3/30/2012 The Aftermath

After getting ready for our workday and early morning meeting we left to make our way to the hall on the the Mission Bell side of the park.

Lots of people were out on the street already and talk was all about the storm last night.

When we got the golf cart ready for our morning Bob pointed out the five gallon bucket in the back. This is what accumulated in it from the storm. That’s a lot of rain!

The patio furniture in the pool area ended up in the corner.

We lost nine flag poles in all.

Telephone poles came down and live wires laid across park models. Some people had to be moved to safer places last night.

We saw lots of car ports that had given way to the force of the wind.

Large branches were lost from mature trees.

This is just a very small portion of what we saw on the way to the hall for the meeting.

The turnout was good considering the majority of the Winter Texans have left. Of course there’s the ones who don’t show up when there’s work to be done.

Scott, our manager, led us in prayer, giving thanks that none of us were hurt and what was lost were only things. Replaceable things.

I was assigned the duty of taking pictures of damage for insurance purposes since so many of the resident have gone. Bob took the golf cart and helped those that had branches and limbs in their yards.

The parks really looked like a war zone with branches and limbs and leaves everywhere. Not to mention the buildings that were damaged.

I worked with Pat, who we first met in South Dakota last summer. She took one side of the road and I took the other. We knocked on doors asking if there was any damage and took pictures of it if they needed us too. The places that were empty we just walked around and took pictures of anything we saw that damaged.

The fountain area that we were so hard at keeping neat looking.

The shuffleboard courts.

This shed was knocked over the wind.

It landed on a utility pole.

When Pat went to this mobile home and Carol, the owner, answered the door, she asked, “Did you have any damage from the storm?”

Carol replied, “Ya think????”

This house had a carport that came right to the front of the house.

Parts of it were found on the next street over.

This site was all too common.

Rescued flags.

Oh no! Not the WIFI tower! Thankfully, the pole may be down but its still transmitting. Mission Bell didn’t fare so well. They’ve lost their WIFI signal.

This next picture is kind of hard to comprehend but the carport that belongs to the house on the right is laying on top of the carport that you can see in the picture. It just flipped right over the house.

This is just a very small sampling of what these parks look like after the storm.

I must say, it was heartwarming to watch neighbor helping neighbor and mere acquaintances pitching in to help the guy down the street.

Bob worked through the afternoon on clean up duty, removing tree limbs and pitching in here and there where needed.

At one o’clock the RV guy showed up and I told him the AC had been under water and he said it didn’t matter that the important parts were enclosed in plastic and it that it would work just fine. An hour and a half later it was all ready to go. Sure enough it works like a charm and our house is now so much cooler.

I asked Matt the RV guy if he had gotten lots of calls this morning and he replied, “It started ringing at daybreak.” Most ripped awnings. We had a lot of that in this park too. Those who didn’t know this was coming kept their awnings up and then couldn’t get them down because the hail was so bad.

As Scott said in the meeting. “We’re all thankful no one was hurt.”