Sorry we have not had an update in a while, the tour is taking all over and time has been a precious commodity! While Alannah and I are out on the road, Cathy is back in Nebraska getting another chase vehicle ready, Cory is outfitting his new ride and Jim has been working as well! This weekend we are in Skokie, Illinois and then we head to Tennessee for 2 weeks so the schedule is a full one! It looks like upon our arrival back home we go right into an Omaha School tour and then back to Tennessee and then Illinois again followed by a run in Iowa! What a fall!
The feedback from Libraries has been great and we have met hundreds of really great folks and have acquired quite a few new volunteers ready to start training in disaster recovery next year as well.
As usual, there are negatives on the road like lack of sleep, bad food, busy days and vehicle maintenance, but overall it has been a good tour so far. We'll try to keep you posted as we travel, but if you are dying for little bits of news every day, we are still Twittering as best we can so hit us up on Twitter!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Dorothy has a new home
At 1PM today, Dorothy's keys were handed over to Dr. Shawn Carlson of the Sci-tech Children's Museum in Aurora, Illinois. Dorothy will be placed in the museum later this month after completion of a massive construction project that will give her a "wing" of her own in the museum. The new display will host not only Dorothy, but over 200 pictures from her history, a display of past educational events, and a new disaster preparedness display that will feature the recent storm in Eldora, Iowa and the Chasing4Life/NATL activities there.
Below we have plced some photos of the highly emotional day. Speeches were given by Dr. Carlson, David Alexander, Eddy and Alannah.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Dorothy
Well, the count down begins. First thing in the morning we leave for Aurora, Illinois where, at 1 PM Alannah will hand over the keys to Dorothy to the Sci-Tech Children's Museum where she will spend the rest of her life. A sad and happy day all at once. If you are in the area, please come and see the hand-off. We'll be there autographing Chasing4Life coloring books all morning!
(Picture: The original Dorothy)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Check out the news story!
Some fantastic news coverage from Eldora can be seen by clicking HERE.
We want to thank the entire C4L/NATL Disaster Recovery Team for their tireless efforts, dedication and HOURS upon HOURS of hard labor with no sleep!
Greg-No, that is NOT an OSHA approved method of climbing onto a roof.
Marie- Humidity is good for your hair.
Eddy-You cannot put coffee in your IV bag!
Cathy-Quit calling us slackers!
Sue-The woman eats trees!
Nicholas-Do you ever calm down?
Erica-They know the kitchen is full of water...calm down!
Kieth-Now THAT'S what turns me on! Drive that truck!
Terry-When are you moving to Nebraska?
Heather-Old people in love...YUK!
Alannah-Hey, you're famous!
Chad-Who you gonna call?
Dan- Don't feel so special. He hits ALL the parked trucks!
Nikki- Welcome back! It's about time!
We leave Eldora
The team has left Eldora. Below are some pics for you to look through. We hope to have more up here soon. Erica and Kieth have run into a hail storm and Dan, Chad and Nikki ran into a little T-storm activity as well. Cathy, Sue and Nickolas have all made it home, and we will be retiring here shortly.The town of Eldora truly became a home for us this week and we want to make sure we thank Ian, Ted and Joyce for being so gracious. Relationships were started that we hope will flourish for a long, long time.
To our Eldora EMT's...Eddy is drinking water and feels much stronger. You are the BEST! THE VERY BEST! The way you took care of Eddy on Saturday was awesome!
To Eldora, we will miss you and we wish you the best of luck.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Random Thoughts
It is early Friday morning and we have just eaten supper. Eldora needs some real healing on so many levels. I have not seen one vehicle in this town with a windshield you can see through yet. I am staying with some very gracious folks in a house built in 1887. The house, according to the owner, has 57 windows. 43 of them were blown out.
We spoke with a man today that described Sunday's horror to us...his wife was alone at their home when the storm came. Hail was softball sized and pelted the house. The hail became horizontal and came through every window on the west side of the home followed by gallons of rain. The wind blew out the windows in the rest of the home. Water was running 3" deep in the house.
See, the town really doesn't look horrible, but the damage was not hardly on the OUTSIDE. Almost every house had its windows blown out and every house was filled with water, glass and hail!
Tomorrow will be a long day, so I expect to Twitter but not blog until night fall.
Pray for these people. Pray for the team.
Good night. I have to be up in 4 hours.
We spoke with a man today that described Sunday's horror to us...his wife was alone at their home when the storm came. Hail was softball sized and pelted the house. The hail became horizontal and came through every window on the west side of the home followed by gallons of rain. The wind blew out the windows in the rest of the home. Water was running 3" deep in the house.
See, the town really doesn't look horrible, but the damage was not hardly on the OUTSIDE. Almost every house had its windows blown out and every house was filled with water, glass and hail!
Tomorrow will be a long day, so I expect to Twitter but not blog until night fall.
Pray for these people. Pray for the team.
Good night. I have to be up in 4 hours.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Eldora Assessment
After a meeting with EM and the City this morning, the assessment is as follows: We need volunteers to join us over the weekend. If you have the wekend free, if you wish to help, you can simply reach us at info@chasing4life.org and we will put you in touch, give you directions and fill you in. Chasing4Life and Neighbors Across The Land will be on site all weekend and with the city still needing help, we would love to see a great turn-out from all our supporters, friends, church partners, etc.
We'll keep posting updates here as we can.
We'll keep posting updates here as we can.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Eldora Update
With many of the streets cleared and the media frenzy is over, it is easy to see why the perception is that work is done. Unfortunately, that is far from the truth, in fact, role call is at 7:30 tomorrow morning with our team, the EM and the City Administrator to name a few. Assessments will be updated in the morning and it looks like the Chasing4Life Team will be tackling a large property on the edge of town over the weekend. There are neighborhoods, a cemetary, a trailer park and many homes in the outlying areas still needing cleanup, board up and tarping.To make matters worse, we have a chance of T-storms in Eldora on Thursday and then more chances on Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow's chances look best for rain and isolated T-storms until 10 AM giving the recovery team a break for a bit in the afternoon where temps should be close to 90 degrees with partly cloudy skies.
Still need one replacement tire for our trailer- 14" standard trailer tire. Help?
Good morning!
We had a lot of people following the blog yesterday and I know, we promised pictures yesterday but greg got in late and we never got around to them. We are posting pictures today as best we can and will try to update you but it is going to be a busy day.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Culver coming to Eldora tomorrow
Governor Culver will be stopping in Eldora tomorrow to assist volunteers and see the damage for himself. The Governor will be at the Hardin County Fairgrounds around 7:30 am from what I understand, he will then tour the area and then return to the fairgrounds to join the volunteers as the fairgrounds is the current staging area.
Time to think
"How do you explain to children that stuff we thought we'd have forever, we no longer have."
This was a comment made by a mother and resident of the east side of DesMoines today after a backed up sewer system flooded homes with as much as 14" of sewer water.
When you think about disaster, what do you think of?
Often times, as we tour and interview people, the common problem is that people think of tornadoes or hurricanes. these disasters happen sporadically and really, chances of you getting hit are pretty slim. Unfortunately, the truth is that at any time, you could be displaced, threatened or experiencing loss for any number of dozens of reasons.
The harder question to answer, I guess, is this one:
"How do you tell your children that you never took the time to prepare for disaster in the first place".
This was a comment made by a mother and resident of the east side of DesMoines today after a backed up sewer system flooded homes with as much as 14" of sewer water.
When you think about disaster, what do you think of?
Often times, as we tour and interview people, the common problem is that people think of tornadoes or hurricanes. these disasters happen sporadically and really, chances of you getting hit are pretty slim. Unfortunately, the truth is that at any time, you could be displaced, threatened or experiencing loss for any number of dozens of reasons.
The harder question to answer, I guess, is this one:
"How do you tell your children that you never took the time to prepare for disaster in the first place".
Could have been you!
With all our talk about Eldora and the work we are doing there, this might be a good time to bring up Home Disaster Kits and Survival Kits again. Do you have one? Check out our survival kits by clicking HERE.
Eldora Update 8-11 PM
Click here for New KCCI story on Eldora this evening
Yep, we are 48 hours in and we have made friends with the fire department, city manager, and many residents in Eldora. Of course we have also picked up so much glass in our trailer tires we have been forced to change them out already! With donations for generator fuel and plastic sheeting, the work continues. Gotta get out of town before the curfew hits, so the days work is coming to an end until tomorrow.
We'll post new pictures tonight for you! If you have not been following, scroll down for all the news out of Eldora.
Eldora Trivia
At the end of the movie Twister, Helen and Bill have raced through a cornfield, struggled to find shelter, and finally have survived the tornado by strapping themselves in a pump shed which is ripped away from over their heads. A young farm family emerges from a storm cellar as our heroes collapse in each other's arms. Remember? That scene was filmed in Eldora and the house that family "lived in" is still there on the outskirts of town.
Oddly enough, my daughter and I planned a trip to Eldora this summer to visit the house but due to a bout of heat stroke we were unable to go and so our upcoming tour included a stop there in less than a week. Now the movie does not seem like just a movie...The team is out on that old road now by the house.
Oddly enough, my daughter and I planned a trip to Eldora this summer to visit the house but due to a bout of heat stroke we were unable to go and so our upcoming tour included a stop there in less than a week. Now the movie does not seem like just a movie...The team is out on that old road now by the house.
Official Press Release From Eldora
The City of Eldora, in a coordinated effort with emergency responders from surrounding communities, Alliant Energy, volunteers, and business, is working to clear the city of all downed tree branches, power lines, and potential hazards. The clean up effort is a matter of public safety and is the primary focus for the community on Monday August 10th, 2009. As public safety and utility service needs are met the City of Eldora will turn its focus to restoration of the community and providing residents the assistance necessary for individual property damage. Currently the Red Cross has a shelter and assistance center at the High School located in Eldora. Faith based organizations and other non profit groups have pledged to provide residents with assistance once they arrive throughout the week.For more information CLICK HERE.
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