Amanda Makes Things

I live in a small town in what is loosely known as Tornado Alley. Up until recently, despite a ten year residence here, I had never experienced one. Cut to Memorial Day weekend, 11:30PM and an EF3 twister came barreling for my town. The tornado sirens went off, but anyone will tell you, we hear them too often to pay much attention. It was when the emergency alarm sounded on my phone that things got real. We collected ourselves and retreated to the bathroom off the mudroom, being the lowest point of our house. We huddled there in the dark (power was out by this point; it would not return for over a week) and waited for the storm to pass.

In the morning light, we could see the damage. We live on eleven acres, outside of town. Trees had been ripped from the ground, or shattered entirely. Our fence was mangled in several places. Our driveway was impassable.

Our house, very fortunately, sustained damage only to the roof. We were very lucky. So, we put on our work clothes, got out the chainsaws and began to pick up the pieces.

All day, people stopped by, strangers to us, to invite us to come to a church, or the rodeo grounds, or a local business, where we could get a meal, charge our phones or even just sit in some cool air for a bit. A friend of ours, a truck driver, was nearby in another city, bought us a generator (we could have bought one locally, but all the stores were closed due to power loss) and brought it to us, over an hour away. Our neighbors pitched in to help us clear the five trees across our driveway. In the afternoon, a pickup truck stopped by, with two men and their chainsaws. They dug in with us and by the late afternoon, we could get out of our property. My husband offered them payment, but they wouldn’t take it.

We returned favors by helping one neighbor hook up their generator and breaking up a tree that had come down on our other neighbor’s porch. Once we had our A/C hooked up, they all had standing invites to come over and sit in the cool air whenever they wanted.

People in any place have their moments. We are all flawed. But it is good to know that when things go pear-shaped, people will help. The tornado did terrible damage to our town; we were internet famous for a few minutes. You may have seen us. Our power is back on, but the road back to normal is much longer. The Memorial Day tornado injured twenty-one people and killed five. Those of us who went through it now look at each other a bit differently. We are the lucky ones.