The Calm After the Storm

Today was not the greatest of days for our town.  

We've had some horrendous heat, which came up from the Gulf Coast with the two hurricanes that landed this past week.  We were sweltering.  It was rough.  I looked like a sweaty alpaca.  

Today we had a cold front come through in the morning.  

Did you know that cold fronts and heat are not friends?

The morning was cloudy, then it turned dark as night by 9 am or so.  The street lights came back on due to the darkness.  Then the wind hit.  We have reported gusts of 50 to 80 miles an hour.  Trees uprooted.  Some trees split in half and fell onto roof tops, some trees even penetrated a roof and into the inner ceiling of one local home.  Other trees took out power lines and broke windows and so on.  Even the tornado siren kicked on for a brief moment when the wind kicked up high. 

During the storm, my son K was so afraid, as he'd been watching the earlier hurricane and expected the same devastation.  We live in Kansas, so hurricanes don't normally do coastal flooding as he expected.  He was horribly afraid of the wind, and it took a lot of work calming him down and getting him focused on other things, like making sure the cats are inside.  Having him help with little things did make him feel useful and calm him a little.   Storms with a special needs family are generally quite interesting anyway.  

Power was out for some of us only a matter of an hour or two.  Some of us had it gone for most of the day.  Others in the county are not expected to have it back until tomorrow.  

In the calm after the storm, we could see a community working together.  On social media, people were checking on one another.  Others offered to help each other with chain saws and loading.  Still more came together to prepare limbs for pick up later in the week.  Law enforcement and the road crews worked to remove limbs off the main highways and other areas as they found them or went to reports.  Linemen have worked to repair what the wind has damaged.  

We are quite blessed, our church and bible publication buildings were both left with no damage.  To look at them you can't tell a storm went through.  Our publication building on the square is next to the courthouse that has split trees and limbs down and so on.  The only thing that happened near our church building out in the country, the cows that mow the field behind the church got a nice shower and are cleaner.  

Our own home was fine, with just a literal handful of limbs mostly that came down.  The cats love those and consider them toys.  My in-laws' home, just 4 blocks away, the damage was a bit more.  A broken window, a split tree that took down a power line, as well as tore the meter from the house.  Thankfully they are no longer living there, but are in nursing care.  They would not have handled the storm and aftermath so well.  Loving neighbors took care of the broken window by boarding it up, and also cut down the limb and prepared it for pick up.  We are blessed for such wonderful people!  

God has shown what people can do in the calm after a storm.  They can come together and take care of one another.  They can tend to each other's needs.  They show the love of Jesus by their actions....  

Have you had storms come through, and your neighbors, family, and friends help you?  Feel free to comment below and share your story!