Tornado :(

[JSPhoto]

For those who hadn't seen it in the sports forum my home was hit by a tornado on May 30th as I was just minutes from home. The house took a big hit, and the yard a bigger one loosing 40 of 41 trees and causing $25,000 in damage to the house plus another $15,000 to stuff that wasn't insured. These past few weeks I have been doing little but cutting trees and burning branches and still have another two weeks just cutting trees and burning branches.
Anyway here are some photos of the mess. I was lucky, I still had a roof on the house, some in the area arn't, and 4 homes were completely destroyed, but not one injury! It took me an hour and a half to drive the last 5 miles home after the tornado went through

JS

[Dylan8i]

Jeeze glad you WERN'T home when it hit, looks pretty bad. Glad your ok, and hope you get back on your feet again.

[Greg McCary]

A least everyone is ok. I hope the clean up and repairs go ok. My thoughts are with you.

[Frog]

Glad no one was hurt in this case. I see and hear about them and can't fathom.
I guess they're exciting for storm chasers but if your house and loved ones are in the path its just sheer terror.
Good luck with the clean-up and hope all goes well.

[Liz]

I'm so sorry to read that your home was hit by the Tornado! It's good you and your family are okay, but you sure have a lot of work ahead of you. It's a tremendous personal loss that no one can fathom unless they have gone through it.

I will pray for you. Please keep us updated.

Liz

[frleal70]

Great news that no one was hurt. Sorry to hear about your house and trees. We had a recent scare with a tornado touching down about 11 miles from my house. The sirens were blaring, and I was out having a look when I noticed something I had never experienced. I was out, and the whole time there was a warm wind blowing from about the north west. Then, all of a sudden, like someone hit a switch, there was a very cold wind that started to blow in from the east. I know it's the mixture of air of different temperatures that helps to form tornados, so I was pretty freaked out at this point. Here's a pic from that day:

[WesternGuy]

Where I live in the western Canadian prairies, we do not get many tornadoes, but 12 years ago we had one go through one of our major cities (an F4) and I went out the day after to see what had happened. I could not believe the damage it had caused, as it was my first experience with these things. I watch the news on the US channels we get here and I still cannot believe the damage these things cause. jsphoto I am so sorry for the damage you have, but I guess, no, I know, you must be all thankful to be alive. I have absolutely no idea what it must be like to suffer the losses you have suffered. Best wishes for recovery.

WesternGuy

[JSPhoto]

Thanks everyone. It has been a rough month with all this. I am getting the trees cut up quicker than I thought I would but it is still slow going.
Repairs are even slower, between stores being out of things and 2-3 week waits for deliveries it's really aggravating, then add the county zoning and related offices and it's one major headache. Worse yet they could care less about "your problems". One made the comment "you don't like it get a lawyer", yeah right, like I can afford that with all this. Oh well, the work continues.....

JS

[JETA]

JS, I'm so glad you checked in. I sent you an email a week or so ago because I've been so worried sick about you. Thank you for sharing pics. Thank god you are safe and there were no injuries. I'm thinking about you and your gang.

[JSPhoto]

Hmmm, don't think I got an email JETA, or I completly spaced and missed it. This whole mess really put a hurt on my photography & writing plans for the summer though Thats what ticks me off the most I think.
BTW Cassie is acting just like an expectant mother, all she does is sleep eat and get fat oh, and she has an "attitude" with the daddy but shes fine with me. I thought she was going to kill Gizmo the other day, he doesn't understand why all she wants to do is lay around , all he wants to do is play, and now isn't the time to be jumping on her back.

JS

[Addies Granddaddy]

I guess if there's a good thing out of all this, it's the fact that you're all ok. Best wishes, JS.
John

[JETA]

Hmmm, don't think I got an email JETA, or I completly spaced and missed it. This whole mess really put a hurt on my photography & writing plans for the summer though Thats what ticks me off the most I think.
BTW Cassie is acting just like an expectant mother, all she does is sleep eat and get fat oh, and she has an "attitude" with the daddy but shes fine with me. I thought she was going to kill Gizmo the other day, he doesn't understand why all she wants to do is lay around , all he wants to do is play, and now isn't the time to be jumping on her back.

JS

How is it I'm relating to your dog? Gizmo is a playmate one day and the next she's mad thinking about what he did to her. Nobody wants to play in that condition! lol

No worries about the email. I sent it through PR. You have enough on your plate.

Keep checking in when you have time.

Guess what? Tonight I got my first on field credentials for the all-state football game as a free lance photographer. It was easy and here I was sweating over it.

[Wild Wassa]

I'm sorry to read about your loss. We hear a a lot about the tornados,the damage and the unfortunate loss of lives in the US.

Thank you for posting the photographs, they certainly add gravity to your hastles.

All the best to you and your family Mate. I hope you all get back up to speed very quickly.

Warren.

[Old Timer]

Scary pictures John. It will take a while to get thing back to normal. Just glad you weren't in the house when this all went down.

[JSPhoto]

Having been on fire departments and so on for many years I first worried about the neighbors. Two days after the tornado a church group (friends of a neighbor) showed up and said "where do you want us to start"? I looked around and had no clue where to start The yard was comp-letly covered except where the Jeep was parked so they started at the front and worked back. Then a few days later another group showed up, this was one of the local high school baseball teams, 12 players came and worked clearing a big mess in the back yard. I called the paper who sent the staff photog out to get some photos of the guys working. Then there was the guy who was just driving by and he drove 10 miles home then back with his chain saw :thumbsup: There were a lot of very helpfull people here! But there were a fewslimeballs too, One came along and stole the power line that ran from the power pole to my house, another tried stealing aluminum siding still attached to the house (he almost got shot for that one ) Then there were the slimmy disaster hawks looking for quick business or a ripoff. Needless to say they were shown the "road closed" signs and told not to come back.
I was impressed with the law enforcement response right after the tornado, not only from the local departments who had every single officer out but surrounding counties as well. However by the next morning they were non-existant and came through very rarely the next two weeks and did absolutely nothing to keep lurkers out who drove past the road closed signs as if they were not there.

A couple more photos, one of the lightning was a few days later shot through my back door, not very good but you get the idea. It makes me sick when I look out back at the "pines" and they are all gone
The wrecker is taking a tree off a neighbors house 3 houses North of me. Only damage where the tree fell, a broken window!

JS

[gahspidy]

Great news that no one was hurt. I hope you can get the pieces back together again quickly and get past it all.

[Overbeyond]

Thank God nobody was hurt but what an inconvenience for you and family. I wish you well and hope you can get everything bank to "normal" asap.

[another view]

Just amazing. Glad you're OK though!