Devastation

This is building that will most likely be torn down - the roof is gone, windows blown out, all of the contents drenched and ruined.. but no one was hurt !!

This is behind that building, someone's home just destroyed

As many already know, there was an F2 tornado that ripped through Griffith on Monday night. I had just put Allison down to bed and she was lying awake in her crib. I was washing bottles in the sink and I saw all of the wind whipping outside and I saw the canopy of my swing flipping around and I told Jody that I thought a pretty strong storm, was coming and that it might be a good idea to go and take it down. It was only minutes later that we heard the tornado sirens go off ~ in the 6 years that we have live here, we had never heard them activated for anything other than testing. We could barely hear them, Jody had to even open the front door to verify that it indeed was the sirens. I immediately went in to Allie's room, grabbed her and Jody grabbed a flashlight and we went directly to the basement. We turned on the weather channer and we say the biggest area of RED radar on the screen that I had ever seen. We could hear the wind whipping and the rain pounding the house. From what I have been told by other people, it wasn't as loud by us as it was elsewhere. After the major part of the storm cleared, we went upstairs, Allie was already asleep, and we watched the most amazing lightning storm. We got ready for bed thinking the worst was over and then our phone rang at 11:15...

My first thought was " Who in the WORLD was calling our house this late ?!?!" When I answered, it was my sister in law, Wendy. She said that my mom had told her to call us because a tornado ripped through the neighborhood where thery own 3 apartment buildings and one of them had the roof ripped off and would most likely need to be torn down. I wasn't quite comprehending all of it -I mean, it was the LAST thing I expected to hear before hitting the hay that night! I immediately called my mom and I could hear the shock and disbelief in her voice. I remember her telling me just how devastated my dad was and that just hit me even harder. My dad has put a lot into these buildings and he is over there every day doing something there. I just wanted to run over there to see it and to be there for him, but she talked me out of it telling me that there was no light, power lines down everywhere and there was nothing that I could do, and she was right. Even they could not assess the damage until the morning... and boy what that morning light revealed...

This building had the roof just ripped off as did the home next door. There was another house across the street that had the corner of the house ripped off, the roof gone - just completely demolished. If you watched any of the news coverage on 2, 5, 7 ,9 or CLTV, they covered this house with media coverage on every channel. For the apartment building, the amazing part about it is - NO ONE killed or injured !! Praise God!! When I saw it in person, it was hard to believe that anyone could have walked away without a scratch! The man who lived in the top apartment was asleep at the time of the storm and his kids had to wake him up - Would you believe that the only section of ceiling still intact is above where is bed was ??? God was taking care of him that night - no doubt about it ! The worst part about it is that they had no renters insurance and they lost everything.... everything. It was just unreal to walk through what was left of all of their belongings and to think to myself " What do you do in a situation like this?"

This was the only part of the ceiling that survived above his bed

To see huge trees uprooted and grass rolled up like carpet.... full trees on top of homes & cars, it is amazing that no people were hit ! It is something that you always see on TV, but I can fully relate that pictures and video cannt do justice to the disaster. In person, it is just so much more surreal.

Allie and I picked up Wendy in the morning and headed over to the area to see the extent of the damage and to give moral support to Grandma & Grandpa. Grandpa was being bombarded by construction companies, roofing guys, insurance guys... he said that he had such a huge stack of business cards in his wallet ! Allie and I left for a little while because it was so humid and we came back later, then went home again because of the heat. Then we brought back Jody to see it all and he was just as shocked.

Here is my dad checking out the new "skylights"

It was crazy to think of it all and I mentioned to my mom that less than 2 years ago was the major flood that hit the area so hard and my sister's house in Griffith was underwater and it was on the news and the front page of the Post Tribune and now my parent's buildings are on the news and the front page of the Times 2 days in a row... I NEVER want my house to be on the front page !!!!

The apartment building with the most damage will most likey need to be demolished, it is just so sad to see all of these people lose their homes and their belongings.

Anyway, I think that we all need to thank God for sparing us all and pray for Him to comfort all of those that lost so much. This again just reminds us what He can do !

On a lighter note..I took the cutest pics of Allie on Tuesday ~ She is 3 months and 2 weeks old !!

p.s. Allie slept through all of the storms - from 8:30 until 6:00am !!!

We have to end on a happy note !! :)