Tornado hits close to home

mrclean81

mrclean81

New member
Yesterday morning, a F4 tornado flattened Harrisburg Illinois, a town I grew up just a few miles from. I worked at a few places there over the years, one being a body shop that I was told isn't there anymore. I have a lot of family there, thankfully all survived. Sadly, not all were so lucky. Harrisburg and every other town in the area mean so much to me because that's the area I will always call home. I now live about as far south in the state that you can go, so my area was missed this time, but we have more severe storms on the way tonight. This really has me to thinking and counting my blessings. We are all so lucky to wake up every morning to a normal life..
 
Sometimes I feel like I have it bad and things like that just make you realize how good you really have it. Not everyone is fortunate enough to even have a good life. My heart goes out to everyone who suffered from the tornadoes that hit up north...
 
I hate to hear that. Glad your Ok. I'm near Xenia both major storms formed right over us before hitting in the past. I'm definitely watching these upcoming storms. Last storm dropped baseball size hail.
Take care and keep an eye out. Sounds like we are in for another round in "Tornado Alley"
 
I wondered where you were from. I used to live in Benton my sister still does, brothers in Sesser across Rend Lake. Most of my family is still down there some in Metropolis. Most of the towns down there don't have a lot going on for them anyway so something like this really hits them hard.
 
My hometown is Vienna, which is about a 30 minute drive from Marion or Harrisburg. I now live on the Illinois side of the bridge, just over the river from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I would love to move back to Vienna (where most of my clients are) and get a new shop going. I don't like the idea of my mom being up there by herself with me being 70 miles away.

Btw if you ever make it down this way get a hold of me :)
 
Very true. I've driven back and forth on weekends for years in order to establish and maintain a big client base there. Kinda like a very long and drawn out secret plan. I'm actually going to look at a 2000 square foot shop up there Saturday. If I can get the guy down on his price a little, I think I may do it. This is coming from a guy who has been considering hanging up detailing all together. This deal kind of fell into my lap, so maybe its a higher power telling me I'm not done yet :innocent:
 
mrclean81 said:
Yesterday morning, a F4 tornado flattened Harrisburg Illinois, a town I grew up just a few miles from. I worked at a few places there over the years, one being a body shop that I was told isn't there anymore. I have a lot of family there, thankfully all survived. Sadly, not all were so lucky. Harrisburg and every other town in the area mean so much to me because that's the area I will always call home. I now live about as far south in the state that you can go, so my area was missed this time, but we have more severe storms on the way tonight. This really has me to thinking and counting my blessings. We are all so lucky to wake up every morning to a normal life..
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Glad to here you are okay!!!
 
Todd Helme said:
OMG, those pictures are terrible!
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The worst part is the pics dont even begin to show the worst of it. My brother is a medic and does Air Evac and search & rescue work, and the pics he showed me were heartbreaking. Entire blocks completely leveled, cars in trees and on top of homes, etc.
 
We went up to visit with my mom yesterday, and while we were there, we went up to Harrisburg. Words and pics just cant explain the devastation. I got some pics of the areas open to the public. The really bad parts are closed off. Heres a few pics I was able to get.

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Total devastation. Very very sad, its amazing how quickly your life can change and how it is a constant reminder to what we have to be grateful for.
 
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