Day 2

Day 2 of work crew volunteering. Did 3 jobs yesterday, and started a 4th. Going back to the 4th site today to finish it up, and they have a 5th already lined up. Some of the devastation I've seen is just mind-boggling. You look down in a hollow, and you see trees snapped like toothpicks 30 feet of the ground. Trunks splintered as if explosives went off in the middle. Debris is scattered everywhere. One house had the roof shifted almost completely off to one side. I saw piles of rubble that used to be barns and out-buildings. Probably the worst were the empty slabs or open basements. The houses were just GONE!

One praise is the area that was hit. This is a rural area, where most everyone is on acreage. Most of the property damage is trees, barns and outbuildings. Not as many houses as if it had hit a suburban development. The other big praise is the number of friends, families, and volunteers you see out there helping. A friend said he drove by a house Saturday that had lost its roof. There were 30 or 40 cars in the driveway, and by 2:00PM the roof was already back on.

The biggest blessing for me personally happened with one car. We were taking a break, having just finished up site #3, and getting ready to head to site #4. Some random car stops across the street from us, the driver rolls down his window, and he says "Thank you guys. Thank you for everything you're doing for this family, and for our community." Must have gotten some sawdust or something in my eye right about then.