Tornado Clean-up

On December 26, 2015, a series of tornadoes hit North Texas. Garland and Rowlett sustained substantial damage to homes and businesses. Eight people were killed and dozens were injured. The people of Garland and Rowlett are struggling with massive clean-up projects before they can even consider rebuilding. The week after the tornadoes hit, a friend of ours, Nita Dupnik drove through the area to see what the needs were and how she could help. The following week, Nita went to Garland, along with her brother, and Nancy Powell. They spent the day removing debris from homes, sorting to find anything salvageable, and depositing everything else on the curb for pick up. After hearing from Nita in Sunday School, I worked with her to plan a day when more people could drive over to help, setting the date for Saturday, Jan. 23.  Although the idea began as a Ladies Sunday School project, we announced it to the church, and when the time came, we took seventeen people for the work day, men and women, ages from 12 to…75ish.

These are a few pictures of us getting started.

Here a few pictures to show the devastation in the area. 

These pictures are of the first home we worked on with the home-owner, Marcus. He and his wife and three young adult children shut themselves in a bathroom when the tornado hit, and were not hurt. They came out to find their home destroyed and their neighborhood in turmoil.  We moved the debris from his yard to the curb where it would be picked up.

Although we packed lunches, a group of volunteers brought us sandwiches. We stopped work long enough to eat, then, just as we finished, another group bought pizza. 

The second place we worked was home to a couple with four children. They all took cover in this laundry room, along with the washer and dryer.

After the storm, that was the only room standing. 

These home owners had saved for 15 years to buy their first home, and had lived in it 14 months before the storm destroyed it. 

When we came to help them, they were under pressure to complete the clean-up and were required to have the slab clean by Sunday night. This seemed impossible, until another volunteer group came with a small tractor! They pulled the remaining walls down and cleared it off pretty quickly. 

Here is our group getting ready to load up to head home. A few had moved on to another location for work.

We had a great day and were blessed to be able to help out where we were really needed.