Hanging on......

I haven't posted since last Monday. That was the day before the tornado hit Muhlenberg County. First of all we didn't have power for almost 48 hours and then I just wasn't in the mood to post. So many things going thru my mind but not really interested in writing it down at the time. Then this week we have had to deal with ice & snow. I was home last week for a day and a half from work and then this week I worked at home for two days. My days are all mixed up, all I know is today is Valentine's Day, my Dad's birthday......not sure the day of the week!

A little bit about last week.....Tuesday started out as a typical day, I went to work and then rushed home in time to go to the church for our Moms of College Students prayer time. We were meeting at 7pm. There were only 4 of us that came that night.....me, Brenda, Rhonda, and Jackie. We talked a little about our kids in college and decided that we probably needed to pray pretty quickly before the storm came. We could hear the wind picking up outside the church. Richard and some other men/boys were in the youth area exercising. After we prayer rather quickly, we got ready to leave and I went by to tell Richard I was going home. We all left and I hadn't been home long before Richard came in and said they had decided to leave the church after hearing the sirens go off and then turning the TV on to see the direction of the storm. Richard and I were the only ones at home. Erica & Ben were at MSHS at a basketball game. Ben, or Erica, called us to tell us they had sent them to the locker rooms for safety. Later the power went out there and Erica says it was DARK!! For some reason I felt okay with them being away from home, I guess something was telling me that would be fine. Richard went next door to get Jenny, Brannon, Sydney and Lauren so they could come over to our basement. The power was already out by this time. So we spent the next few minutes in the basement waiting for the storm to pass before going out. We went out the front door and of course it was PITCH BLACK! We could hear Brian Baker talking and Brannon went over to see what was going on. Brian had seen the tornado out from the back of his house heading toward Greenville. We really didn't know at this point what sort of damage had been done. Ben called for someone to come get them at the school so Richard went after them.
We did spend the night at our house that night. It actually wasn't too cold at that point. In fact, we slept with the window cracked in out bedroom all night. I think I was afraid if another storm came through that I wanted to be able to hear the sirens going off. The next morning we still had no power. We heard sometime that morning that Kimberly Drive had been hit hard as well as Gaslight Park in Central City. There was also damage to Nolen Trailer Park and lots of damage down through Powderly. Richard and I did venture out about mid-morning to see how much damage had been done. Wow! Lots of damage! It took my breath away as we rounded the curve close to the church and I could see the houses in the distance on Kimberly Drive. I just wanted to cry. I just prayed for the people who lived in those houses right at that moment. Several people how go to church with us lived in those houses. How devastating it must be to have your house just blown away!! Unbelievable! One of the most unbelievable things that happened with this tornado was the fact that it hit on Kimberly Drive, right behind the high school, and then apparently jumped over the Muhlenberg North High School where approximately 1,000 people were at a basketball game and then came down on the other side and destroyed a spec building. Amazing! I spent the next couple of hours calling people to make sure they were okay. Most everyone was without power.
So, we spent the next 46 hours or so without power. We spent the 2nd night and Mom & Dad's house because they have gas logs and a gas stove where we could have some heat and cook a little bit. On Thursday afternoon I did go to work for a few hours after getting ready by candlelight.....man, I looked awful! Hair was a mess and makeup didn't look too good either when I went to the restroom at work! By the time I got home from work on Thursday night we had power again....it was SO nice to walk into the house and have lights and feel warmth.
After a few days had gone by with a little normalcy, we got hit with ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain, etc. on Tuesday of this week. I left work early on Tuesday to try to get home before it got too bad. Well.....I waited too long! I started home on 431 only to get held up in traffic around Utica. Richard calls to tell me he heard on the radio that there were 3 vehicles off the road around Utica. So I decided to turn around and go back to Owensboro and go home on the parkway. The parkway wasn't much better, I think I was driving about 25-30 mph most of the way until around Beaver Dam where the roads got much better. By the time I got home I think I had been on the road almost 2 hours!!! I was SO glad to get home. I had brought work home with me and I can connect to my computer at work from home so I just worked from home for 2 days. I told my boss I hadn't been out on the roads because I was afraid to go out!!! jk!! I did go out but I decided it was better for me to work at home than to spend the extra time on the road trying to get to work and then trying to get back home! I actually got lots of work done because I didn't have a phone ringing or people bothering me (including auditors we have in the bldg!)
Needless to say, it's been a hectic 2 weeks for lots of people. I have counted my blessings so many times in the last 2 weeks and tried to see the positive in all that's happened to me because there are those people around me who have lost almost everything they had! I continue to pray for the Lord to bless them as they try to pick up the pieces!!!