As some of you have noticed, I get quite testy whenever Americans are degraded as a whole nation. Perhaps it is because I do not see the America Europe sees, and Europe never seems to see the heartland of our nation for what it is. I often despair to myself that our country and its people are growing self-centered and lazy....then, something happens that makes me remember I do indeed live amongst some really good people.
I blogged earlier about our storm Thursday night, I also have posted some photos to my album, it would work better if the old photos didn't show first when you go to KFs photos, but I have no control over that. I took care not to take pics of people or things that would identify different farmsteads, so perhaps the pictures are not the best, but I think they convey to some degree the destruction a fairly weak tornado inflicts. I should tell you, the NWS has changed its mind now, even though their radars showed rotation along the exact path that was hit, even though our spotters put through their training program called it a tornado, even though the general population believes it to be a tornado, and even though they put us in a tornado warning, they say now it was a 100 mph straightline "channelized" wind(accounting for the path about one half mile wide). I am still calling it a tornado, because debris was not scattered all in one direction, and I would think a 100mph straight wind would send everything the same direction.
Perhaps part of the problem is because by the time they showed up on Friday afternoon, a small army of friends and neighbors had already cleaned up the lions share of the debris, against the wishes of the NWS who wanted things left alone. That is the purpose of this blog. Those who think Americans are selfish need to be around when one of us in middle America is hit with a disaster. From out of nowhere, people just show up to lend a hand. I had gone to bed at 5am Friday morning after spending 5 hours with my compatriots going from farm to farm making sure no one was hurt or trapped. We also cleared some trees from the road and highway. It was a strange sight to see normally deserted country roads alive with flashing lights, and people who at any other time would be fast asleep in bed out in their yards looking at what they had incurred in the way of damage. I got up at 7:30, not because I am super tough and can go without sleep, but because my phone rang, the voice on the other end said, "I'm surprised you are up already", to which I rather grumpily replied, "well, I wouldn't be up if you hadn't called me". Since I was awake I did some of the most pressing chores and then grabbed the camera, I wanted to get some pics. I also wanted to see what the damage looked like in the light of day, and I intended to help with some of the cleanup, which I assumed would not start until everyone had gotten their insurance adjustors on sight. I soon learned that at one of the worst hit places(the pic with the board through the side of the house) about 40 people had showed up at 7am with trucks and skidloaders, and by about 11 am you could hardly tell anything had happened, the destroyed sheds had been cleaned up and hauled off, save a few twisted trees, broken windows and the board through the house, it looked peaceful. Most of my pics were taken on the farm of a good friend of mine and his parents farm just down the road. I got there about 10am or so, and there had already been alot of work done, it is amazing what short work 25 or 30 people and a couple of skid loaders can make of a pile of rubble. The debris was sorted through, anything that could be used was moved, the remains of the buildings that couldn't be salvaged were piled to be burned. By the time the TV news people and the NWS people showed up, half of the help had gone home, and the rest of us were crowded inside a little farm building that withstood the storm munching on fried chicken sent out by the owners of the eatery we all love, free of charge since the owner couldn't come help himself. All day long you heard a common theme, "it could have been much worse" and "we were really lucky it wasn't worse".
I have seen this all before, from high winds to fire, sickness and accidental deaths, when hard times strike one of us, the community pulls together. My nature sometimes borders on cynical when it comes to my fellow man. But as I contemplated last night the things that I had seen during the last 24 hours, from volunteer firemen going into the storm as everyone took shelter, to a couple teenage girls in "wellies" working with their parents just to help a neighbor in need, to a man 15 miles from the storm sending 100 pieces of homemade fried chicken from his restaurant, to the number of people who told me they had listened to us on their scanners the night before until 3 and 4 am, waiting to see if we found anyone trapped and needed more help, and everything in between, I felt that there is no better place in the entire world for me to live and work then in rural Kansas in the heart of the good old USA. I once read a piece on the BBC where the writer stated he had found the people in middle America to be "dull-witted and simple". If what I see of my friends and neighbors is dull-witted and simple, then I guess those are the kind of people I really prefer to associate with.