Parkersburg Bank
an overturned semi
random destruction
Our house
It is Thursday evening and we've had a long day of work. The storms last evening tore loose some of the tarps that were put up to reduce water leaks and further damage to the house. Both Mikes (Pott & Billingsley) spent most of the morning resecuring the tarps because of the possibility of further rainstorms later in the week. The afternoon was spent ripping carpet out of the living room, dining room, and hall as it is filled with glass shards and is unsafe to keep. Progress is definitely being made. Thankfully the shock and disbelief stage is passing and we are now in the cleanup stage.
For those who don't know the whole story, I suppose we had better backtrack. On sunday May 25, 2008 Parkersburg, IA was hit by an F5 tornado at 5:00 p.m. This tornado was 1/2 to 1 mile wide and reached 75,000 feet high! It is a miracle that mom and dad (Frank and Betty Pott) were standing in their bedroom looking outside at the sky when they were. They saw the clouds begin to swirl, yelled to brother Mike to come inside and then ran downstairs. By the time they got downstairs they said they heard what sounded like a train ... the tornado was hitting. It took approximately 10 seconds and then all was deadly still. Upon emerging from the basement they found glass and other debris all over the house. Further investigation showed that half of the windows were shattered, there was a large hole in the roof over the front hall/entrance and one wall of the garage had blown away. They were fortunate. Looking outside their kitchen window across the high school football field, everything was totally demolished ... Most of the damage was focused around the high school neighborhood. There were five fatalities in that area (just a few blocks from our parents home) and two more 10-miles away in New Hartford. 200 homes have been destroyed, and 400 damaged. The scoreboard from the football field was found 70-miles away. Parkersburg mail has been found as far as 100-mi away. Some people have still not located their vehicles. We thank God for His protection!!
Cheri
2 comments:
Thanks Cheri for posting the photos. Emily has been wanted to see their house. Can you also post one taken from he side (where the garage is, so we can see that better?), taken of the back of the house and the view that they now have from the back of the house. I have a few photos taken at Christmas that we took looking towards the high school (for camparison). Also if you are able, can you get one of the watertower (maybe you already got one) and with the view towards Parkersburg. Ithink Emily would also like one of the kitties.....Thanks!!
Hi Cheri (and others),
I was glad to see that you both made it safely to Iowa. Thank you for allowing us to have the blog address to keep up with you. I was saddened by the tremendous damage done to the town shown on the internet after we last spoke. Please let your parents know that there are A LOT of digiscrappers out there praying constantly for them and for their town. THANKS!
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