This post is somewhat of a follow up to yesterday's prayer request. The headline in the paper this morning is that the tornadoes that ripped through here over the weekend were classified as an F-5. I remember watching the movie Twister and someone asked what an F-5 was like and they answered "the finger of God." I think that is a very apt description. I look at picture after picture of the damage and it's completely devastating. There were a total of 7 deaths and 350 homes were lost in the town that was hit the hardest (with another 100 homes receiving "extensive" damage). In the town I work in, 240 of 280 homes received damage of some sort.
Closer to home, went in to work yesterday to discover our warehouse had flooded. From the watermarks on the door it looks like we got between 2 and 3 foot of water inside. A lot of our stuff is palletized but of course pallets only sit 6-8" high. Most of it floated around inside until the water receded then landed. My co-worker and I spent all day yeseterday cleaning. We basically had to open each case of toys, inspect them, remove the damaged cardboard, relabel the foam enclosures, then sort them into clean and dirty piles. Then they got hauled to a storage facility. It was VERY slow going. (Total side note - I am AMAZED at how well those styrofoam enclosures kept out the mud and water!)
Another co-worker, and a good friend, lost everything in her basement...deep freezer, washer, dryer, furnace, water heater, personal items, etc. Even her car in her garage is totaled. And of course, very few people have flood insurance. Ironically, this particular area was just rezoned as a flood zone last week thereby making people even eligible to get flood insurance. (Another side note - THANK the Red Cross. They are an amazing group of people!)
Here's a few pictures of our clean-up efforts at work:
Mud and my co-worker standing in it.------------------
One corner of the warehouse. This was where we started.
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Storage shelves. You can see the mud caked on the shelving.------------------
Going towards the back room. The boxes along the side are pedal tractors.------------------
Pile of trash from inside. Mostly cardboard boxes.------------------
More of the trash pile.
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And a few more links:
2 comments:
oh my gosh girl!! Of course my prayers will be with all who were affected :(.
We've been very lucky as most of the horrendous storms that we've all been plagued with this year have passed west or north of us when they've come through TN.
Wow, that is just horrible. i don't know if I would have been able to handle that clean up. Prayers as well from me to all.
By the way, I looked again on blogspot for the three column layout and still can't find it. Do you remember what it was called?
No rush, just thought maybe some mindless stuff to think about might help a little.
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