Renewal of Faith in the Human Race

It is truly easy for me to sympathize and empathize with the earthquake victims on Haiti. My life was also changed irrevocably by a natural disaster, albeit a disaster of a different nature. I was fortunate to have not lost any family, but it is a terrifying experience to see that your house has literally been torn to shreds and to know that so many of your possessions are gone. It has nothing to do with materialism, but it is more that having all that is normal and familiar ripped away.

On April 21, 1996, it was a normal Sunday, after a normal weekend. We knew there were going to be storms, but that was not unusual for that time of the year. After I had auditioned for a play at the local little theater, I had gone to my boyfriend's house to spend the evening, until I would go home to bed. I did not plan to stay late, since I had classes at the local community college the next morning, and I had to work the next afternoon. He and I would usually rent a movie and just relax.

There was a strange and heavy feeling in the air, and my boyfriend and I were watching the weather channel when the storm finally broke. He went to the front porch to look at the sky, and I got nervous enough at the reports to call my father, although it was around eleven o'clock on a Sunday evening. I knew he would be up watching the weather. I told him that the reports were not good. I told him it may be a good idea to uncover the cellar door that was in the hall closet of our house, and I told him he should get the cellular phones out of the vehicles. (This is back when they were bag phones.) He figuratively patted me on the head like I was a well-meaning ninny. I'll never forget that.

Before my dad and I got off the phone, the boyfriend came running into the house yelling about green lightning, scooping up the cat and heading for the closet under the stairs in his house. I got off the phone with my dad and followed him. We were only six or seven blocks from the tornado, and we could hear it from inside his house at that distance. There was very little damage in his neighborhood. I started trying to call my family, immediately, but I could not get an answer on either the house phone or their cell phones.

As I had suspected, my dad was outside watching the lightning over Oklahoma, which you can see from their backyard. He and my future-ex-brother-in-law, Doug, were enjoying the storm. At one point, Doug, who had been looking west with my dad, turned to the south and said, "Jim? Is that a tornado?" in manner that only shock and disbelief can achieve. When my dad looked up, there was a flash of lightning behind it which illuminated it. They both ran into the house and woke my mom and younger sister. Fortunately, they were all able to get into the cellar with the cell phones in the nick of time. I would like to mention that there was no warning from the National Weather Service until after the tornado had touched down and started its damage. We had no warning. This is why our area now has its own Doppler radars.

I had been trying to call home, and I was also stepping out to speak with the neighbors. There was no electricity, so I could not get a news report on the television or the radio. I went in to try to call again, and the phone was ringing. I answered and my older sister, Heather, told me that she had spoken to Mom. The house was destroyed, the vehicles were totaled and I was to stay where I was. Mom's orders. Period. It was a good thing she sent that order, since I was about to drive home to check on my family. With all the power lines that were down, it would have been a bad idea.

My parents' house was on a hill (a small hill) in the neighboring town, across the Arkansas River, from Fort Smith. Nobody really believed a tornado would hit that area. To our surprise, the tornado had apparently split at the river. One part continued down the river path until it fizzled. The other part jumped the river and tore a path through my neighborhood and other parts of town. I spent the night trying to sleep, but I was wide awake. I was not going to be all right until I saw my family. I finally got the call to come get my parents at about 7:30 in the morning. I nearly collapsed when I saw my mom and dad. My sister had gone home with Doug's family, so it was hours before I saw her and my other sister.

I have no words for the feeling that came over me as I saw the wreckage, and it started with light damage, at first. The closer we got to our home, the worse it got. My parents' and their neighbors' homes were in the worst of the damage path. There was a brick wall on what had been my sister's bed. My parents room no longer had a roof and a lot of their stuff had been sucked out of the hole where the ceiling had been. If my dad and Doug had not been outside watching the storm, I would have lost them. There is no way to describe the feelings I was having. I nearly collapsed.

We looked around, and it was so bizarre to see which parts of the house were fine, while some were decimated. There were rooms that were merely dirty or water-logged, while others were gone. The living room furniture had been tossed around, but the couch table was perfectly fine and exactly where it had been with an unopened pack of cigarettes still sitting unmoved and unharmed.There was a kerosene lamp sitting on one of the rafters as if it had been placed there, deliberately. The vehicles that belonged to my parents were smashed together into a wall. Doug's pick-up looked like it had been in a war zone.There was a piece of plywood that had gone through the windshield and stuck there without taking out the entire windshield. I could describe the damage for days, and strange things we found in our yards that had blown from other homes.

We spent the next week cleaning, digging and trying to salvage whatever we could. What I remember the most was the people who were driving around the area with food, drinks and even tetanus shots. The Red Cross, local businesses and restaurants, community groups and church groups. They also arranged teams and assisted victims by helping to remove garbage, downed trees and the more movable parts of the homes that needed to be trashed.

At this point in my life, I was working at Walmart Pharmacy where you can see the general public at its worst. When people do not feel well, they get cranky, and innocent pharmacy employees bear the brunt of the irritation when things do not go quickly or smoothly,enough. I had really begun to lose my faith in the decency of the human race. However, the response of the community (after the National Guard came to stop the rubberneckers, that is) completely revived it.

I have to say that Walmart was wonderful to me. They worked with me on my time off, although that was the store and company. My immediate supervisor, the head pharmacist, was very irritable when I called to let her know that I was going to be salvaging with my family on Tuesday, which was two days after losing nearly everything I owned. She seriously expected me to come to work, although I had little clothing left and no home. Regardless, the store managers gave me a one hundred dollar bill, one hundred dollars worth merchandise, clothing, a television, a vacuum cleaner, a phone, and all manner of things that would help us to replace lost items for our home. They were such a blessing.

Now, I try to give back to the organizations that gave so much to my family and other families in the wake of this disaster. I donate to the United Way, I give blood when I can, I give money when I can, and I donate clothing to the Salvation Army, as they brought clothing to us. Friends came to help, family traveled to help, and the government lent a hand by removing the congestion caused by the morbidly curious traffic flow in the area. I even had friends who left copies of notes and various study materials for my college classes, since finals were looming. A doctor with whom my mother worked even lent us a small apartment for free in one of the complexes that he owned.

I will always remember how it felt to lose our home and the memories and mementos that went with it. I will always remember the relief and gratitude I felt for not losing my family.However, what I remember the most is the generosity that can come from the people around you when a disaster strikes. I hope this story will inspire you to help the people in Haiti. I can assure you that they will feel gratitude and a renewed sense of hope and faith in the human race.