Tornado Miracles 2..

I am so impressed with the people of Griffith who went through that horrific evening.. Nice people.. ordinary joe's.. but lovely that they welcomed us to show us all that they'd gone through and what they'd accomplished since. This is the 3rd day.. and already, one family's garage is totally dismantled and removed.. and in it's place, there is this bit of complete order and cleanliness on a slab of concrete that had to have been unrecognizeable on Tuesday morning. The pile of rubble in front of their house went from one end of their property down the street to the middle of the next home's property.. or so it seemed. All that's left is to take this 8 to 10 foot wide.. and 5 or 6 foot tall mound and throw it away. Gee, that's all.. :( Not so fast. And certainly, not so easy. The city brought a dumpster in for them.. it's just past their pile of "stuff".. Of course, it's for the entire neighborhood. I'll say that the pile on the lawn was about 2 or 3 times the size of that dumpster... so it will be a few days before enough dumpsters have come and gone, before they can finish their task..

There was a small angel in a lovely garden.. and my thought was that the angel was hiding behind one of the plants, afraid to come out.. It was untouched. But all around that garden, there was chaos.. a street light that had fallen to the ground.. a pillar from the covered front porch of the house, that had been totally swept away in the high winds. Unbelieveable sights.. Chaos and angels.. neither touching the other, but existing side-by-side.

And speaking of Angels.. there are those from Reed's Temple Church. Standing out in the street and hawking bottles of water as if he was holding gold in his hands, he approached me and asked me if I'd like some water.. I said I didn't live there.. He very warmly said that made no difference.. was I thirsty? Yes, I was.. so thank you very much, as I took the bottle of cold liquid from his hand. I talked to him a few seconds and he took me over to three other church women who all got up and shook my hand until the last one gave me a hug, that is.. I told them I was a volunteer storm spotter from the National Weather Service in Chicago and was there to report what I saw.. with photos and words.. and they welcomed me. The man who gave me the water said how lucky they were to have a wonderful Minister like Rev. Reed.. and I said Wonderful Minsters are lucky to find wonderful congregations.. That's paraphrased, because I'm older 'n' dirt and somethings don't come out the 2nd time the way they did the first, so why try, huh? ;)

When I left there, I have to say it's the only church where I've liked the people so very much, that if I lived in the area, I'd have a hard time staying away.. Warm.. loving.. giving.. so upbeat.. and volunteering their time to do so much good for the entire neighbhood.. especially for the people who have no electric.. no anything.. can't cook for themselves at all. The church is out there.. feeding them. How lovely. How truly, truly lovely. Thank you, Pastor Reed for all your congregation is doing for the people who need your help so much!!

Tornado Miracles..

As we were running for shelter on the night of August 4th, 2008, I never realized that so many people's lives would be touched by the Tornadoes that evening. Our Storm Chase Team had been in the State Park campgrounds, hurrying people into shelters.. and when the wind started blowing the campfires sideways, I knew it was time for me to give up and join in the others.. in the men's bathroom of the west shelter! The next 45 minutes were spent waiting out the storm.

A little earlier, the storm had come across Grittith, Indiana.. we had gotten the tornado warnings for Lake County, IN and knew it was headed directly for Porter County. What we didn't know was that part of a city was being bitten off, chewed up and spit back out that evening. The next day, every camera and newspaper crew from every newspaper that covers that area appeared.. They were all over the place, so we were told.

Today, Thursday, 3 days after the tornado, we ventured into that area.. All the photographers and camera crews were gone.. and life had settled into the clean-up and clear-out mode for those whose homes were damaged beyond repair.

We talked with several people who had lost their homes and things, but were unbelieveably happy to be alive. They are forever changed by what they went through.. and will never look at a storm the same way again. Ever. ForEVER changed.

We saw unbelieveable sights, among them a church congregation full of loving, giving people and a pastor who quite definitely brings out the best in each one of them.. They were handing out food to the neighbhood.. water to them and everyone else going down the street.. and they had buttons made that said "I survived the EF-2 Tornado in Griffith Indiana, Aug 4, 2008. They gave those buttons to all whose lives were affected that day.. What a lovely thing to do. All of it. Some mighty nice people at Reed's Temple Church in Griffith.. I can't say enough good things about them..!! :)