Yesterday we had a potluck at one of our members’ home. It had been scheduled from before the storms as an end of Bright Week, Pascha celebration. And, we did do that, but we also spoke about our experiences with the storm. No, we did not do it in an organized way. It was not a debriefing session; it was a potluck. It was just that people shared with each other, and people asked each other how they were.
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!
I listened as the person who was injured related his story. He was actually on his way home in response to the tornado warning. It was dark. He says he turned left at one street and found it. A board came through his pickup truck windshield and hit him. He put the pickup in both both reverse and forward, but it would not move. It spun into the ditch, and he jumped out and grabbed ground. He is a veteran. For those of you who are fellow veterans, you know what it means to grab ground when there are incoming. The winds let up and he got up. He saw blue clear sky, then the winds started again, and he realized that he had just been through the eye. So, he grabbed ground again. After it was over, he got up to find his pickup back on the road! The winds had pushed his pickup into the ditch, then the winds going the other way returned it to the road. He got into his truck, and it started just fine. So, he drove down the road and met a police car. After that policeman had taken a look at him, he asked him whether he could make his own way to the hospital, as the policeman needed to go look for those worse injured. Before you react negatively, let me tell you that this type of triage is not uncommon at either disaster or battle sites. That is where the term “walking wounded” came from. So, he went to the hospital and got stitched up.
Do you remember the family that became a small center for their neighbors because they had power? They were fortunate. Their power came back on within a day. However, meantime they and the neighbors had had the bright idea of running extension cords to the immediately nearby houses. So, that is what they did and they thereby provided some electricity to their immediate neighbors. It was a bright idea (pun intended), and I suspect that in this case the power company would not mind.
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!
The rest of us talked about our stories as we met each other. At least one couple is living for several days with relatives because it will be a week or more until the power company expects power to be restored in their area. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one family lost some relatives. Sadly, several people yesterday had a friend or acquaintance or co-worker whose house had been either destroyed or severely damaged. Many, many of us had stories of finding papers with Tuscaloosa addresses in our yards further along the tornadoes’ path. Various of us realized just how close the tornadoes had actually come to many of our houses.
The latest news already show that the outbreak of tornadoes was the second worst outbreak in USA history. Incredibly enough, those in Mississippi and Louisiana are still facing even worse possible problems. There is a storm surge coming down the Mississippi from where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi River. The crest is expected in New Orleans around the 22nd of May. The Army Corps of Engineers will try to releive the pressure in various ways between now and then. There is the danger of massive flooding. Already the Army Corps of Engineers is planning on blowing the levées near Cairo, IL, so that farmland will flood rather than the city. The State of Missouri is trying to convince the Federal courts to issue an injunction to prevent those levées from being blown to protect Missouri farmland. It is a confusing situation. So, there is plenty for you about which to pray.
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!
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