Tornado Damage

I've finally got for you the pictures that I took on March 3, 2012, just one day after the terrible tornadoes went through my hometown of Henryville, IN.  I am so blessed that my family was safe through this tragedy.  Henryville, IN is a tiny town about 20 miles north of Louisville, KY. 

I lived there until I went off to college, attended elementary school there and it sucks that the reason they made national news was because of this disaster.  There were many folks who lost everything, and this tiny town is pulling together day in and day out to put things back together, to build the town back up and to be there for one another.  The outpouring of donations from across the state of Indiana, along with nationwide has been amazing.  The Ellen Degeneres show and the Jay Leno show are even doing a contest to see how much they can donate to the relief efforts. 

My cousin Jared, who is a meterologist with a Louisville KY news station, was on television and told his hometown to go into their basements or somewhere safe, because he knew how bad it was and what was coming.  If you'd like, watch this, it's a video the news station did of Jared back in our hometown recapping the damage. 

The pictures below really do not do justice to what we saw - but you'll get an idea.

This one is of my uncle's barn.  Jared's dad's barn as a matter of fact.

This next picture is down a little bit from there, but you can still see the barn in the distance.



The next few are just a bit of what we saw...



 Now the next couple of photos are prime examples of what a tornado can do.  I'm not sure if you' read anything about Stephanie Decker.  If not, please go here and read, as I cannot tell the story as well as they did.  Her husband was a teacher at my high school in Sellersburg, IN when I went there, he was our baseball coach and he is a good guy.  Below are photos of what their house used to look like - and what it looks like now.

The house was over 8,000 sqare feet.  It was gorgeous.  I remember driving by it and thinking how much I'd love to live there.  Out in the middle of nothing with privacy and an awesome house.  Now it's compy flattened.  We didn't even see one brick when we drove past.  Tragedy.  

The pictures tell a story.  But the future pictures of this town rebuilding will tell another.  And they should be what this town is known for, not for the tornado, but for the community of folks who live there who are pulling together with help from neighbors far and wide.