By Megha Satyanarayana, Detroit Free Press –
DETROIT — A rainbow appeared over Dexter, Mich., on Sunday morning, three days after a tornado ripped parts of the town to shreds.
At the Dexter United Methodist Church, every seat was filled with the grateful, the grieving and those seeking grace in a time of chaos. The EF3 twister damaged more than 100 homes, destroying more than dozen. One home lost was that of congregant Kristi Davis, who hid with her children in the basement of her Huron Farms subdivision home while the storm ripped the side and top of her house off.
“What a miracle of God that we are all here,” said Rev. Matt Hook, welcoming his congregation. He asked whose home was damaged; whose home was destroyed. About a dozen people raised their hands. Then he roused the worshipers.
“Everybody take a deep breath because we are about to rock this place in thanksgiving to God.”
Efforts to clean up hard-hit areas of Dexter went into Day 3, with volunteers from groups like Hands of Light in Action in Canton, Mich., clearing downed trees and brush from the older Carriage Hills subdivision. Homes sustained less damage than at Huron Farms, but trees that were saplings in the 1960s fell easily to the ground in winds that reached upward of 140 miles per hour.
“I cried to see all these trees down,” said Carriage Hills homeowner Maureen Burch, whose own home escaped damage, but who spent Sunday sawing tree limbs at a neighbor’s house and carrying them to the curb. “We’ve lived in the subdivision for 20 years.”
At the hard-hit Huron Farms subdivision, clean-up gave way to restoration efforts at many of the homes damaged by the storm. Jim Werner, owner of JCG Restoration, said they had seven houses in the subdivision they were working on, and having spent Thursday night and Friday cleaning, demolishing and pulling out wet debris, now was time to coax houses dry. He said by Thursday at the latest, the houses would be ready to rebuild.
Some roads were closed by emergency management on Thursday night, and remained closed on Sunday. Downtown businesses were mainly open, and in the sun and warmth, people were out, whether cycling, eating, or studying. But the disaster was at the forefront of many minds. At Joe and Rosie Coffee and Tea, workers talked to customers about damage suffered, and a sign pointed people to a website, http://www.dexterrelieffund.com, to donate money and supplies.
At the Methodist church, the gathering hall was filled with people signing up to provide help — or to receive it. In one corner, the United Methodist Committee on Relief was selling fair trade coffee and other goods that on any other week would benefit people far from Dexter. But Hook pointed out that it appeared some of those funds raised would be coming right back to Dexter.
“What a new perspective this is for us,” he said, after asking his congregation to each turn to their neighbors and share where they were when the twister hit the ground at about 5:40 p.m.
People were at work, like parishioner Dave Allen, while his wife and children were in the basement of their home near the church.
And like many, Davis heard the first siren and commanded her children to follow her to the basement. They hid under the stairs, barricading themselves with plastic bins. Then came the second siren, and the sound of a rushing train, wood, cracking and splintering, and finally, water falling into the basement. At that point, she said, she knew her roof was gone.
As the service ended, her fellow church-goers approached her with hugs and offers for help. Her children stood by her — son Kieran Young, 13, who lost his sneakers in the storm, and daughter Kara Young, 10, who wants to go back to school Monday to see her friends and make sure they’re OK. After four years in her home, Davis said she wants more than anything to stay.
“I’ve been crying for two days, not because of what I’ve lost but because of all the people who came to help,” Davis said.
