August 11th a Derecho storm hit my city. It means “direct” or “straight ahead.”

Derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system and potentially rivaling hurricanic and tornadic forces. Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods.

On the SW side of my city we had 140 mile/hr winds!

Everyone had tree damage, many lost their homes due to the storm’s destructive winds, alot of people will need home repair. The city turned into a maze. There were blocked roads everywhere. Just getting across town for a 20 min drive was 3hrs inside of a maze of downed trees blocking roadways. The power went out. The cell service went out. Massive amounts of refridgerators and freezers rotted. Emergency crews struggled to get to 911 calls.

The people in this city poured out hard work, sweat, and love to their neighbors. Every neighbor helped his neighborhood. After 2 days of no signal or power the cell phone service rebooted and my church began calling, messaging, or trying texting everyone to see if they were ok and if they needed help. We went on rescue mode the first week. Our Pastor led work crews to help our families dig out of the mess. The second week we organized work crews to help in any way we could the many families and the requests that came in for help. We gave away 15-20,000 pounds of food to our community in 2 days. Thank you Foursquare Relief for sending the food! It was as if the entire city became the hands and feet of Jesus.

But heres the thing. There has been so much work to do that I wonder if we are processing and I dont want us to get caught in the trauma and the stress. So I am asking: How is your soul?

Major disaster in life can leave you feeling alone, tired, angry, and in need of comfort. I pray that God will be your refuge through this storm and through the recovery.

Thanks for listening,

Starla