This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, March 26, 2024
I am writing this article on Monday, March 18, 2024. I just got home from working for tornado relief in Indian Lake. The organization I was serving with was Samaritan’s Purse. If you are interested in serving with that most excellent organization, feel free to contact me at Wayne Street Church and I will be more than happy to get you the information you will need.
While far from the worst devastation I have ever seen (I was in New Orleans after Katrina went through, that was devastation), the area still suffered catastrophic damage. Many houses are going to have to be razed because they were structurally compromised, and it would be hard to know the extent of the internal damage. Many trees were knocked over and crushed anything they landed on including houses, campers and garages. The particular yard I was working in had an enormous tree that came down and crushed a camper and knocked over a garage. Inside the garage was a classic car that they were not sure they would be able to get out from under the garage safely. The strangest thing I saw was in the next yard over. There was a pine tree that was probably a couple of stories tall before the storm. The tree broke in half and the top of the tree was flipped upside down and rammed into the ground so hard that it looked like another tree standing out in a field. In fact, we didn’t realize that was the top of the tree until I got to looking at the tree and realized that branches don’t grow into the ground, they grow up. I had to convince the guys I was working with that it was not another tree but the top of the big tree because it looked just like another tree, just upside down.
The whole time I was there dragging logs and brush to the street to be loaded and taken away I kept thinking to myself how this destruction could just as easily have happened here in St Marys. Last Thursday night, anyone who was watching saw the tornado breeze by just north of town. There was some damage in the countryside, but the town was spared. I was with a whole roomful of people at the Chamber banquet at the Union Hall while this was happening. I was on the phone with my wife at home who was hiding under our stairway, and I had no way to get home because I couldn’t get to the Beetle to drive home. Today, I got to see firsthand the kind of mayhem and destruction we narrowly avoided.
It makes me wonder what the proper response should be knowing that the tornado missed us yet it devastated another community not far from here. Why did the tornado miss us and not miss the people of Indian Lake? At one point, I was talking to another person who was carrying debris to the curb about the fact that I was there helping with a little regret because I understood how close I was to doing this same clean up of my own home.
Don’t get me wrong, there are no words in the English language to express how grateful I am that the tornado missed us because if something would have happened to Susan while I was stuck in a very safe brick building, I don’t know what I would have done.
My expression of gratitude? I spent about 6 hours today freezing half to death dragging parts of broken trees out of the yard of a person I will never meet. I have no idea who lived in that house, but I was able and available to help, so I did what I could. Not everyone can drag trees, but everyone can do something. To all of us who still have our lives and property and families intact, let’s express some gratitude by helping people who were not as lucky as we were.
If you can spare any resource of time, talent or treasure to help the people who found themselves in harm’s way through no fault of their own, please do what you can. Many organizations here in town are taking up special collections to help with the recovery, including Wayne Street Church. By doing what we can to help people who were impacted by this storm, we become a symbol of hope for people to know that when the world takes property away like this tornado did, the rest of us will do what we can to put it back so that those who experienced real loss will know they are not alone during this terrible time. The tornado missed most of us and those it did not miss need our help. It is the least we can do to respond in their time of need just like we would want them to be here if we needed them.