My back was against the outside wall. I was holding on to Cecily as the lights flickered and then went off. Everyone sat silently in the Sunday school room where I sat as the roar outside grew louder. I could feel the church shaking and groaning. There was a loud roaring sound, debris slamming into the church, and I felt like the roof was about to lift off. I positioned myself to fall on top of Cecily if that happened. At that moment I knew I was ready to die but I also knew we would be spared. The was a peace that seemed to fill the whole church and I knew God would be with us to the end.
When they announced we would be going back into the Sunday school rooms, I didn't believe them that there really was that much of a threat. But, as we all emerged from church, it was clear that all of us had just witnessed a miracle. The tornado had been heading straight towards our church, but instead turned north a fourth of a mile from us. The church yard was covered in trash and a few cars had broken windows.
My family was all in church on Sunday for Kirk's baptism. The baptisms were moved to Eureka because they had running water even though they didn't have any power. Most of my family went to the baptisms but Nathan and I stayed back.
After all was clear, Nathan went with a couple others into the subdivisions to see if they could help. Here is some of the AMAZING pictures he took. Seriously, Washington looks like a war zone right now.
Kendra is an ER nurse so she started feeling like she should be in there helping, so I drove her to the fire station where they were setting up a triage area. People were laying on sheets on the concrete floor and there were no pain medications. I saw a man come in covered in blood, shaking, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, a woman laying dazed on the floor, and another woman whose head was bleeding through the bandage on it.
One of the doctors who knew Kendra wrote up a prescription on a piece of cardboard and sent us to OSF to get medication.
It took forever to get out of town and even longer to get back in. Roads were blocked off, police, ambulances, people leaving, people coming, gawkers, first responders etc. I have never seen anything like it. They routed us, rerouted us, and rerouted us again. Kendra was wearing scrubs by this time and so the police let us into areas where others were unable to go.
There are no words to describe the destruction and devastation we saw. families standing on piles of rubble that used to be their houses, cars where a house used to be, wood, plastic, insulation covering the streets, people milling around dazed, shocked.
By the time we made it back to the fire station, most of the injured were being sent to different clinics that were set up around Washington. So, Kendra and I headed back to church.
That night at my parents house, because our power was out in Eureka, Nathan and I opened to Isaiah 25:
1. O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2. For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
God was our protector in the storm, I have no doubt of it. I pray His name can be glorified through the relief efforts.
In Christ
~Michelle
When they announced we would be going back into the Sunday school rooms, I didn't believe them that there really was that much of a threat. But, as we all emerged from church, it was clear that all of us had just witnessed a miracle. The tornado had been heading straight towards our church, but instead turned north a fourth of a mile from us. The church yard was covered in trash and a few cars had broken windows.
My family was all in church on Sunday for Kirk's baptism. The baptisms were moved to Eureka because they had running water even though they didn't have any power. Most of my family went to the baptisms but Nathan and I stayed back.
After all was clear, Nathan went with a couple others into the subdivisions to see if they could help. Here is some of the AMAZING pictures he took. Seriously, Washington looks like a war zone right now.
Kendra is an ER nurse so she started feeling like she should be in there helping, so I drove her to the fire station where they were setting up a triage area. People were laying on sheets on the concrete floor and there were no pain medications. I saw a man come in covered in blood, shaking, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, a woman laying dazed on the floor, and another woman whose head was bleeding through the bandage on it.
One of the doctors who knew Kendra wrote up a prescription on a piece of cardboard and sent us to OSF to get medication.
It took forever to get out of town and even longer to get back in. Roads were blocked off, police, ambulances, people leaving, people coming, gawkers, first responders etc. I have never seen anything like it. They routed us, rerouted us, and rerouted us again. Kendra was wearing scrubs by this time and so the police let us into areas where others were unable to go.
There are no words to describe the destruction and devastation we saw. families standing on piles of rubble that used to be their houses, cars where a house used to be, wood, plastic, insulation covering the streets, people milling around dazed, shocked.
By the time we made it back to the fire station, most of the injured were being sent to different clinics that were set up around Washington. So, Kendra and I headed back to church.
That night at my parents house, because our power was out in Eureka, Nathan and I opened to Isaiah 25:
1. O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2. For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
God was our protector in the storm, I have no doubt of it. I pray His name can be glorified through the relief efforts.
In Christ
~Michelle
1 comment:
amen~
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