hi everyone.
my family and I are OK. to make it short, we lost our horse farm and horses. my house has some damage and we've been doing clean-up, but it could have been much worse. only a street or two away from my house, everything is gone. they shut down my neighborhood, but we were able to get my dogs and H and I stayed at my parents'. we had no power or water, but that was restored last night. our yard and garden was full of debris... bricks, wood, metal, insulation, a pair of sunglasses, and a bunch of unidentifiable stuff. stuff is plastered to our brick and windows, so we'll have to power wash that off.
my mom was working in one of the schools that was hit, but she's okay and no one at her school died.
some of my coworkers lost their homes, and a close friend of mine lost everything they have.
we spent part of the day yesterday trying to salvage what we could of the horse farm. we found all three of the horses dead (either they died during the tornado or someone came by and shot them to end it all). the injuries/deaths were graphic and horrible. I didn't get up close to any of them, but my dad, H, and brother all went to make sure they were gone. we thought for a while one was still alive, but eventually we found him in a pond.
I'm just thankful we have a home and each other. my dad and I were driving towards my house and the horse farm to check it out when we heard on the radio that it was hitting my mom's school. it was possibly the worst 5-10 minutes of my life, waiting to find out if she was alive.
and now we begin the long process of rebuilding and recovery. we need a new roof at my house. my mom will need to take her car in... it was one of the only ones in the parking lot at the school that was drive-able. we will have to do clean-up at the horse farm and help K. (the lady who lived on the land) find a place to stay and rebuild. sadly, she is an older woman also battling cancer right now. she is suffering a lot of guilt over "losing" the horses. but there's nothing she could have done. I'm sure much of our free time in the next few weeks will be spent helping our friends salvage what's left at their house and find some more permanent housing, until all the insurance stuff is taken care of.
we are on a list to get a shelter (my parents have one, but we don't). who knows how long it will be to get one now!
I would love to share pictures and/or videos. I tried to upload to this post, but it just isn't working for me. PM me if you'd like to see! I don't want to put it out here because it has ID'ing landmarks and signs, and that's just creepy. my neighbor has a few videos he took from a camera and iPhone, as it passed by our street.
thanks to everyone who was checking up on us. I haven't stopped shaking and I'm suffering from small anxiety attacks, but I'm back at work today and I'm sure getting back to normal is the best thing. if you'd like to find ways to help out, let me know.