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Merry Christmas to all. Hope all of you have had a MERRY Christmas. It has been mighty quiet here the last two days.
As for me, the Mississippi tornados started at a community (Clarksdale) that I work with. I spent most of Christmas Eve and 4 hours Christmas day working with disaster relief crews and in the communities over two counties in NW MS. The pastor of one of the churches that I work with had his house totally destroyed. He was injured but OK after a trip to the emergency room. The family of another church that I work with had their house obliterated. Can't even tell where the house WAS except for foundation. The husband had about 40 stitches to his scalp. That one was at an Ag airport. The planes were less than scrap metal. Metal buildings gone. Two other families of our group of churches had houses severely damaged. One lived next door to a Mennonite family whose house was all but totally destroyed. The Mennonite community came in immediately and began working of both houses doing what they could. The Mennonite family had to move everything out to do repairs on their house; There was a crew and large truck there doing that.
Three days of storms and I am tired of them. Christmas morning at 1 AM, a second severe thunder/lightening storm came through and lightening hit somewhere within 100 yards of our house. The electricity went out on 4 houses - the town mayor's, the Police Chief's, a lawyer (high school) friend and ours. The electricity stayed off until 5:30 AM. Lightening was so bad and flooding/rain was so heavy - continuously, that I knew it was going to be a long time before the electricity was "fixed". Even if the president lived next door, I don't think a crew would have come to fix the outage in that kind of lightening/rain. In the mean time, I was planning my escape to Missouri to stay with my daughter if we couldn't cook a Christmas meal together here. It worked out, we got a couple of hours sleep and then I got a call from those with a greater need than I could imagine. I went to a clothing/food ministry center (in which I had the keys) for three families to get clothes and staples/food. They had found another place to live but needed staples and clothing to get them over the next few days.
I was amazed over one fact. About 20 homes were destroyed and 10 damaged to an un-liveable state (until repairs could be made). Disaster relief and temporary community living places were provided. However, every single family was taken in or offered housing immediately by members of the community. For these displaced families whose automobiles were destroyed, automobiles were provided or "donated/given" outright to these families by other members of the community. The Red Cross provides immediate help with Cash Cards for food and clothes and motel stay for 3 or 4 days. But most of this was not needed. I had a fellow from 100 miles away call me and offer to bring a mobile kitchen to cook. It was not needed. Our disaster relief groups here were very thankful for that and other offers, but in this case, the community of individuals took it on themselves to provide! Most of the State disaster relief help was sent to two areas east of us where the deaths occurred.
(Our area was not the area where deaths occurred. That was about 100 miles away.) Christmas took on a new meaning this year.
AS TO CHRISTMAS gifts. One daughter was with us. The other two daughters will come later.
What is Christmas without a new "tool"?: A Ryobi cat/corner cordless sander. I never see these at HD. I did see them online and LOML ordered one for me. Love using it already - briefly last night.
LOML has been wanting something that reminds us of Japan. So, I ordered one and will install it this morning (Saturday):
That one looked more like the Japanese ones due to the control shape and location. Some people prefer the "remotes" but LOML didn't want a separate "losable" remote.
MERRY CHRISTMAS - a little late.
As for me, the Mississippi tornados started at a community (Clarksdale) that I work with. I spent most of Christmas Eve and 4 hours Christmas day working with disaster relief crews and in the communities over two counties in NW MS. The pastor of one of the churches that I work with had his house totally destroyed. He was injured but OK after a trip to the emergency room. The family of another church that I work with had their house obliterated. Can't even tell where the house WAS except for foundation. The husband had about 40 stitches to his scalp. That one was at an Ag airport. The planes were less than scrap metal. Metal buildings gone. Two other families of our group of churches had houses severely damaged. One lived next door to a Mennonite family whose house was all but totally destroyed. The Mennonite community came in immediately and began working of both houses doing what they could. The Mennonite family had to move everything out to do repairs on their house; There was a crew and large truck there doing that.
Three days of storms and I am tired of them. Christmas morning at 1 AM, a second severe thunder/lightening storm came through and lightening hit somewhere within 100 yards of our house. The electricity went out on 4 houses - the town mayor's, the Police Chief's, a lawyer (high school) friend and ours. The electricity stayed off until 5:30 AM. Lightening was so bad and flooding/rain was so heavy - continuously, that I knew it was going to be a long time before the electricity was "fixed". Even if the president lived next door, I don't think a crew would have come to fix the outage in that kind of lightening/rain. In the mean time, I was planning my escape to Missouri to stay with my daughter if we couldn't cook a Christmas meal together here. It worked out, we got a couple of hours sleep and then I got a call from those with a greater need than I could imagine. I went to a clothing/food ministry center (in which I had the keys) for three families to get clothes and staples/food. They had found another place to live but needed staples and clothing to get them over the next few days.
I was amazed over one fact. About 20 homes were destroyed and 10 damaged to an un-liveable state (until repairs could be made). Disaster relief and temporary community living places were provided. However, every single family was taken in or offered housing immediately by members of the community. For these displaced families whose automobiles were destroyed, automobiles were provided or "donated/given" outright to these families by other members of the community. The Red Cross provides immediate help with Cash Cards for food and clothes and motel stay for 3 or 4 days. But most of this was not needed. I had a fellow from 100 miles away call me and offer to bring a mobile kitchen to cook. It was not needed. Our disaster relief groups here were very thankful for that and other offers, but in this case, the community of individuals took it on themselves to provide! Most of the State disaster relief help was sent to two areas east of us where the deaths occurred.
(Our area was not the area where deaths occurred. That was about 100 miles away.) Christmas took on a new meaning this year.
AS TO CHRISTMAS gifts. One daughter was with us. The other two daughters will come later.
What is Christmas without a new "tool"?: A Ryobi cat/corner cordless sander. I never see these at HD. I did see them online and LOML ordered one for me. Love using it already - briefly last night.
LOML has been wanting something that reminds us of Japan. So, I ordered one and will install it this morning (Saturday):
That one looked more like the Japanese ones due to the control shape and location. Some people prefer the "remotes" but LOML didn't want a separate "losable" remote.
MERRY CHRISTMAS - a little late.
Loring in Katy, TX USA
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