MORE CLEAN-UP....

Do you remember my post from Monday, June 10th, when the tornado went through our neighborhood? We've been busy cleaning up all week...the sound of chain saws has been almost never-ending here!

I posted these pictures of our neighbor's tree that was struck by lightning (almost splitting the tree directly in half), leaving half of the tree standing and the other half falling and landing across our street.

Tuesday brought lots of City trucks into our neighborhood to clean up trees that had fallen.

These trucks removed the half of the tree that had fallen across the street after being struck by lightning. Many of the neighbors begged these workers to cut down the remaining part of the tree that was left standing because it looked like a light wind could blow it down!! The workers said they could not cut it down because they were only removing trees that were blocking streets and intersections (over 100)! But, they assured all of us in the neighborhood that they would be back on Wednesday to cut the rest of the tree down and remove it. They did not come back on Wednesday. They did not come back on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Today, this is what happened to the rest of the tree that was left standing....

This is all that remains now....


I can only say that it is a MIRACLE that nobody was hurt, especially children. This house happens to be a "gathering place" for all of the neighborhood children! Had it not been Father's Day when everyone was busy having cook-outs and celebrating, most likely there would have been several children playing outside at this house!

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The tree crushed their station wagon and their red pick-up truck (you can barely see the red truck under the tree). It destroyed a good portion of their backyard fence, their swingset, and their above-ground pool. This family happened to be INSIDE their house when the tree fell (another MIRACLE)!

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There were no strong winds today or other precipitating factors! This tree just simply FELL over, like many of us feared would happen!

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I, LIKE MANY OTHERS HERE, AM COUNTING MY BLESSINGS TODAY!