Tornado

I hesitated to post about this, as I was not directly impacted, but I've received a flood of emails and calls about it, so I thought I would make a little post.

The city where I live was hit by a tornado yesterday afternoon.  There is a lot of damage in Suffolk near Obici Hospital and in a a little section of Suffolk called Driver which is within a few miles of where I live.  Because my work route takes me past Driver, I can report that the tiny (and charming) downtown is in splinters.  The damage in both locations is not to be believed.

Our house was not impacted by the tornado.  It is very strange because we had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon that seemed very mild in comparison to many many storms that pass through our area.  Because I am paranoid about and terrified of tornadoes, I checked the weather on TV for any alerts only to discover a tornado was down in our general area!  What?  Really? I grabbed my cats and put them in the downstairs bathroom (we have no basement) and then stood in the hallway monitoring the situation on TV and occasionally looking out the window to see if there was anything to see.  I stood there until the weather peeps said the storm had moved out.  We lost power briefly several times, but otherwise, no damage. 

If you would like help the tornado victims, here is a list of agencies from our local paper who are accepting donations.  I am not affiliated with any of these, though personally I often give through the Salvation Army as they do good work.

Thank you again for the outpouring of concern.  It's been pretty amazing.

♥

American Red Cross www.redcross.org – Suffolk, Southeast, Petersburg and Greater Richmond Chapters

Salvation Army www.salvationarmy.org

Federation of Virginia Food Banks www.foodbankonline.org

Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia www.cceva.org

Lutheran Disaster Response & Lutheran Family Services of Virginia www.ldr.org

Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia www.sbcv.org

Virginia Baptist Mission Board www.vbmb.org

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance www.pcusa.org

Virginia United Methodist Church Conference Disaster Response www.vaumc.org

Adventist Community Services www.communityservices.org

Virginia Beach Society for the Preventions of Cruelty to Animals www.vbspca.com

The Humane Society of the United States www.hsus.org/disaster

United Way www.unitedwayshr.org

Comments

[Heather]

Very glad to hear that you're ok, although it is terrible what has happened down your way. I live in Oklahoma (aka tornado alley) and I know all too well what these monsterous storms can do. I have a lot of childhood memories of grabbing up all the animals and piling into the bathtub with pillows over our heads.
My thoughts are with you all in Virginia~
heather

[Ronda]

I just heard about the tornado on the evening news and had to stop by your blog to see if you were posting. I'm so glad to hear you're fine and that you weren't in its path! Originally being from the midwest, I'm terrified of tornados.It is amazing how much damage they can do in so little time.

[Gaby Colindres]

Hi, I read about you winning Cakespy's Poll, CONGRATULATIONS! And well, I followed the link from her site that brought me to your blog; surprised to find that you live in Suffolk. First, I'm glad to hear you are OK! I moved from Suffolk to Jacksonville, FL last year, military family. We lived there for 4 years and we miss it!! We are so sad to hear what happened, so sad to hear about downtown and the antique store ... main street with LOTS of charm! We used to live behind OBICI Hospital! So ... I guess there is really no point to my 'comment' other than say our prayers are with Suffolk!!! Hugs

[violetkey]

wow, glad to hear you're ok too!

[Andrea Mitchell]

Wow, I'm sorry, I hadn't even heard. I guess the news didn't filter all the way to New Zealand. Glad you're okay, it sounds pretty terrifying.

[Alison Whittington]

I am glad to know you're okay :)