Rfalconcam Forum

Sure would love to see a word from Patti and any other members who live in the affected regions.
Wishing everyone well, down there.

Although we are visiting Rochester this week, our home is now in Chattanooga, TN.  Our neighbors have kept us informed and the damaged areas of Chatt. are very close but not our neighborhood.  We are returning next week and expect a rough March and April as the warming weather is prime tornado season.

I also wish everyone well that live in the states devastated by these storms.  Let us know how you are!

Dale sent me a nice personal email...and I saw this post after I replied...so Dale, I hope you don't mind if I recap here.

Jeane and I are just fine, but Jeane’s sister lives in one of the small Indiana towns just over the river that got flattened. 

Jeane spent the day at her sister's house today along with several able-bodied men folk doing big work like putting up tarps and plastic over broken windows and over holes in roofs, repairing fencing, assessing the damage, trying to stabilize damaged barns, rounding up loose animals, etc. (Tricia owns a farm with llamas and alpacas). Two barns were destroyed, but the houses survived with relatively minor damage to roofs, windows, and siding.  There is major hail damage to Tricia’s car (it’ll need some windows replaced, and it’s good and dented).  The county’s search and rescue crew stopped by and cleared an enormous tree from their driveway so they could get in and out.

They have road blocks set up and they're only allowing small numbers of folks through with residents, and we decided there are folks much more handy with hammers and nails than me, so I gave up my seat in the car to someone much more capable of providing the kind of help that was needed today.  I’ll go tomorrow when our task will be picking up loads of debris from all over the farm fields.  Jeane says the fields are just full of so much stuff – everything from siding, shingles, styrofoam, downed trees, to kid’s stuffed animals, books and papers from the Henryville High School, which is gone…

The crew today rounded up most of the llamas and alpacas, though one had to be euthanized (it was impaled by a flying board), and there are still two or three llamas missing (it’s hard to get an accurate head count when 60-ish animals are milling about).  The county is setting up an animal shelter at the fairgrounds where folks can take animals who have turned up on their property who don’t belong there, so Tricia is hoping the missing animals may turn up there.

Given that the town of Henryville is largely entirely gone, I suppose Tricia should feel lucky that her house is still standing, but there’s a lot of cleanup ahead. I guess I’ll get my first sobering look tomorrow.

Jeanne (& Patti), sorry to hear about your sister's news, I hope her other llamas show up!  She's very lucky to have her house, I hope the frame isn't twisted or something like my husband's cousin's house here in Iowa.  They have a farm and lost all building except the house, the attic was taken off, but rest looked intact other than windows and some siding, but it was determined there was some twist to it and it had to be torn down and they rebuilt.

The best news is that your sister is ok and so far most of the animals, buildings can be replaced.  Hugs...

Lizz, glad you got good news on your house, you guys must have been going nuts watching weather news and being up in Rochester.  Safe trip home!

Watching this on the news is devastating. Patti, so sorry about Jeane's sister and all the others who lost pretty much their life's everything. It's amazing to watch how they all come together to help each other with pretty good attitudes. It's a long road ahead for them, praying no more Tornadoes. Thank Jeane for her part in helping. Good luck today. :(

@ Lizz, good news for you!! This weather is just not nice. I don't recall having such a mild Winter, although the news said we did a few times. Where was I? The only snow I saw was on the Cams, like now! Oh well, maybe in June we'll get the BIG one! Sending prayers to all that were hit by this.

Good to hear from you, Patti,  but sorry to hear of Jeane's sister's losses although thankfully no family member was hurt. Good that you and Jeane can help her in whatever capacity.  Prayers to all involved.

Patty, thanks for letting us know what was going on with you and Jeane.  So sorry to hear that Jeane's sisters home was destroyed by these horrible storms.  Thank goodness no one was physically harmed.  You two take care of yourselves.

Lizz, glad you were up here out of harms way.  Safe trip home when you do return.

Nora H, Sounds like your husband's cousin's property was hit hard.  Hope everything works out well for them.

These storms have been devistating.  If you're a member of this group and you've been infected, please let us know how you're doing.

Take care all and be safe.

I was in contact with Mary Tyson, she came through the day/night of the storms in Charlotte, NC just great, whew.

Thanx Carol, that happened to Joe's cousin in 2008 when a huge EF-5 tornado went through that part of Iowa and they did do well, they live near Dunkerton.  I know it took them a long time emotionally though.  The new house not only has a basement, but one part even has a cement storm shelter built in on one side down there.

Description: A large and destructive tornado - an EF-5 - moved across Butler and Black Hawk counties on Sunday May 25, 2008. The initial touchdown occurred near the Butler and Grundy county line, 2 miles south of Aplington at 4:48 pm CDT and quickly grew in size and intensity as it approached Parkersburg. The tornado was nearly 3-4s of a mile wide as it moved through the southern end of Parkersburg at 4:59 pm CDT. Significant structural damage occurred in the town of Parkersburg including 100 to 200 homes destroyed. The tornado maintained size and intensity as it move towards New Hartford. At 5:09 pm CDT the storm moved just north of New Hartford once again causing significant structural and tree damage. The tornado weakened around 3 miles east of New Hartford with lesser damage as it moved east to north of the Waterloo and Cedar Falls area. Significant straight line winds occurred along and just south of the tornado track with preliminary estimates of 90 to 100 mph. The tornado then grew in size to near 1.2 miles wide north of Dunkerton causing substantial damage to a farmstead there. The tornado continued to do damage as it moved into Buchanan County

Nora, I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams how horrifying it is to live through any tornado, much less a EF-5.

and I just heard that little Angel Babcock has passed away.   Fly free little angel.  :crying:

That's so incredibly sad; I can't imagine what her grandparents are going through, having lost the whole family.

We do an organized bike ride every year in New Pekin, Indiana, where this little girl and her family were from...the town really gets behind the ride; many of them provide refreshments (gatorade, homemade pies and cookies, fried chicken) for the riders who hang out in their front yards.  They're such warm, friendly folks...many of them without homes now.

More later on my adventure in Henryville...there aren't really words to describe the devastation.

Thanks, Patti, Nora, Lizz, for news. Glad to hear about Mary, too, thanks, Nora.

Be well, all.

Oh that's so sad about little Angel  :(  I'm glad with serious head injuries they were willing to take her off life support, but still so awful.  "Angel" really is an angel  :crying: :crying:

Yes!  Glad to hear that Mary is ok also!  

I thought I'd share some random thoughts and observations from my experience today in Henryville...I won't describe the overall devastation; I'm sure that's obvious enough from the news (though I don't watch TV news, so I don't knows what's been shown).  I've never been in a disaster zone quite like this before...Allstate and State Farm had mobile claims offices set up.  There seemed to be a lot of communications/infrastructure repair going on, we saw trucks carrying telephone poles, cranes holding up electrical wires, etc.

One of the things I found sobering was that all of the houses (those that have some part of a structure still standing) have been marked with a big orange X indicating that search and rescue has already searched there.  They came through Jeane's sister's property yesterday and scoured the fields and woods with rescue dogs. 

Another thing I didn't really expect was how much hail damage there was.  We drove past one used car lot where every single windshield was either cracked or missing, and the cars incredibly dented, as is Tricia's.  Her car is driveable, but is a mess.  Jeane's sister's fields had divots in them 3 inches wide and a couple of inches deep from the baseball-sized hail.  We also found pieces of lumber that had been driven into the soil as much as six inches!  It's amazing that nearly all of her llamas and alpacas survived the hail and the flying missiles. 

And I mentioned this on Facebook, but while most of what we cleaned up today was lumber, pieces of siding, shingles, downed trees and insulation, we also picked up multiple stuffed animals, and saddest of all, a small lampshade that belonged in a little girl's room.

On the uplifting side, as we drove through town we saw tractor trailers full of donated supplies (massive amounts of bottled water, blankets, etc.) being unloaded, and a special "heat tent" set up so folks working outside on a cold day could go in and warm up.  It was also nice to see the llamas and alpacas getting on with their lives...going about the business of grazing...setting a good example of resilience for us humans.

Glad that you and Jeanne are OK, Patty, and that her sister's house is relatively intact.  Your report of the way people are banding together to do what needs to be done reminds me of my own, and my state's, recent flood experience.  People really do seem to be their best in times of trial and great need.  I'm finding news of the tornado damage difficult to deal with.  Flashbacks, if not exactly PTSD.  And a terror that this early awful weather is a preview of a bad storm season to come.  And, as a note for everyone, the recovery process post a disaster goes on long, long after said disaster has passed from the headlines.  Life goes on but a "new normal" develops.  Things are never quite the same again.
Kapi in Vermont

So heartfelt, Kapi. I cannot even begin to think what this experience must be like. Best to Patti, Jeane and their family and friends as they come to their own "new normal". XXX

Much love and prayers to all those affected.  :yes:

Patti and Jeane, so glad you are ok.  What horrific storms.  so sorry about your sister's home and hopefully animals are found safe.

I just heard today about Angel.  Sweet babe.  Now she is with her family.  What a tragedy

How are things going today, Patti? And that there is some reason for hope... "the thing with feathers...".

I didn't get to Tricia's today (nor will I tomorrow) because I have a special medical "test" scheduled tomorrow (the one you get when you turn 50), and it requires some "preparation" today!  I'm sure that was TMI.

But the report from Jeane (who has been going to work early so she can get in a few hours at the farm after work and before dark) is that groups of volunteers from two different relief agencies showed up today with lots of heavy-duty equipment and made short work of chopping up lots of downed trees and dismantling the remains of one of the smaller barns.  Jeane said there is a noticeable difference in how the town looks, so the massive volunteer effort must be paying off quickly.  This is the time in a disaster when everybody wants to know how they can help.

Jeane is helping Tricia coordinate a huge effort for this weekend (lots of friends of mine and Jeane's, friends of Tricia's from work and church, etc.)...there is still plenty to do!

All of the missing llamas have returned, so they only lost the one animal...

And in the human interest category, the cops caught a looter today who'd driven down from New Jersey to steal copper...they probably ought to beef up the security at the Clark County jail to keep the guy from vigilante justice.

Good to know that things are looking better and that all their animals have returned.  Thankfully, there are lots of good people out there to help with the clean-up effort but, unfortunately, the low-lifes always seem to crawl out of the woodwork during times like this.

Sounds like things are improving Patti.  So many good folks out there to help.   :clap:

Glad all the animals, except for the one, have returned.  This is really good news.

and as for that special test, well I'm sure you've heard the worst part is the preparation.  Good luck with it.

:ditto: Carol's remarks - good luck Patti.

Just a reminder for the rest of us:
Please donate to the Salvation Army, if you can:
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf (http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf)

or to the American Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org/ (http://www.redcross.org/)

Both of these organizations are already on the ground.  Please donate.  Thank You.