Our first event of the day was to rescue this little guy from the street in front of our house.
He was not happy with this rescue. I don't know if he (or she?) was trying to run away, but he desperately wanted to bite off our arms. So glad my kids weren't with us at this point in the day. Right after I took this picture, lunged at me and about knocked the plastic bin over.
Back at home at the duck pond, but still not happy.
Just scary mean. This is a young one. We've seen larger ones in the water near bridge.
So after that rescue, my husband and I headed out to join a group from our church. We were going to Little Axe to do some tornado cleanup. This was from the Sunday tornado. I was drawn to that opportunity more so than Moore because so many are in Moore, and the Little Axe area is closer to my hometown.
We checked in at the Absentee Shawnee Resource Center and got to fill out paperwork. Then we were given our assignment, the Pecan Creek West addition.
This is not in the blog because I feel like I did any major work, or want to brag that I did this "good" thing. It was a part of my day, and part of life in Oklahoma. I was only there two hours. I picked up little bits of insulation fluff, broken shingles, sheet rock, and dug out some pots, pans, and tools from sand. That's it. I am so grateful that there were lots of other volunteers in the area (and the other affected areas throughout the state), each doing our own part to try to restore the beauty of the area for the people who call it home. They are still coming--I passed several today. We also had a delicious boxed lunch, prepared by some senior adult ladies at our church who have found another way to help. I showed my son some of the areas today, and he was wanting to jump out of the car right then and get to work. With his four year old sister in tow--yea, bad timing. He should be able to help at our next opportunity for the family of some friends, although I would like to go back to this area too.
We headed home a little early to get the kids, clean up, and share a day of celebration with friends.
We left that party to head to another, a going away party for some friends, one of whom is our Sunday school teacher.
There were other people there--the kids are proof of that. My Sunday school class has a host of children, and more on the way. After looking at the few pictures I took of the grownups though, I've decided that if I want to keep my friends, I should just stick with these.
He was not happy with this rescue. I don't know if he (or she?) was trying to run away, but he desperately wanted to bite off our arms. So glad my kids weren't with us at this point in the day. Right after I took this picture, lunged at me and about knocked the plastic bin over.
Back at home at the duck pond, but still not happy.
Just scary mean. This is a young one. We've seen larger ones in the water near bridge.
So after that rescue, my husband and I headed out to join a group from our church. We were going to Little Axe to do some tornado cleanup. This was from the Sunday tornado. I was drawn to that opportunity more so than Moore because so many are in Moore, and the Little Axe area is closer to my hometown.
We checked in at the Absentee Shawnee Resource Center and got to fill out paperwork. Then we were given our assignment, the Pecan Creek West addition.
We were sent on ahead to find where we needed to work. As we topped the hill, we found the tornado's path, pretty much right through the middle of the addition. It is a rural area, so the houses were spread farther apart. But the destruction was much the same, with slight damage along the edges and then horrific destruction in the path. Most of these properties appeared to have had trailer homes or other similar construction, so often the "house" was now a mound of twisted metal downwind from where it used to be. This one looks like it exploded, with its walls all splayed out. My brain kept looking at the damage, trying to pick out what was what, what used to be where.
I found a Singer walking foot attachment, like I use with my quilts. I walked it back to the house, although I don't know which house it really came from. I couldn't take a picture of it. It was too personal.
We ended on a different property than the one pictured, helping a homeowner separate the reusable wood, tools, and household items from the rest. I must have been working harder here because I didn't take pictures. Or maybe there was just less there to even take a picture of. I never could piece together what this property used to look like, what all this wood was, knowing only that his trailer had been rolled east into a tangled mess of debris. I couldn't bring myself to ask.
This is not in the blog because I feel like I did any major work, or want to brag that I did this "good" thing. It was a part of my day, and part of life in Oklahoma. I was only there two hours. I picked up little bits of insulation fluff, broken shingles, sheet rock, and dug out some pots, pans, and tools from sand. That's it. I am so grateful that there were lots of other volunteers in the area (and the other affected areas throughout the state), each doing our own part to try to restore the beauty of the area for the people who call it home. They are still coming--I passed several today. We also had a delicious boxed lunch, prepared by some senior adult ladies at our church who have found another way to help. I showed my son some of the areas today, and he was wanting to jump out of the car right then and get to work. With his four year old sister in tow--yea, bad timing. He should be able to help at our next opportunity for the family of some friends, although I would like to go back to this area too.
We headed home a little early to get the kids, clean up, and share a day of celebration with friends.
We left that party to head to another, a going away party for some friends, one of whom is our Sunday school teacher.
There were other people there--the kids are proof of that. My Sunday school class has a host of children, and more on the way. After looking at the few pictures I took of the grownups though, I've decided that if I want to keep my friends, I should just stick with these.
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