This is one of those “more about Andy than it is about Travel Blog” kinda posts that I do from time to time.
My hometown of Dallas was struck by nine tornadoes on Sunday night, causing an estimated $2 billion in damage, the most expensive storm damage in Texas history. My girlfriend and I were in Iceland, so we weren’t there for the terror of it, but the storm passed very close to where I live and knocked her power out for a few days.
Others didn’t fare as well. The church I attended for years, Northway Church, saw its sanctuary smashed by the storm. Schools, apartment buildings, and shopping centers were all destroyed.
Two days after the storm I had the opportunity to go up in a helicopter over the damaged area and wanted to share some of the pictures I captured.
The amazing thing: no one was killed by these storms. There were injuries but none critical. That’s simply incredible.
Northway Church Sanctuary
School bus pile at St. Mark’s School of Texas
Shopping center on the NW Corner of Marsh and Walnut Hill in Dallas
Hicks Gymnasium at St Marks School of Texas
How you can help
United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has put together a great resource page with resources to help those affected and places to send money if you’d like to help. If you would like to donate to a more targeted area, Dallas ISD schools were particularly hard hit, with 11000 students now attending different schools because theirs was damaged (and, in at least two cases, completely destroyed). Dallas ISD has set up an information page on how to help here.
Even if you weren’t affected, here are some things to take away from this
- Never a bad time to double-check your homeowners, renters, and car insurance to make sure your coverage is adequate
- Have a plan in case disaster strikes you and your family. Back up important files to cloud servers and know where your important family documents are in case you need to get to them quickly
- Call your mom and tell her you love her, just because
Apologies for the diversion
We’ll be back to travel content shortly, just had to take a second to talk about this disaster which affected quite a few people I know, just so you’d know what’s going on.
