Thankful

We encountered a pretty big weather event Sunday afternoon.  We had known all week that Sunday was going to be wrought with rough weather; no one anticipated it would be this devastating.  In southern Tippecanoe county an EF-3 tornado touched down and ripped havoc on Mintonye Elementary and Southwestern Middle School.  Mintonye is where our good friend Natalie works as the ever-popular lunch lady.  Natalie and her family live less than five miles from where the tornado touched down, so we feel so thankful that her family and farm animals were able to stay safe.  I wanted to share a snippet of an email she sent to family and friends along with some pictures.

Well, we're happy to say everyone is safe and we might only have a couple of trees down in the woods. It could have been a LOT worse, and the way it sounded from our hideout under the stairs, I would've expected a lot worse. I knew it was about to hit the fan when the alpacas all crammed into the barn and Amelia tried climbing the walls in the closet (literally). Animals and their sixth sense....

I'm attaching a few pics from school that our custodian took this morning. We, along with the kitchen staff at Southwestern MS, meet with our supervisor in the morning. We may get reassigned to other schools temporarily to help with the increase from the displaced students. The best I can hope for is that the kids and I will all be in the same building. We could get split up between three, for a fun logistical shuffle every day...

We had a small waste water treatment facility behind our building, and it was completely obliterated. The Superintendent has said that will be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome--walls and the roof-- can be fixed quickly, but dealing with the septic and water issues now are a problem. That also prevents them from putting temporary trailer/classes in the parking lot.

The white door is the kitchen door, where the kids and I go in every day. The tall wooden boards on the right are covering J's classroom. 

 Our former water treatment facility.

Area on far west side of the building (also facing the middle school), where the kindergarten classes are.

And so because of the heavy damage the storm left behind throughout the county, including many homes and traffic lights without power, all of TSC was cancelled yesterday.  I suspect TSC brought in a team of structural engineers to evaluate all of the buildings for damage.  Amy and I quickly headed into 'divide and conquer' mode- I took the morning shift, her father-in-law took the lunch hour, and Amy covered the afternoon.  

It was a banner day for Kari and Nolan.  I took them over to the Union for a little bowling before the most popular class on campus started- yes, bowling! (at least 7 sections a semester with 30 students each.  Kevin and I are both alums of this course; Kevin x2!)  

After bowling we had an early lunch at Pappy's Sweet Shop, topping it off with a milkshake for two.  So cute!  In the afternoon, Amy took them over to Hobby Lobby and to Starbucks for hot chocolate.