The Thankful Project: #17- Surviving the Winds

Today lends to a whole new depth of thankfulness.  The safety of my family has become in my face lately.  I even told my husband, he needed to show me how to load a gun.  If you don’t know, I refuse to touch, hold, if someone else in the room besides my husband is touching it or handling one, I usually leave.  But there are personal fears that I WILL get over if it interferes with the safety of my family. 

But today I couldn't grantee her protection.  We were at church.  The sirens went off, the TV people were pleaing/crying/even praying that people make it to their basements in time.  The storm that was coming was deadly, and they knew it.  As a church, we sat in the fellowship hall, all together, checking and double checking that we saw everyone we could think of.  Nathan was holding Rue, and in my head I’m going over what I would do if something were to start…where I would jump.  We all calmed down when we starting hearing the reports of the sighting across the river. 

Dad told everyone, we had about 30 minutes to get home before the next cell would hit.  It would just be rain and we all knew that.  We had lunch with some friends, and when we got home we started to hear the stories…

One of my youth girls, Kiersten, lives in Pekin.  With in 4 streets surrounding her, three separate tornadoes touched down.  Her block of houses was one of a handful of house still standing within a quarter mile.  She, along with her family and her 16 mo old son, were minutes away from danger, but made it to the basement in time.  A few houses down, when she left to come to church tonight, they were still working at freeing a family with a 4 mo old; they were still stuck in their basement.  They have been evacuated until further notice because of a gas leak.  They also do not have power and water. 

One of the girls who has been apart of our Sunday school class is a teacher at one of the grade schools in Washington.  She is still clueless about any of her students. 

High school girls club volleyball tryouts were downtown at the RiverPlex in Peoria.  One of my co-leaders in youth group was there with her daughter.  They were with a friend that was literally shaking…His wife was out of town on business in Springfield.  He was with his eldest at tryouts while his 3 younger kids (oldest being 14) were at home in Washington.  He knew his kids were in the basement, but his world started crumbling when he found out the house just two houses down was leveled.  He left during those 30 minutes between storms and arrived home to nothing…no house…nothing. Kids were safe but nothing remained.  

My niece and nephew were in the basement of their house with their mom and came up to find two of their neighbors’ houses gone.  I can’t wait to hug them again. 

In my high school sports Conference 3 of the 8 schools are closed until they have power and stability for students to attend school.  My fellow athletic secretaries, Terri, Sherry, & Michelle, I’m praying continually for you.  My heart is breaking right now.

Pray for Washington; the hardest hit.  They have reported 1 death and 28 hospitalized injuries, 8 being classified as trauma.  Pray for East Peoria and Pekin.  I have a feeling this holiday season will be a little different around here.