Springfield, MA Tornado June 1, 2011

My experience with the tornado has renewed my faith in humanity.  I live in East Forest Park, one of the hardest hit areas in Springfield, Massachusetts.  While the estimate for repairs to my house is over $30,000, I count myself lucky in comparison to my neighbors.  My house still stands.  It has not been condemned.  It is not boarded up or falling down.  The two schools down the end of my street, Dryden Elementary and Cathedral High, are being torn apart in an attempt to get them in shape before the beginning of school in less than two months.  

While I feel traumatized repeatedly, having to see the devastation at least twice a day while I drive through my neighborhood, I can’t help but remember the neighborly love of the early days after the tornado.  While there are plenty of stories regarding shady contractors, looting, attempted fraud, and a slow bureaucracy, I prefer to remember the loving spirit of my neighbors.  

The next morning after the tornado, I took a walk with my camera.  Everyone was in shock.  I was asked repeatedly if I lived in the neighborhood.  The nod of my head assured my neighbors enough for them to tell me their stories – of loss and of survival.  They let me take pictures.  Now, we are all tired of the gawkers, and pictures are becoming a rarity.  Tempers flare when someone snaps one without permission of the property owner.  

The day after the tornado, we were bound together by a common tragedy.  Friends and neighbors still tell me stories of neighbors helping neighbors – pulling trees off each other’s’ houses, helping to cover roofs with tarps, exchanging contact information of trusted contractors.  My most cherished memories will stay with me forever.  People, strangers, carrying chain saws and gas cans, on a mission to help anyone they came across.  Thirty fire trucks lined up along Plumtree Road, every one of them from a different location, different city, different state.  Neighbors helping senior citizens who can’t afford to have repair work done on their houses and don’t have homeowner’s insurance.  Neighbors offering free dinners to anyone who stops by.  Amazing courtesy to other drivers on Sumner Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the city, normally filled with tempers, horns, speeding cars, and nervous pedestrians.  And of course, the many charitable organizations offering food, clothing, furniture, and more to residents, as well as water and Gatorade to rescue workers.  

While I try to shelter my nine-year-old daughter from the devastation she sees every day, I also try to make sure to share with her, to point out to her, the amazing resiliency of the human spirit, and the goodness I believe is inherent in all of us.  God bless us all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm5l-3c_9Qw