Thank You for the generous donations we collected over the last week – we just came back from our trip to Alabama where we made a small contribution in tornado relief efforts. I have to say it is a long ride from Chicago (a little bit over 700 miles). We drove through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee
In the whole honesty, we left Chicago with a feeling of disappointment – we didn’t collect as much as we hoped and were driving the van half empty. Why couldn’t we do more? Why didn’t we try harder? Despite “don’t you have anything better to do” voices, we emptied our pantry and hit the road
Have you ever got “Don’t ask me why, but I just got to do this” kind of feeling? I think that’s what happened to my husband when he learned about this catastrophe.
Even outside of areas directly hit by tornado, people lived without power for over week driving to the state of Tennessee for gas and charcoal (in some cases up to 140 miles one way) and standing 3 hours to get not more than $25 worth of gas. It is hard to imagine the devastation residents of Birmingham and surrounding areas got to experience, when a tornado ripped through the area.
Yes, Tuscaloosa got the worst of it, but even outside of Birmingham area there was plenty of damage. We went through Harvest and Huntsville, where, according to locals about 5 tornadoes touched down.
Two weeks ago that was a convenience store. Here is (above) what’s left of it after tornado crashed it along with the lives of two teenage employees. Right across the street there is subdivision where 30 houses got taken out by the same force. But cross the next intersection, and you feel like you woke up from the nightmare. Beautiful landscape, welcoming store signs and everyday life makes you stop, turn around and remind yourself that what you saw few second ago wasn’t a hallucination.
20 miles away tornado went through the city of Harvest leveling the entire Army base and the town near it.
Drive another hour in the half and you are in the Birmingham area, where this outbreak took the lives of hundreds and left thousands homeless.
Something happened to our society over the last centuries, making us used to see the horrible pictures of disaster without blinking – destruction of hurricanes Catrina and Wilma, earthquake and tsunami in Japan to name just a few recent ones. We are looking through the pictures searching for that OMG shot. Each picture I took left me unsatisfied – it wasn’t good enough and it didn’t show the real damage this tornado did.
Source: National Geographics
Just outside of a photo frame – pain and suffering. Right behind a tree or the rock there is destroyed family room, under the fallen tree there is a sense of security and comfort of so many.
This is the time when material things do not matter, the faith in anything is seriously tested and no money can save from what happens.
Live your life to the fullest. Enjoy every morning and don’t stay mad for longer than 5 minutes at your relatives, kids, and friends. Even if you don’t believe in a higher power, believe in good deeds and helping others. Have a great day and God blessed your journey!
Thank You again to all of you who contributed money and goods to help people in the areas affected by the tornado. Special “Thank You” goes to Handi-Foil Corp, who donated hundreds of foil steam tables. We collected $276 and used all of the money to buy formula, wipes, baby bottles, soap, and cereal. All collected was taken to the special tornado relief drop off location in Huntsville, AL.
I am not one of those people who is desensitized by these types of events or images. Thank you for contributing in your way to help those affected. Tornadoes scare the heck out of me. I grew up in Cali with earthquakes and lived in South Florida for a time through some bad hurricanes (Katrina and Wilma) but do not think that either are as scary as a tornado to me. My thoughts are with those affected including the ones who will be lucky enough to recover what they financially lost.
You may have thought what you did was small, but what you won't ever know is how much we have appreciated every single penny. We have a long road ahead. Fences will be mended. Houses will be rebuilt. And the memories of those who could not weather the storm will always be remembered. Thank you from Alabama.
‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40