Communities band together to clean up after tornado
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Teams of neighbors with five-gallon buckets combed the fields in the morning sun, binding up wounds in the landscape and sowing gratitude.
“Cleanin’ and a-haulin’, that’s what we’re doing!” one participant proclaimed.
People brought trucks and heavy equipment to gather and pile up larger pieces of homes and outbuildings that had been shattered by an EF-2 tornado the morning of April 2.
There were no reported deaths or injuries from the tornado, which brought 125-mph wind gusts, but the area on Highway 135 between Pilot Grove and Martinsville had heavy damage.
“We counted close to 200 people from the nearby communities who showed up in support, to walk these fields and work the tree lines and get all this trash picked up,” said Joni Schupp, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Pilot Grove.
“Which is phenomenal,” she stated, “because you had acres and acres and acres of nothing but debris from the storm.”
The volunteers then spread out into the woods and onto neighboring properties to gather up more of what had been scattered.
Others prepared lunch at the Pilot Grove High School kitchen and brought it to one of the work sites.
“God is making himself known in all the folks coming here and sharing the love and grace that they know they’ve received from God,” said Father Mark Smith, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Pilot Grove and Ss. Peter & Paul Parish in Boonville.
Members of Barb Schupp’s family sent out word that they’d be bringing equipment onto her ravaged property and could use help wherever needed.
Soon, a Saturday morning work day was planned for the affected fields and pastures, which were covered with debris during the prime of planting season.
The Cooper County health nurse administered tetanus shots at the Pilot Grove Fire Station.
People from neighboring Ss. Peter & Paul Parish had already scheduled that morning to be a work day on their parish grounds.
Fr. Smith and Joe Herzog, head of the parish’s administration commission, deferred the scheduled projects and asked fellow parishioners to join them instead in Pilot Grove.
Many took them up on the offer.
None were lost
At the work site, a large contingent formed a united front with members of other nearby congregations.
Fr. Smith led the people in prayer, thanking him for the gift of great communities, interceding for all who had experienced losses in the storms, and pleading for the safety of all the volunteers.
Then the four-wheelers, pickup trucks, trailers, earth-moving equipment, dump trucks, skid loaders and scores of individuals hit the fields.
There’s no place like home.
“Well ... there WAS,” Barb Schupp stated, looking at the heavily damaged house that her late husband had grown up in and where they had spent their married years together.
“But it’s okay,” she said. “I’m so thankful for the community that I live in, that everyone was spared. These are awesome people, my friends and family. Things can be bought. People are irreplaceable.”
“You’re a blessing!” someone called out to her.
“The whole community is a blessing!” she replied.
Joni Schupp said the community had been giving thanks every night that no one was hurt in the storms.
“We feel that God was looking over everybody, protecting them, getting them to safety,” she said.
“I think the response to that is what we’re seeing here today: that everyone’s coming together, giving up their time and talent to help.
“All these heavy-equipment operators: they’re here helping,” she stated. “There’s been very little ‘ask’ of anyone. It’s all been ‘what can we do to help?’”
Entire families pitched in to help.
“I got a picture of a dad and his two little kids up here. He’s showing them how it’s done,” said Theresa Spaedy, who alternated between work gloves and her camera throughout the day.
She’s grateful for the community she lives in and that everyone was spared.
“Things can be bought, but lives cannot,” she said.
As it turns out, neither can camaraderie.
“It was so uplifting to see all these people, to see all this equipment, to see all these cars parked here this morning,” said Mrs. Spaedy.
Nick of time
Jenny Lorenz-Rudkin, who plays the organ at Mass every Sunday at St. Joseph Church, was in her garage when the tornado warning came across her cellphone.
She hurried into the reinforced safe room in her house and started pleading with God to spare her.
“I no more than got the door shut and could hear things rattling, and then everything landed on top of that room I was in.”
Their home was ravaged, but she came out unscathed.
“I’ve been living in gratitude ever since,” said Mrs. Lorenz-Rudkin.
So has her husband, who was in New York on business and rushed home after he heard about the tornado.
“Seconds! Just seconds,” he said, his voice trailing off. “I’m so thankful that she’s still here. I can’t make it without her!”
They both marveled at what people had accomplished on their property that morning, stacking debris into a massive pile.
“It’s been amazing ... overwhelming,” said Mrs. Lorenz-Rudkin. “People just showed up in full-force.”
Bits and pieces
Mona Brownfield and her sister-in-law, Rhonda Kusgen were intrigued to find jigsaw puzzle pieces scattered with the debris on the Schupp property.
“Little pieces of people’s lives,” said Mrs. Kusgen. “We were thinking, ‘What would they find of ours if this happened to us?’”
They also rescued a blow-mold snowman and a donkey from someone’s Christmas Nativity scene.
“For me, it was the small stuff, so much small stuff,” said Mrs. Brownfield. “And the randomness of it. How did it hit so hard here but then skipped there? There was no rhyme or reason to it.
“The pictures didn’t do it justice,” she added. “You didn’t really get an idea of the destruction until you walked out in that field.”
Terri Schupp said the clean-up brigade felt kind of like a big reunion.
“It’s good to visit,” said Mrs. Schupp. “Tragedies bring communities together. And it’s just good. It’s good.”
The best part, Mrs. Brownfield stated, is that no one got hurt.
“Life is so important,” Mrs. Kusgen said in agreement. “Here, they obviously had a huge loss. Physical, material things.
“But the people — all of our friends, our families, people I’ve known my whole life — were safe and came through this together,” she said.
“No one even had to go to the doctor,” she stated. “Lives were spared, and honestly, that was through God’s intervention and grace that occurred here.”
That grace seemed to multiply as the work day progressed.
“You know, it’s kind of a joyful time now that everyone’s here together,” said Mrs. Brownfield.
Never alone
Throughout the week leading up to Palm Sunday, Fr. Smith encouraged people at Mass and in Confession to pray for all who were affected by the tornado, “that they never feel abandoned or that God doesn’t love them.”
Standing by the ruins of her home, Mrs. Lorenz-Rudkin seemed to understand.
“He never promised that we wouldn’t have trials,” she stated. “But he most certainly is helping us through this one.”
