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The Destructive Force That Is Nature!

By
Home Inspector with WWW.ExecutiveRestoration.Com

For many of us across the globe, the devastating power of Mother Nature is not something that we truly appreciate. That is of course assuming that you have not witnessed it first hand in the form of a natural disaster. Yeah sure we have all seen footage on the news of a flood that happened a few thousand miles away from us, but until you get to see the destruction first hand, it’s difficult to fully comprehend just how dangerous Mother Nature can be when she decides to lash out. At least it was for me that is, until an F-2 tornado leveled a town no more than 5 minutes up the road from my house.

I have been dealing with mold clean up for homes and commercial structures for quite some time, and I have had the opportunity to witness just how badly these structures can be messed up by a simple force of nature like mold. Up until this point, mold damage was the worst thing that I have seen a home go through. Granted, mold is a fairly destructive force in and of itself, but needless to say, I wasn’t prepared for just how deadly nature could be.

On this particular day, I happened to be at work, which is about an hour away from where I reside. Fortunately my parents are still in the same area, and unlike me, they actually pay attention to what the weather is doing around them, otherwise my night would have most likely ended up a lot worse than it actually did. When my father called to inform that I should not head towards the house just yet because of a tornado warning, I was more than a little perturbed. It had been a long day on the job, and I just wanted to hop in the shower and relax. Fortunately I heeded my father’s advice, but another woman was not so lucky. After receiving a phone call from her daughter who issued a warning to evacuate, she proceeded to return to watching her soap opera, not fully appreciating the force that she was about to go up against. Sadly, her home was one of the ones that got hit by the full force of the storm.

A couple of days later, I decided to ride out to the area to see just how badly it was. Stories on the news really don’t do much in the way of conveying the true damaging effects of these storms. When I got there I was absolutely speechless. Aside from the families that I saw huddled together after losing every possession that they owned, I also witnessed cars that had been flipped on their roofs, and entire sections of forest that had just been turned into tooth picks. The most peculiar thing that I noticed though, was the selective nature of the storm. Where you may see one home that had been leveled to the foundation, the home next to it hadn’t even been touched.

The destruction was immense, but it was good to see how the community pulled together to help those that were less fortunate. Well, most of the community anyways. It is unfortunate, but with every natural disaster, looters are inevitable. Regardless though, there were at least 50 volunteers that were out there helping to clean the mess up and donating some of their personal possessions to the people having to start over after the storm.

As sad as it was to see, I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to witness it for myself. Now the next time I am instructed to dodge a storm, I will be less aggravated for sure! Natural disasters like this one are nothing to play around with, and the bad thing is that this was on the low side of the damage scale when compared to storms like Hurricane Katrina. The next time a natural disaster threatens your area, don’t think of anything other than getting you and your loved ones to a safer area. You may not have anything to go back to when the storm clears, but at least you will still have each other!

Comments (2)

Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

Merry Christmas!

 

Santa Claus in Colonial Williamsburg Copy of IMG_8709

 

Photograph by Roy Kelley.  Canon PowerShot G11 camera.

Roy and Dolores Kelley Photographs

 

Dec 21, 2011 10:18 AM
Tammy Emineth
Personal SEO - Website SEO and Real Estate Marketing - Frenchtown, MT
Content Marketer, SEO Teacher, Website Fixer

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you have had a wonderful year, better years to come and a glorious Holiday!!! (These are never easy to see,.... hope you have even more business this year, Dave!!)

Dec 25, 2011 11:38 AM