CherubimII
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STORMS HIT KANSAS, SEDGWICK COUNTY
Tornado survivors tell their stories
Eagle staff
Updated: 2012-04-16T14:22:01Z
Wichita tornado brings destruction, but no deaths
Tornadoes can do the strangest things.
Video Link:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/15/3556103/tornado-survivors-stories.html
Chrissy Hart, 32, heeded Saturday’s storm warnings, left her home in the 5100 block of Meadowview Avenue in Oaklawn and waited out the night’s fury at her mother’s house. She returned later to find her house riddled with damage.
Shortly before noon Sunday, Hart was searching for anything salvageable. And then she saw it. Her Michael Jackson CD, “This is It,” sitting undisturbed on top of a stereo speaker next to an outside wall that was no longer there.
“Oh, my gosh!” she cried as she spotted it.
A tornado wipes out a wall, yet leaves an item weighing less than a few ounces untouched.
Hart sighed with gratitude. Not just because of the rescued CD. She was OK, her neighbors were OK. Property? Not so good.
“I don’t have a place to live,” Hart said, “but I’m grateful because I still have something. I don’t know what to do.”
So she hugged one of her next-door neighbors, Connie Force.
“I’ll never be able to find neighbors again as good as you,” Hart said through tears.
Connie, 50, and her husband, Bob, 59, also had their house demolished. Their truck and car were smashed.
She survived by hiding in a closet. He flipped a couch over the top of him — right where a tree limb slammed through a window.
As chain-saws whirred away all over their block Sunday, the Forces picked through what remained inside. Terry Force, their son, came over to help.
“Dad, we need to get some respirator masks,” Terry said. “I can’t breathe in there.”
Piles of grayish-colored insulation, fallen from the collapsed ceiling, lay inches deep. Every step kicked up choking dust. Someone found dust masks, and everyone put one on.
This was Bob’s fifth tornado. He survived four others in western Kansas.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it through this one,” he said.
The Forces had only four more years left before the house was paid off.
Over the deafening roar of the chain-saws cutting up the fallen trees littering the neighborhood, Chrissy yelled to Connie, “Hey, maybe now I can get that new carpet.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Connie said, with a little chuckle.
– Rick Plumlee
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/15/3556103/tornado-survivors-stories.html#storylink=cpy
ASIDE: Thank God Chrissy and her family are safe. :angel:
Tornado survivors tell their stories
Eagle staff
Updated: 2012-04-16T14:22:01Z
Wichita tornado brings destruction, but no deaths
Tornadoes can do the strangest things.
Video Link:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/15/3556103/tornado-survivors-stories.html
Chrissy Hart, 32, heeded Saturday’s storm warnings, left her home in the 5100 block of Meadowview Avenue in Oaklawn and waited out the night’s fury at her mother’s house. She returned later to find her house riddled with damage.
Shortly before noon Sunday, Hart was searching for anything salvageable. And then she saw it. Her Michael Jackson CD, “This is It,” sitting undisturbed on top of a stereo speaker next to an outside wall that was no longer there.
“Oh, my gosh!” she cried as she spotted it.
A tornado wipes out a wall, yet leaves an item weighing less than a few ounces untouched.
Hart sighed with gratitude. Not just because of the rescued CD. She was OK, her neighbors were OK. Property? Not so good.
“I don’t have a place to live,” Hart said, “but I’m grateful because I still have something. I don’t know what to do.”
So she hugged one of her next-door neighbors, Connie Force.
“I’ll never be able to find neighbors again as good as you,” Hart said through tears.
Connie, 50, and her husband, Bob, 59, also had their house demolished. Their truck and car were smashed.
She survived by hiding in a closet. He flipped a couch over the top of him — right where a tree limb slammed through a window.
As chain-saws whirred away all over their block Sunday, the Forces picked through what remained inside. Terry Force, their son, came over to help.
“Dad, we need to get some respirator masks,” Terry said. “I can’t breathe in there.”
Piles of grayish-colored insulation, fallen from the collapsed ceiling, lay inches deep. Every step kicked up choking dust. Someone found dust masks, and everyone put one on.
This was Bob’s fifth tornado. He survived four others in western Kansas.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it through this one,” he said.
The Forces had only four more years left before the house was paid off.
Over the deafening roar of the chain-saws cutting up the fallen trees littering the neighborhood, Chrissy yelled to Connie, “Hey, maybe now I can get that new carpet.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Connie said, with a little chuckle.
– Rick Plumlee
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/04/15/3556103/tornado-survivors-stories.html#storylink=cpy
ASIDE: Thank God Chrissy and her family are safe. :angel:
