Deadly tornados: One year later – Greens bounce back from devastation
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This is one family?s story, a story of courage in the face of tragedy.
It has taken Dowie and Amy Green a year to recover from the disastrous tornado that destroyed their home last year, but the couple says they are just thankful their family survived the frightening experience without a scratch.
?We were all OK, and that?s all that matters,? Amy said. ?That?s the important thing. Everything else we were able to replace.?
The Greens just moved into their beautiful new home late last month, almost a year to the day from the time the home they had lived in for 11 years was swept away by the storm. The couple, who once again live on East Green Hill Road in the Midway community with their children Ethan, 9, and Emily, 4, has rebuilt their house on the same lot, albeit several feet back from its original location, since the old foundation was damaged to the point they couldn?t build on it.
Both Dowie and Amy say the experience was almost surreal. Dowie, a member of North Warren Fire Department, was on his way home from work and actually saw the funnel cloud in his rear-view mirror bearing down on a path that looked to be headed right toward his home. He immediately called Amy and warned her of the danger, and then quickly radioed dispatch and informed them of the encroaching tornado.
Amy recalls that day vividly.
?He called me on his cellphone and told me to get in the basement with the kids and have the doors unlocked,? Amy said.
But since they knew it was some distance away, the family had time to get a look at the approaching funnel cloud after Dowie got home.
?We actually had time to see it before we got in the basement,? Amy said. ?I saw the funnel, it looked like a black ?V? in the sky. But you know, even though I was looking right at it, I was like, ?That?s not a tornado.? I know that sounds silly, but that?s how it was.?
But that impression soon changed.
?About that time all the power went out. I had my phone and was trying to call someone and everything went black and we could see the debris rotating in the cloud, and that?s when we got the kids and got in the basement.?
Though the family could hear the storm, they had no idea of the damage until they emerged from their safe haven.
?We didn?t know the house was gone until we came out of the basement,? Amy said. ?We heard the racket, but it was so quick. It sounded like someone crushed a huge aluminum can over our house, and then it was gone. It was that fast.
?We thought maybe some of the roof was gone,? Amy said. ?From the basement we could see light and we could hear pipes cracking, dripping into the basement. Then we go out and the garage had collapsed, and still we thought, well, that?s all it hit. We didn?t know the house was gone until we got all the way out.?
Both Amy and Dowie say it?s difficult to explain how they felt upon seeing the destruction for the first time.
?It?s hard to describe,? Amy said. ?Numb, I guess. It?s really hard to say how I felt. Unbelief. It still doesn?t seem real.?
?I don?t know if I was in shock,? Dowie said. ?I guess I was just in awe, amazed. It happened so quick. I know I felt pretty let down. Everything was just gone.?
But even though this brave, and fortunate, family was down, they weren?t out. After they got over the initial shock, the Greens immediately went to work on the recovery process.
?We had no choice. We just did it,? said Amy. ?We called a contractor a week or so later, and basically had to start all over.?
But despite the disaster, the Greens say they were lucky they had family and friends to help them and house them while they were rebuilding. The first couple of weeks were spent with family, first with Dowie?s parents, Eddie and Carol Green, and then at Amy?s parents, Augie and Linda Judkins. Eventually some friends, Kevin and Leigh Wrisner, came through for them.
?We had some friends who offered us a place to stay that they had open that was furnished,? Amy said. ?So we stayed there at their place until we rebuilt.?
Pretty much everything was destroyed or ruined by the storm, with only a few odd, but cherished, items surviving.
?Our wedding album was in the snack bar, so it was saved,? Amy said. ?We saved some pictures and things. We had our clothes, and everyone took them and washed them for us, but they were so full of insulation that we couldn?t wear them, so we ended up throwing them away and replacing them.?
The most amazing thing about the whole experience, they say, is the outpouring of aid and assistance they received during and after the tragedy.
?We never lacked for anything,? Amy said. ?It was overwhelming, the cards, calls, people we didn?t even know were wanting to help, wanting to know what they could do. Friends from the North Warren Fire Department even took off work that week to help us clean up. It was just unbelievable what people went through to help us.?
So much so that Dowie says, despite their loss, some good has come out of the tragedy.
?We made some great new friends, like the Wrisners who allowed us to stay in the place over on Parkhurst Road,? said Dowie. ?That?s really helped us a lot. We didn?t have to get out and scrounge around for a place to have shelter for our family. We tried to keep a list of people who helped for a while, but it got so big we couldn?t keep up with it.?
And how does the couple feel to be in their new home, back in their old neighborhood?
?I?m just relieved that it?s almost over,? Amy said. ?That everything is finally starting to calm down.?
Dowie says his family will never forget the people who helped them through the recovery process.
?There?s no way to possibly thank everybody enough,? he said. ?The only thing we can say is thank you, and if it ever happens to you, and we hope it never does, the favor will be returned.?
But even though they are in their new home, safe and sound, the memory of the tragedy is still there, and still has an effect on them.
?We?re a little bit jumpy because it?s tornado season again,? Amy said. ?We spent the other night in the basement when the storms came through. Everyone was asking if we were scared, and I told them, ?Well we went in the basement.??
And the memory definitely had an effect on the design of the new house.
?You know, when we were talking about the new house the contractor asked me if he could talk us out of putting in a basement,? said Amy. ?I said, ?No way, there will be a basement in this house.? And there is.?