one level house, the bathroom in the middle of the house is our designated spot.  Depending on the strength of the tornado, the outside walls will go first.  If anything is left, it’s generally the center.  Early in the day, I cleared everything from the bathroom, leaving only the things that were secured to the house so there wouldn’t be anything to fly around and hit us if our house was in the path of the tornadoes.  I also used a child safety lock to secure my purse and other important documents in the bathroom cabinet with us.

There’s a certain feel in the air when tornadoes are coming.  Some of you know what I’m talking about.  You could just feel it.  Scenes from the movie Twister kept playing through my head all day.

We were listening to the radio and sat bewildered as the large tornadoes hit the city of Tuscaloosa.  (We live in Tuscaloosa County, about 30 minutes east of the city.)  Since the power was out, we couldn’t see what was going on, but from the sound of the weather man’s voice, we knew it was really, really bad.  All he kept saying was “All we can do right now is just try to get through this.”  They had numerous visuals of extremely large tornadoes all over the state.  We sat listening as a tornado they were reporting to be ½ to 1 mile wide ravished the heart of the city of Tuscaloosa – and it was headed our way.

As I listened, my eyes roamed the house.  Was there anything else I needed to put in the bathroom?  What would I miss most if our house were destroyed?  My purse and other important documents were moved to the safest spot for convenience, but nothing else in the house really mattered as long as we made it through alive.

It was soon approaching our area, and we all headed to the bathroom.  We put the kids in the bathtub with their bicycle helmets on, and Criss said a prayer.  The kids both sleep on toddler beds, so their mattresses were small enough to fit in there with us.  If we were hit directly, Criss and I were ready to throw the mattresses over the kids in the bathtub and lay on top of them to try to keep them safe.

At this point, there were so many difficult things that raced through my mind.  It’s one thing when you’re worried about your own life.  It’s something far different when you’re trying to protect your young children.

We soon received the call that we were safe to leave the bathroom.  The tornado had passed just to our north.  We had been spared, but so many others that day were not…

To Be Continued

Janel

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

Psalm 46:1-3

The Aftermath - Alabama Tornadoes - Part 1

It's been a crazy few days around here, but the four of us are safe and our immediate family is all accounted for.  We live between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, and our area has been greatly affected by the recent storms.

It began early Wednesday morning with the first line of storms that crossed our area before the more devastating storms later in the day.  Criss was up, and I was awake but still in the bed.  It was some time before 6 am.  I've been told the sirens went off, but I never heard them.  All I heard was a loud rushing wind and cracking trees all around us.  There were power surges, and Silas ran to my room upset because the sound machine in his room was surging and making very loud noises.  I didn't have time to do anything.  I just remember thinking that something was about to fall on the house.  Thankfully nothing did.

Our power was out, but it wasn't until later that we realized that we were blocked in and couldn't leave our house.  We live on a corner lot, and a large tree and the top half of the power pole were lying across the main road, with the lines ripped from our house and blocking the side road that leads to our driveway.  There was no way to leave in any of our vehicles, but there was no damage to our house (other than the power lines that have to be reattached).  I am hoping that the power surges did not mess up any of our appliances.

We later learned that there were large trees down all down the road leading to our house.  A few houses had been damaged badly.  Also, our church is less than 10 minutes from our house.  The steeple was blown off, puncturing the roof above the nursery hallway.  It hit a water line and flooded the nursery hallway and part of the Sanctuary.  And this all happened just in the first line of storms.

That is part of the problem.  By the time the main line of storms hit, many in our area had already been without power all day, and it was difficult to know what was going on.  We had several radios but couldn't get any of them to work (of course).  Luckily, Criss had a radio attachment for his iPod.  We took turns all day with our iPods.  We would listen to one until it ran out and swap to the second while the other was charging outside in the van.

We also had a family friend (who did have power) watching the TV for us, ready to call and tell us when to head for safety.  Autumn's school was canceled for the day because there was no power.  Silas' preschool was open, but we were stuck in our house.  Nearly everyone was at least closing early for the day.

Since we were home with the power out all day, I kept the kids busy picking up.  It drives me crazy to be without power, falling over toys in the dark, and unable to find the things I need.  If I had to be in the dark, I at least wanted to spare my toes. J

I knew our area had been hit pretty hard when we couldn't even get anyone to move a downed power line from the middle of the road.  There was just so much damage already.  And the worst of the storm was still on its way...

To Be Continued

Janel