Good Morning. Yep, the rain has moved east. Much welcomed as we haven’t had rain here, other than a light shower that barely wet the deck in almost a month. This is good ground soaking type rain.
Cleanup and assessments continue in town and the area. Thanks to the efforts of over 1500 people, not counting those who just showed up and weren’t in the United Way volunteer list, plus members of the community, including those affected, the major cleanup of vegetative debris (trees etc.) is done, the biggest majority over the two days of the weekend and far as I know, all homes with roof/window and whatever else damage etc. have been boarded or tarped over agsinst the weather. One lady did post yesterday that as a single mother of two teenager girls, she had roof damage and was asking for help to get it tarped before the rains came. One of the local roofing companies responded and took care of it for her. This was at no charge, which has been the case with a lot of companies and work crews who came to help. . It is at a point now where it is pretty much up to insurance companies to assess the damage and make arrangements to get the other type of debris removed from properties. I responded to a post yesterday for help to clean up vegetative debris from our yard which I think was the last one that had to be done. When I got there there were about a half a dozen women, true who had trucks with trailers with them and a couple of men who are change sign trees that had to come down. Not long after I got there some more people showed up and then some men came with a couple more trucks and trailers and one with a tractor and bucket scoop and when school got out, about 4 high school boys came over, plus the Sheriffs work camp crew. . Within a period of about 2 1/2 hours or so we had the yard pretty much all cleaned up when it started to rain. A couple of people who were helping had driven from 2 hours away just to help for the day. There is still a little bit of stuff that have to be cleaned up, mostly logs from the cut up trees, it’s manageable. The lady who owned it said not to worry about i. she didn’t want anybody getting sick on her account because it was starting to rain. She was much appreciative of our help. Her house and garage heading that Manhattan by the tornado but they did have a little bit of damage on that one corner of the garage. But my neighbors house behind him with math so fortunate and the garage or actually it was the shed which is about the size of the garage is actually setting up On end in the yard next door. About a block or left behind that there is a home and has been totally and completely destroyed and is nothing but a pile of kindling. So now I will wait and see if they need help anywhere else. As I stated Above, it’s going to be up to the insurance companies. We cannot go in on property to remove debris at this time. If later down the line they need help loading dumpsters or something like that then I will go back in and help again. Both the State and FEMA are here assessing the situation for Stdte and possible federal aid. There has been such and outpouring of donations from all over the Stdte from clothing to toys and everything in between that They are actually asking to stop donating for now. Gift cards are the suggested donation for now till they get a better idea of future necessities. We had a prayer service at my church last night for the community. One man who is from Gaillard and had moved out of the area for a few years and was living in Kansas and is now back here, said that he has helped with tornado cleanup any number of places in both Kansas and Oklahoma and other areas. He said most of the places that he has gone to has been filled with a lot of despair in Chaos. He said that he is just totally amazed at how this community just pulled together and went to work. And I do have to say there is a tremendous amount of community pride here right now. It was definitely a boots on the Ground effort. There has been a slogan here for a number of yours called Gaylord strong and one of the T-shirt companies here that manufactures T-shirts with that slogan and selling them, with 100% of proceeds goi g to the Community Foundation for tornado relief.
I was eating dinner tbe other night, when I bit down on something hard and think I may have lost a crown or filling. Darn. And my dentist office is closed this week. But tbere is an emergency number to call. I really hate to bother him, because he’s 89 year old widowed father’s house was totally destroyed in the tornado and it is one of the reasons why the office is closed this week among some issues with their electronic emailing another information stuff due to the power outages and everything. Ironically for some reason only known to God perhaps, his father decided that morning, the dsy the tornado hit, to go to the UP to visit his daughter. They have no idea what prompted him to do it but it probably saved his life.
So I guess I had better get going here because I have a hair appointment at 10:30 and I will call the dentist and see what to do with the situation. I might be able to let it go until I open next week but maybe not. We’ll see what he says. So I am hoping that all of you have a wonderful day.