Posted on 03/16/2006 2:42:56 PM PST by Indy Pendance
MARSHFIELD, Mo. - Nearly as quickly as a tornado wiped through Webster County, destroying Chris Graber's home, he was mopping the floors in a brand new house, thanks to his Amish neighbors.
Graber, who moved to a homestead in an Amish community about 10 miles east Marshfield in 1998, took cover with his wife, Lydia, and two children in a bedroom Sunday night. Moments later, the twister ripped down the walls around them and spread debris for hundreds of yards.
"I had a realization what was going on and came to the door, and I was watching it," he said. "Here comes a dark spot. I closed the door and yelled, 'It's here.'"
About 1,000 chickens in a nearby coop and Graber's 100 calves were untouched. But the tornado destroyed two other buildings and an outhouse, and all that was left of the home was the foundation.
"I thought we'd be getting ready for a funeral," Graber said. "I never thought we'd be rebuilding the next day."
The Grabers walked a quarter-mile to a neighbors' home, where planning immediately began for a new house. The next morning, more than 100 men and boys from surrounding Amish homesteads got to work. Graber's brother, Ernest, said the workers "looked like a bunch of ants."
"Everybody helps out," he said.
Less than 15 hours after the tornado hit, Chris Graber stood in a new 36-by-64 foot house and workshop, with sturdy aluminum siding covering the walls and roof.
"I didn't realize that many people would come," Graber said. "I figured there would be help, but I had picking up the mess more in mind."
It's not the first time Amish communities have rallied together in times of hardship. Graber said one of the hallmarks of the Amish is that they help their neighbors. The Grabers have pitched in several times when others had to rebuild from fires and other damage.
Even so, Chris Graber stood in the shadow of his new house and marveled at the community response.
"I don't feel I'm worth it," he said.
Big deal. Now they have a home with no electricity, TV frig, radio, etc.
15 hours to rebuild a home?? Amazing.
Nobody can be that dense.
Some are automatically on ignore.
I've been wanting to say something. I'm from SW MO. Some of the people who lost their homes also lost their homes in '03. They've been on the news...are they complaining? NO. They are thankful for their lives, their family and the support of friends and community.
Have they been complaining about the Federal Government? No. BUT...
THE SOCIALIST RAG SPRINGFIELD-NEWS-LEADER IS RUNNING BIG HEADLINES SAYING PEOPLE ARE "WAITING" FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
These people aren't waiting on anything.
This works when a relatively small percentage of homes are devastated. Now, if every home in the Amish community was destroyed, then you'd get an idea what New Orleans was like.
mark
You know nothing of the Amish or of Red State America for that matter.
Has Big Stupid Government told them to tear it down yet, for lack of a permit or some fee/tax/bribe to BSG?
I always get a kick out of some posters who never stop to consider how many years of construction it took to build an area like NOLA in the first place. They always assume that half of the city can be re-built in a few months.
No building permits? Oh the horror.
Some day you'll have the same (or less) Who'll be there to help you? Not me.
I wonder if they got the proper building permit?
LOL, see 15.
In Southern California, one would need plans, which would go through plan check, and be subject to revision. It takes about six months sometimes. And then of course, the work would have to be inspected by a building inspector at various steps along the way.
Assume away. You'd be wrong. The part of NY in which I live has a reasonable Amish population nearby, and if you leave the urban centers, NY is as red a state as Oklahoma.
I reiterate - if the scale of devastation in Missouri was the same as the scale of devastation in New Orleans (for heaven's sake - I know people who are still cleaning up NOLA), this story would be radically different. NOLA still looks like a war zone. While these Amish are undoubtedly stern stuff, so are a lot of the people in New Orleans. They're immobilized because their assets were washed away by Katrina, most of the billions of dollars Congress allocated to NOLA hasn't made it there yet, and the sheer scale of the devestation (an entire city of 500,000 wiped off the map) means the private sector just can't mobilize quickly enough to rebuild NOLA.
At least these people pull together and help each other without whining. If they care to live without electric etc who cares. Their bills are lower then ours. I sure couldnt do it myself. But it is nice to see people pull together and help each other without expecting to get paid.
That's the problem with the govermink. Just look at CA and the other 49 states
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