An anonymous reader emailed me a link to this article from Catholic Online about how Floridians who recently suffered tornado damage found abundant help in its aftermath.
Father Browne from Sacred Heart parish arrived on the scene of a damaged neighborhood in Isleboro only to find that people didn't need help. Local contractors were already at work, clearing debris with chainsaws. Other residents were hard at work helping those with damaged homes.
The article reads in part:
"“It was amazing,” Gretchen explained. “People from the subdivision came to help us. We’re not really one big family - just families living in each house. We hadn’t even talked before and yet people were coming to help out.”
As police let volunteers into the subdivision, people from Krantz’s work arrived with water, Gatorade and bags of food from McDonald’s. The American Red Cross delivered pizza and sandwiches and a representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived. To Krantz, it seemed like every city employee had been sent to help clean up. By 9:30 p.m., Friday, power was restored to the most of the area." {Via Catholic Online}
This help not only restored the residents' physical needs, but their faith in others as well. According to one resident, she said that she learned how much she was loved.
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goldchair emailed me the following story:
Via Summer 2001 Accent on Living
In 2001, a quadriplegic in Kansas named Curtis faced a tornado alone. Like myself, once he is in bed, he doesn't have any mobility.
His attendant, Janet, called him as the tornado was going through from a local church. He assured her that he was fine and to stay put since the tornado was heading in her direction.
Both survived. Curtis' advice to a quadriplegic or person with a disability facing this situation is to throw blankets over oneself - as he pointed out, unless you have a backup attendant, there isn't much you can do. An employee at an Independent Living Center, Curtis was very matter of fact about the situation.
By the way, Janet came over and checked on him as soon as the tornado passed.
[This is the first in a series of stories that are news "worthy", but may not have received the recognition in the media they deserve. If you know of a story like this, please email me a link or information about it.]
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1 comment:
I don't know if you did this on purpose, but I like the way you linked a story about a person with a disability to the first story. I like Curtis' attitude too about the whole thing.
Tim
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