It’s been all about people helping one another, neighbors willing to help neighbors, friends assisting friends, strangers helping strangers.
That is what is going on in neighborhoods throughout Shawnee and surrounding areas.
Last week’s devastating tornado that ripped across the Shawnee area destroyed houses, businesses, heavily damaged schools and a university and caused widespread power outages across our community. It closed schools, businesses, and too many other entities to try and name them all.
Officials in Pottawatomie County are still trying to assess the damage. I’m guessing it will be some time yet before they do.
According to OG&E, at one time a week ago Wednesday night (April 19), there were 23,000 people without power due to the tornado and the severe storms that struck the area late that night.
As of Monday morning, the utility was reporting that approximately 93 percent of customer power had been restored. They were estimating that by late Monday night 96 percent of those who could take power would have power restored by then.
Pat and I were among the fortunate ones during last week’s storm in that we escaped tornado damage although we lost power around 10-11 p.m. and were without it a few days.
However, her mom’s home, which is located in one of the areas that was hit the hardest and sustained widespread damage, didn’t fare so well. It suffered some damage.
Fortunately, her mother, who will turn 97 in May, was elsewhere.
We discovered the damage once we were able to get to her home early the next morning. A huge tree, which was more than 60 years old, was uprooted by the EF 2 twister, part of it catching some of her roof and most of it falling onto the driveway.
The willingness of people to take their time to assist others is both amazing and gratifying to see.
After we sort of assessed the damage and saw all the homes along her street and the area, some demolished, others that are in need of some stage of major repair, we started figuring out what we needed to do.
Once back at our house, and visiting with our neighbor Bret Ellard about Pat’s mom’s home, early that afternoon he offered to bring his chain saw.
By the time Pat and I got back over to her mom’s house, Bret and his wife Rhonda were already started on the tree and they had been joined by a former neighbor of her mom’s named Terry Bob and another volunteer named Byron.
Along came some kids from across the street, and then our good friends and neighbors Gary and Marian Salwierak showed up to help also.
By 7:30-7:45 that night all that was remaining of the tree was one gigantic stump.
The next morning, my boss, Brian Blansett offered his generator to us so we wouldn’t be in the dark.
All of this helping one another was an example of camaraderie at its finest.