Last week we only had one hour of church and they sent everyone out to help clean up after the storm. Our ward was sent to Newcastle to help a family whose house was completely destroyed. They have about 8 acres, so there was a lot of work to be done, more than we could finish in one day even with that many people. We made huge piles of broken trees and debris that will be burned. They had already gone through most of it and collected what was salvageable. They had a basement and the mom and young child survived the storm. The Canadian River runs just behind their home and I heard a story of a man who parked on the other side and swam across to check on his family because you couldn't navigate the roads with all of the debris. I don't know if it was the same family.
Just a week after the Moore tornado we had three days of bad weather again. We were told to be prepared, so the kids and I went to mom's every night where there is a shelter. Not much happened the first two nights, but the third night we spent nearly two hours in the shelter with storm after storm. There was still a lot of damage in the city, but nothing like the storm from two weeks before. We were blessed that the many tornadoes that occurred in the city did not all touch the ground. We didn't have access to a TV to watch, but we had a phone. Toni Wakefield kept us informed about when we could get out of the shelter as she watched the storms from Dallas. We had just a few things in the shelter to keep us entertained and the boys made a fort out of a roll of carpet.
I grew here and never felt any real fear from the storms. In fact, I love the powerful thunder and lightning and miss it when I am away from here. The events of the last months (including losing dad) have really changed that. My kids still seem to be as relaxed and peaceful as I once was and I'm grateful for that. Lincoln told me once that he wasn't worried because we are blessed. That is very true and I feel it more and more as time begins to heal my wounds.
