When Sorry isn't Enough

I've been on the outskirts of the Moore tornado all week.  Running to and fro, doing errands, trying to figure out where I could be effective.

Today I finally saw the destruction.  I-35 has been a parking lot this whole week.  I have driven the service roads and been all around the outskirts.  Today, I made it down I-35 and my heart literally stopped beating for a few minutes.

I was unprepared for the vast destruction I witnessed.  Entire streets of houses were gone.  There are no road signs, so there is no way to even find your bearings.  Mainly, because all the businesses, signs, landmarks, etc... are all destroyed.

They have been lifted, chopped up, shook up, flipped, chewed up and spit out.  It was horrifying.

We were only able to get to the east side of I-35, we weren't on the side where the schools were.  It's even worse there.  The path is so wide of destruction, and it's so overwhelming when you drive into a neighborhood, and it's not just a few people that need help....it's everybody.   I. Mean. Everybody.

I remember the first time I worked in the nursery at church.  There were 24 kids and 4 workers, and 20 of them were crying.  You wanted to comfort all of them and try to maintain the calm in the room, but there was no way you could stretch yourself thin enough to care for 6 kids at once.  You don't know who to help first.  The loudest cryer, or the sweet one with tears streaming down his face, trying to comfort himself.  Everyone of them need your attention, but where do you go first?

Driving into a neighborhood of utter destruction, I felt that despair weave through my heart.  Where in the world?? Who do I start with?  What do you say?   It. was. heartbreaking.

The severely destructed neighborhoods were being patrolled by military, so there was no getting in there, even with supplies.  So we headed out to neighborhoods that were on the outskirts, homes with no power, but families still camping out in them, and working in their yards, trying to restore order.

Shelby from the funeral home and Preston, our fearless leader Funeral home manager, had struck out in the neighborhoods the night prior, and found a father and son that were without power and could use a generator.  Preston generously loaned 2 from our funeral home and as we delivered those today to those families, the precious man fought back tears and as we asked them what else we could help them with, he just broke down.

As we fought with the urge of needing to help everyone, we came back down to earth to realize that we may only be able to help one family.  Giving of your time and the amount of effort it takes, just to get the debris off your roof, is unbelievable.  We passed an 80+ year old woman out in her debris filled yard, just aimlessly picking up shingles and insulation, and when we stopped to ask her how we could assist her, she couldn't even think of what she needed.   "Do you need trash bags",  my friend and manager, Kristen, asked her.. "can we bring you some trash bags?"   "I think the trash man will come today", she offered.  I told her I was pretty sure the trash man wouldn't be able to make it today, and that we could come back later and help her with her covered up yard.  We showered her with water, and a bag of snacks and toiletries, that Resthaven has in excess and just drove on.

We went back to the funeral home and armed our car with care packages and cold water and gatorade and lots and lots and lots of trash bags.

 We looked like a mini disaster relief van, but we were still naive newbies at this point, and had way too many diapers and not enough cold water and gatorade.

People are donating the GIANT bottles of sanitizer and people were like  "Whoa, that's a bang load of sanitizer" and yep, I have to agree.  Preston thought we should shrink wrap a giant bottle of sanitizer and a roll of toilet paper for every person.  My first real laugh of the day.  We got boxes and boxes of snack food, and instead of handing someone 36 bags of cheezits or 48 nutrigrain bars, we spent time and divided them up into "Snack bags" and handed them out along with cold drinks to the hard working people diligently cleaning up what was left of their yards.

Tomorrow we will be smarter.  The cold water is important after it gets warm outside.  The trash bags are important every single second.  No one has enough trash bags.  No one.  If we had had 10 tarps, we would have given them out.  We had 4 and they were gone in 10 minutes.  Everyone's roof has holes from the debris.

And to make matters all the more worse, it rained like a cow peeing on a flat rock all morning.  Straight downpour gusher.  It was just the icing on the cake for all these people.  But even driving through the rubble, you saw resiliency.  People out there, digging and friends and volunteers helping. Vans everywhere with water, and supplies, people helping people.   It was just a beautiful thing.

I can't stress enough that there is something for everybody to do.  Don't think you can't help.  Grab as many big strong trashbags as you have.  Take a rake, a shovel and wear strong sturdy shoes.  Get gloves on, and just drive to one of the sites.  There are people EVERYWHERE that need your help.  One yard alone takes 10 people to clean, and there are 1000's of yards to clean.

Shawnee needs help.  Lifechurch.tv MWC campus is organizing volunteers to help Saturday from 9-2.  Go to their facebook page and read about that opportunity.

If you have chainsaws and strong arms, go to Little Axe.  There are desperate situations everywhere in Oklahoma.  Not just in Moore.

It's time to rally together and help our neighbors.  It's about being the hands and feet of Jesus, and this is your way to be just that.  You are sore, and your heart is broken when you leave these places, but it makes you look at your home differently.  It makes you silently thankful to the bottom of your feet that you and your family were spared.

I spent just an extra minute staring at my home when I drove up this evening.  How I take for granted the comfort that it gives me.  How I can draw a bath, and turn on the tv, and cook my family food.  How I can walk in the yard, and play with my dog and wave to my neighbors.  All the things I take for granted, these thousands of families don't have tonight.

Sometimes, telling someone I'm sorry isn't enough.  Helping a total stranger pick up hundreds of pieces of debris from their yard shows them how sorry you are.  Get out this weekend and show your love and pride in Oklahoma.   Go be Oklahoma proud.