Harveyville is a small town, southwest of Topeka. They were hit Tuesday night by a tornado that wiped out 60% of the town. Gene and I went yesterday (Friday) to volunteer through the American Red Cross. The photo above is Gene and his trusty chainsaw working on a row of Osage Orange trees that were completely laid down flat. The good news is, the tree line probably saved the house from more damage.
This is downtown Harveyville. I took this through the windshield. See the white pickup truck on the right? Right above it is a white pile, that was an RV. I watched a little girl, probably 7 or 8, picking up debris and she was wearing her nightgown and a parka. That's probably all she had. We emptied the trailer at a makeshift dump behind the fire station, which was still standing. Amazing how quickly they organized things. Topeka restaurants are taking turns feeding people in the firehouse.
This is the first house we stopped at. You can see they're missing the roof on the left side. Across the road was a hay field where I picked up bits of their lives, a coffee cup, pages from a year book, a sprinkler head. We came home tired and dirty, but we came home to a house that's still standing. We were certainly reminded to count our blessings.
Joan
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