Tennessee Tornados--OT

[TN Traveler]

Wow! I've been off the Board for 3 or 4 days and it's changed completely!!

Just survived tornados in my town (Gallatin) where 8 people were killed on Friday. Never in my life have I seen such destruction and devistation. It's bad on TV but 100 X worse in person. One of my dearest friends suffered major damage to her house including windows blown out, doors missing, and a tree that fell through her roof into her bonus room. Others have the entire 2nd floor of their homes missing, and some have no homes at all. It's really, REALLY bad. We were w/o power for 24 hrs and suffered some hail damage to our patio cover from baseball size hail but nothing near as serious as others around here. Our local community college is missing the roof off 3 buildings and much more damage. The Toyota and Nissan Dealerships are damaged beyond repair. It looks like a giant come in, picked up the cars like toys and just tossed them across the highway and then to add insult to injury, step on them squishing them flat.

What's weird is my GF whose house was damamged so bad scrapbooks too. She was working on several albums and had all her supplies, pictures and albums laid out on her dinning room table when the storms hit. NOT ONE PAGE IS MISSING, NOT ONE PICTURE IS OUT OF PLACE!! When we went over to her house Friday, I was shocked to see how bad it was. The windows in her dining room are cracked, her kitchen which is connected to her dinning room has every window completely blown out, the windows in her sunroom are blown out and the door that goes from her deck to her house is completely busted out.....but the scrapbook supplies and pictures are still ok!!! AMAZIN!!

So now I have a question....The tornado passed over our house and I was able to take what I hope will be some awesome pictures. I have pictures of the hail and some of the damage on our house. I also have taken several pictures of the college, car dealerships, the high school where my daughter was when it hit, and other areas of Gallatin. Do ya'll think it's tacky to make an album about the tornado? I thought about using the newspaper articles as wel as pictures and thought it'd be pretty interesting to save and make an album of this. My middle daughter is 9 and youngest is 6. This could be a major part of their life story. Yet, I don't want to be offensive toward anyone in their time of loss. Opinions?

TIA
Karen

 

[Stephieann]

Karen, I too am in Tennessee. I am thankful we did not have any damage. I think it would be neat to do a scrapbook on it.

Talking about the scrapbook surviving the storm, i was watching one of the local channels (2, 4 or 5 dont remember which one) but the guy that was showing footage went to his home, that too was destroyed, and during the footage of his home they saw a EMMY that he had one for a weather story that he had done. The EMMY was in tack and still sitting in the same spot he left it prior to the tornado. WHen one of the news anchors asked him if that was an emmy he said yes and what is odd i won it doing a story called ... GET THIS "SURVIVING THE STORM" now that is weird. Well i will keep my prayers coming to you and your community!!!! lots of hugs and prayers from the south central part of the state!!!!

 

[pjlla]

Not tacky at all. Scrapbooking is supposed to be about LIFE... and real life includes tornados! It is part of your family's history. Scrap away! BTW, so glad to hear you are well. I saw the news on TV about the tornados.... I'll take my New England blizzards over tornados any day!...............P

 

[lewdyan1]

I totally agree, it should be scrapped, it part of life. I scrapped things after last years hurricanes.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

I don't think it is tacky at all doing a scrapbook about it.. It will let your kids know that you all survived the storm... We live in Indiana and have tornado quite often so we can relate your devestation. I've seen one in person when my mom and I were at home alone and the tail end went right down our cul-de-sac. It's so different in person than on the tv.

Glad to hear you all are fine.

 

[TN Traveler]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It's really scary around here. The National Guard is in town, helicopters flying overhead everywhere, --- so
unlike our normal quiet town!!

Can I ask for a special prayer request here. Would ya'll please remember a man that attends our church, Jeff Doyle. His wife died last Saturday (4/1) at the age of 41. Not sure what caused her death but it was very sudden and unexpected--thinking it might have been a brain aneuryism (sp?) or a stroke.
Thursday they had a memorial service for her at our church....Friday the tornado came through his house and destroyed EVERYTHING! It's completely gone. He has a daughter that is 12 and a son that is 8 (I think) so this is very, very difficult for him. He is a strong Christian man so he has that in his life but it's still very difficult.

Princess Nancy....what part of IN do you live in? I have relatives in small towns around Indy and ALOT of family in Kokomo which is where my mom is originally from.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts coming our way. It's very much appreciated!

Karen

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It's really scary around here. The National Guard is in town, helicopters flying overhead everywhere, --- so
unlike our normal quiet town!!

Can I ask for a special prayer request here. Would ya'll please remember a man that attends our church, Jeff Doyle. His wife died last Saturday (4/1) at the age of 41. Not sure what caused her death but it was very sudden and unexpected--thinking it might have been a brain aneuryism (sp?) or a stroke.
Thursday they had a memorial service for her at our church....Friday the tornado came through his house and destroyed EVERYTHING! It's completely gone. He has a daughter that is 12 and a son that is 8 (I think) so this is very, very difficult for him. He is a strong Christian man so he has that in his life but it's still very difficult.

Princess Nancy....what part of IN do you live in? I have relatives in small towns around Indy and ALOT of family in Kokomo which is where my mom is originally from.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts coming our way. It's very much appreciated!

Karen

Many prayers for Mr. Doyle and his family.. That has to be a very trying time for all of them.

I live just West of Indy. I actually have good friends in Kokomo!!! We are about hour and fifteen from Kokomo...

 

[TN Dreamer]

Karen, I wondered about you when I heard that area around Gallatin was so badly hit. My prayers are with everyone there that has been affected in some way by the tornados. When I watched the news I just could not believe it. Thank goodness you and your family are ok.

We had tornado warnings in East Tennessee for most of the evening, but thankfully no tornados, just severe thunderstorms.

I think it would be fine to do a scrapbook on the tornados and the effect it has had on your community and the lives of your neighbors.

 

[bclydia]

Oh, I'm so sorry for all that you are going through. Our prayers are with you and we will pray especially for Mr. Doyle and his children.
I think you should certainly scrapbook about this time. It will be an important memory for your children and for you.

 

[Lisa]

My thoughts are with you and those who suffered through the tornado devastation. How sad Mr. Doyle and his children lost his wife and their house.

I agree with the others about scrapping your photos of your town. One does scrapbook to save their memories, and their history, but I also think in the long run, it will help your children (and your friend) recover from the emotions they experienced as a result of the tornados.

 

[TN Traveler]

Thanks everyone for your kind words
It has been strange here. I'm almost feeling guilty b/c we didn't suffer any major damage yet I have friends that don't have a house to live in any more!
It's almost like I can't seem to say or do the right things when it comes to this. The kids went back to school today. The Librarian at my youngest 2 daughters' school lost her home. My girls are 6 & 9 and actually knowing someone that doesn't have a house to live in now, has caused alot of questions from them. My oldest one (14) seems to be fine altho the tornado brushed by her school and caused some damage to it.

We are so blessed. The tornado hit around 2:10; if it had been just an hour later, kids would be getting out of school, on buses and the town would be busy w/usual Friday afternoon activity. I cannot say enough good things about the teachers at our schools. They really took care of our kids. My 6 yr old's 1st grade teacher called yesterday to check on her and make sure she was ok. I thought that was incredibly thoughtful and kind.

Pictures should be back tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. I'm anxious to see them and then start on the new album that I want to put together. Great, just what I need ANOTHER album to put in the "pending" file!!

Karen

 

[Queenie]

I agree with everyone here that you should scrap the tornado. It would only be offensive if you made it into a joke like "hahaha look at the damage" but you wouldn't ever do that! I think you should scrap the bad as well as the good but it is very difficult I know, I have pics of me as a kid stood amongst the flowers at my dad's funeral that I don't know if I will ever be able to scrap.

I'm glad all the DIS'sers are ok, the tornadoes were on the national news here and we were very worried about all the DIS'sers and our other US friends whom we knew were right in the path of the storms. It's scary because our news only says what state a big storm has hit so it's impossible to know if our friends were nearby as the states are so big!