Devastating Tornadoes

On Friday, March 2nd, we had devastating tornadoes rip through Indiana and surrounding states. An F4 tornado hit just 15 miles north of our apartment. It was on the ground for 50 miles! Over 35 people have been confirmed dead in 4 states. There were 12 in Indiana and 21 in Kentucky. Luckily it was not much worse than that! The weather people are very good at getting the word out and I think it saved a lot of people's lives.

On Saturday Rory and I met with other people from our ward to put together sack lunches for the relief workers trying to start the clean up. Luckily Carter slept so I got to help put the lunches together!

Our ward normally meets at 11:30 on Sunday, but today we met at 9 and combined with another ward for Sacrament meeting. We just had the one meeting and then the sisters stayed to put together more sack lunches. We came home and Rory got ready to help at 12. Ward members were encouraged to meet at another meeting house at noon and then go with the Salvation Army to volunteer at different cities. Rory ended up in Marysville to help with the clean up. I wanted to go so bad! I really wanted to help, but I knew it wasn't safe to take Carter out there. Rory said he's surprised more people don't get hurt just trying to help clean up.

Below I have posted the pictures that Rory took while he was working on two different houses. I guess they were told to just head out and see how they could help.

This picture shows the foundation of where a house used to be.

At this house they just gathered together all the wood and metal and put them in two piles to be picked up later. That is one of the few houses that still looked like a house.

In the front of the picture you can see the foundation and then the house was picked up and thrown off to the side.

There used to be a second floor...

Rory was just glad the ceiling didn't collapse in on them.

This is the pile of things deemed salvageable.

This picture shows just how far the house was moved off the foundation.

These tornadoes were the worst ever recorded in March. The devastation is unbelievable! It will take weeks for these small towns to recover. Most of the towns are pretty much going to have to build for the ground up and start all over. The outpouring of help from everyone has been incredible. So much has been donated to help those with nothing. Everyone seems to come together in times of devastation. Hopefully these towns will recover. Rory and I are thankful that we safe and that we were not physically affected by the storm!