Tornadoes

This topic is one that is hard for me to write about, mostly because I'm not sure what exactly to share.  I guess I can start with my version of what has happened.  On Monday, May 20, I was doing stuff for school at our apartment because Sarah needed to use software on my laptop for some of the statistics in her dissertation.  We decided to go out to lunch (the first time we have gone out with just the two of us since we moved to Oklahoma) to celebrate Sarah's progress with her dissertation, which is in the review process right now.  

It was a beautiful sunny day, so we were a little surprised when the tornado warning sirens went off at around 2:30pm.  (They had gone off the night before as well, but all we knew from that experience was that our temple recommend interviews had been cancelled at the church because of the tornado warning.  At the time, we didn't know that an EF-4 tornado had hit later that evening starting about 20 miles to the northeast of us and continued 20 miles through the areas of Little Axe, Newalla, and Shawnee.  You may ask how it was that we didn't know.  The answer is (1) these are very rural areas that don't get a lot of attention, and (2) we hadn't turned on the news.)

Once the sirens went off, we went and turned on the news, and we were glued for the rest of the afternoon.  We watched in amazement as the devastation of the tornado unfolded on live TV.  As we were watching, the meteorologist mentioned that it could be similar to May 3rd.  Having no idea what that meant, I googled "May 3rd tornado" and learned that a devastating tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma on May 3, 1999.  Watching the tornado live was a surreal experience for me, and even after having been to where it hit, it still doesn't seem completely real.

We had moved to our bathroom and turned the TV volume up high so we could hear it (we had heard that being in a bathroom is a good place to be since you are away from exterior windows and the piping makes bathroom walls stronger.  Then we heard the meteorologist say that an interior bathroom or closet would not withstand this type of tornado and that you either needed to be in a tornado shelter or get out of its path.  At that point, we grabbed our 72-hour kit that we had made a few weeks before for FHE, and watched intently as they predicted the path of the storm.  If we were anywhere in the predicted path, we were ready to drive as far as we needed to go in order to get out of the way.

Fortunately for us, the path of the tornado was about ten miles north of us and we didn't need to evacuate.  We watched as different buildings (or remnants of buildings) were identified from the news helicopter, including two schools.  Not being a parent, I can't imagine the horror of not knowing where your child was following such an event.  Because of the damage and everyone trying to get in contact with family, we didn't get reliable cell phone service until about 9:30pm that night.  We went to bed that night thinking the death toll was as high as 50 with around 24 of those being children.

The next morning carried the news of a revised death toll of 24, including 9 children and the tornado being rated as and EF-5, the top of the scale.  As I saw more and more coverage of the damage and devastation, I wanted to help.  We got an email from our bishop on Tuesday night, saying that he would be meeting with the local area seventy along with all other bishops, stake presidencies, and high councils on Wednesday to organize the Church's cleanup efforts.  He also mentioned that a member's home had been hit in Sunday night's tornado, and that a group was going out Wednesday morning to help cleanup, if there were people who couldn't wait to help.

I found myself among those who couldn't wait to help, so I went out Wednesday morning to the Newalla area and helped all day as we cleared fallen trees from their property and another member's property less than a mile away.  Thursday night, we heard word that the Oklahoma City and Moore stakes would be focusing their efforts on cleanup in the Moore area, while our stake and the Stillwater stake would focus on the Sunday night tornado that hit Little Axe, Newalla, and Shawnee.  Sarah and I then went out with others from our stake to visit those who had been hit by the tornado to offer our help and assess their damage.  We then brought those work orders back to the stake center where they were distributed on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and throughout the next week.  We would then report back once the work had been finished at any house we were assigned to.  I've been helping as much as I can, and Sarah has been keeping track of the hours we have both put in helping clean up.  (So far, Sarah is at 28 hours and I'm at 50.)  

Cleanup has included covering roofs with tarps (possibly falling partially through one roof, but I'll spare the details), removing trees, and demolition of the remainder of a home in Moore.  That day in Moore I could not believe my surroundings as everything around us was debris and rubble.  I can't even think of words to describe the damage that tornado did.  At what used to be a mobile home in the Little Axe area, a member of our ward, who has lived in Oklahoma most of his life, told me that he had seen a lot of tornado damage before but had never walked up on a spot where a home used to be only to have nothing there.  It really does leave you speechless  and at a loss for even knowing where to start in cleaning up.

This last Friday, May 31, we found out that there were more tornadoes to come.  This time, the tornadoes were part of a thunderstorm, so they were much harder to identify because they were surrounded by rain clouds.  I believe the news ended up saying that five tornadoes hit the Oklahoma City area, and we don't know about cleanup there yet.  Sarah weathered the storm in our closet, with the Lovesac to protect her, while I watched the news and was ready to join her at a moment's notice.  I also thought I could throw in a picture that Sarah took a few weeks ago during a different tornado warning where I sat in one of our closets watching the Jazz game online.

 I'm sure many of you may be wondering why I haven't included any pictures of the destruction from the different tornadoes.  There are a few reasons.  First, I don't think a picture can fully capture the devastation.  Second, I haven't taken my camera with me any of the times I have gone out to help because I come home so sweaty and dirty that I don't want to ruin my camera.  I may end up taking pictures eventually, but I don't know that I will put them on my blog, at least for a while.  The reason for that comes from something our stake president shared during the special sacrament meeting we had last Sunday.  Everyone showed up for our 8am meeting in their yellow Mormon Helping Hands t-shirts and jeans, including the Aaronic Priesthood who blessed and passed the sacrament.  The meeting only had one speaker, our stake president, and then it was off to help in the cleanup.

His message wasn't long, but I've thought quite a bit about what he shared.  He talked about the damage of the wildfire in Yellowstone in 1988.  He said that people were devastated and thought that much of Yellowstone had been destroyed.  However, after a few years, the new growth had made the park even more beautiful.  He then talked about the new growth that would rise out of these tornadoes, both in the communities and in the Church, and how the end result will be much more beautiful.  I know that all that new growth may not be visible in a picture, but I think a picture of the devastation alone is only half the story, and not the half of the story that our focus should be on.

My final thought for now comes from something Elder Rasband shared in a youth fireside last night, relayed to me by my bishop.  Elder Rasband came and toured the devastation in Moore and met with the missionaries yesterday morning.  In the fireside, he talked about the damage he had seen and likened it to our lives.  He mentioned that many of the neighborhoods he visited had no houses left - all that was left was a cement slab - the foundation.  

He said that we may build up our testimonies and our faith one brick at a time, but that sometimes the storms of life will come through and knock that part of our testimony away.  That is why we need a strong foundation - a base to our testimony strong enough that it will never be moved, even when the storms of life may damage other parts of our testimony.  Whatever that foundation to your individual testimony may be, make sure it is solid before those storms of life come.  You may need to rebuild parts of you testimony at times, but you need a strong foundation to build on.