A Devastating Tornado...

It was about 11 am when I heard the sirens go off. Of course growing up in the Midwest it wasn't the first time, so I calmly took Zofia and Charles down to our basement. Aniela was in CCD at St. Jude  and Charlie was out Duck Hunting in Metamora. The morning had been relatively calm and when the sirens went off it was your typical strong winds, rain, and hail storm. Again, nothing we hadn't seen before. We hung out in the basement for a total of 30 seconds when the sirens turned off. I went straight to the T.V. to see what was up. With all the birthday festivities the day before and grandparents coming over in the afternoon to celebrate Charles actual birthday I was clueless to what was going on. I didn't even know that there was a storm that was supposed to pass through.

On T.V. they were clearly alerting everyone as to the destruction that was about to hit. We were lucky and clear of tornado's in Peoria but unfortunately our neighbors to the east were not so lucky. I quickly called Charlie since he was out in a duck blind close to the projected path. But he was already driving when I called and said he would make it home safely.

As the day went on the events unfolded. The news, facebook, countless texts, and calls all started coming in and the severity of the tornado came to be told. It was something you see on the news but never think it would happen. This hit way too close to home! Houses we're completely flattened, people came home from church with nothing left, others who were home crawled out of their basements in shock of what had just happened. It was an EF-4 tornado that packed winds from 140-170 mp, leveled more than 400 homes and left one person dead. Looking through the pictures it's amazing that there weren't more injured, more fatalities. One man on the news stated it best when he said that things can be rebuilt but people can't so he thanks the Lord for protecting them and getting them out alive. Debris from Washington was found all the way in Chicago!

If you weren't directly affected, you knew someone affected. Throughout the day I texted friends that lived in Washington. I texted friends that had friends and family that lived their. Checking in and praying that they were safe. Several of Charlies co-workers were affected as well.  I just couldn't imagine in a matter of minutes losing all of my possessions. Yet with all the devastation there has been such a tremendous outpouring of help. Volunteer organizations, churches, schools, restaurants, and the whole surrounding community have come together to get Washington through the ordeal. It just goes to show you how good people are and I truly feel that the acts of kindness far outnumber what we are constantly bombarded with in the news. For that I am thankful!