Tornadoes in Murfreesboro

A tornado hit Murfreesboro Tennessee on April 10th 2009. The path crossed nearly the entire town. It completely destroyed 100 homes and severely damaged many more. Two lives were lost, a mother and her 9 week old child. 40+ injuries, some critical. One of the areas hardest hit, where the deaths occured, was very near to my parents house (about two blocks.) I was at work when it happened and after discovering that my fiance and all my family members were ok I immediatly went home as that's what authorities were asking all to do. My condo and the area around it were unaffected. Not until I turned the TV on did I see the spread of the damages. I remained at home and my family came over anticipating a long stay as power was going to be out for a while. It was restored however last night (way ahead of expectations in the wake of something like this) and they went home.

Today, I was going to lay low and stay around from the effected areas, but my family had walked into the closest areas and were assisting. I drove over there and helped out for a couple of hours.

Words cannot express how you feel during those situations. You almost don't want to talk about what you see because you don't want to make this about you. All you can do is pray while you walk around and pick stuff up that needs picking up. To say that the whole thing was surreal would be an understatement. Houses are gone, no trace of a live once lived there. Its easy and simple to say that its all just stuff and nobody was hurt. But it wasn't even my stuff and I was pretty shook up. You see in a glimpse the frailty of life. You see the fact that nothing we have or take for granted is secure. Nothing is permanent. It can all be gone in a matter of seconds.

Don't get me wrong, there are blessings and miracles in these situations. Watching people helping other people for no reason except for the fact that it needs to be done is a blessing. Watching people smile who just lost their home is a miracle. Watching large companies who are generally only concerned with the bottom line donating time and supplies is encouraging. And it really is miraculous that more people weren't seriously injured, but its hard to bring up miracles when a 9 week old baby and her mother die.

The bottom line is that more prayers are needed. In a discussion with a friend today, the grim reality set in that there is more than likely going to be an out-pouring of support for a couple of weeks but for these families, the tragedy and pain will be very real for much longer than that. I hope that all of us who are so willing to help now will remain that way when the cleanup is done.