Please keep us posted and let us know howwe can help

Kaye, I saw the report on MSN this morning. Sounds really bad. I'm sorry Hilda had so much damage. Everything okay at your place? I guess FS is okay, but I better check in with mom.
BTW, thanks for the link to Channel 5, I saved it as a favorites link. Will be good to keep up with news from my hometown area.

Randy

Kaye, I just looked up Mena in relation to your house. I hope you are ok. It looks to me like it was very close to you.

I know you will keep us posted about Hilda, and I hope the damage is not too bad.

The winds here have been fierce, and have really affected some of my largest roses. Today has just been one of many days with very strong winds. But we are a couple of hours away. Once the wind breaks a large branch, then other branches come crashing down also.

Where is Greg? (Beer hog)

Sammy

The dry line that caused the tornados broke over us and all we got was some hail and wind. Greg should have been OK, too. He's east of me 50 miles and Mena is about 50 miles south of me. I was just down there last week and visited Hilda's garden. Soon as I can reach her, I'll update. Cell phone service is spotty and a lot of power and phone lines are down.

I just talked to Hilda and they are all ok..meaning her family. They all weathered the storm in her house. She was outside when I called and she says there is nothing left but the house and it's badly damaged but not destroyed...windows out, siding gone and chimney down. Looking out to the pasture, she could see the cows but no barn, no fences. Their above ground big pool is gone. No trees left standing anywhere in sight and all the garden structures, including her big gazebo are gone. She said about 3/4 of the roses are still there, though. She was dying for a cup of coffee..no power. She's supposed to call us later if there is anything we can do to help. I think they are still in a state of shock but thankful to be alive and unhurt through all this destruction.

Kaye, I am so sorry to hear about Hilda's property and of course, the first flush, being lost. Give her our most heartfelt thoughts for a speedy recovery for her emotional health and her property. I hope their insurance company is rapidly responsive but very thankful of no personal injury to herself or her family.

Do keep us posted. Going through these events like this can be devastating to one's emotional state for sometime.

I, too, am so sorry for such destruction. I cannot even imagine what one does with cows without a fence or barn. I do hope that her insurance company works fast to repair the house and fence.

Please let Hilda know how much we care about her, and wish her the best.

Sammy

I am so sorry to hear about the damage and loss. I hope everyone is OK.

What a horrible thing to happen. I'm glad they are okay even if structures are destroyed. She must be heartbroken.

Carla

I'm so sorry, but glad to hear that the house is standing and that many roses are still alive and that she and family are well. Kaye, I'm happy that you and Greg are OK. Please send him my regards.

Oh, that's so awful. I was just watching the news on the Mena coverage and didn't know a member lived there. They said 30 people were killed.

She and her family are in my prayers.

I can't imagine how terrifying it must be to go through something like a tornado. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Judith

I was watching on the news last night, it looked awful. I now feel stupid fretting about a silly freeze. I hope and pray that Hilda and her family are ok. I can't imaging losing my home and yard. Just devastating.

This is horrible. I am a west coast girl..I can't imagine being happy over the promise of spring and knowing it also brings twisters.

How horrible------thank goodness her home is still standing and no one in the family was hurt----
Kaye --is she a Forum member? and if so what is her forum name----
My thoughts and prayers are with her---and her family

Florence

Hilda and family, God bless and keep you all.My elder sister has lived in the Midwest for 40 years and every spring we watch their weather and pray. Besides the rebuilding of the house their sense of wellbeing will have to be rebuilt too. Hopefully her roses will add a bit of good to that need.

Florence, yes, Hilda is a GW member. I just checked her page and it's listing her as joining in 2002..just about the time I first met her..guess where? Yep, right here on GW. When we found how close we lived and that we had so much in common, we became fast friends thru the following years. She doesn't post anymore because of an incident long past.

Knowing Hilda, she'll take the opportunity to re-work her garden and all around it. She was already talking this morning about getting that big window in the kitchen she had always wanted. She has a lot of family and friends to support her and, this morning, she is counting her blessings that they all made it through.

Those of us in this part of the country are well aware that these spring (and some fall) storms bring in very unsettled weather. The warning systems are in place that save many lives, thankfully. There were several hundred people in the basement of the courthouse in Mena when the downtown area took a direct hit. In our area, we have community storm shelters at the schools and many residents have their own. Hilda's husband had built their home many years ago and it withstood this major tornado. This is a beautiful part of the country and I wouldn't think of living anywhere else and I doubt Hilda would..even after this. She told me now that all the trees are gone, she has a great view of the mountains! That's Hilda.

Kaye, I am so sorry to hear this. At least Hilda and her family are safe, though that doesn't erase the sense of loss she must feel. She certainly has a good attitude about it all. Tell her she and her family are in my prayers and if there is anything that we can do to help her please let us know.

Carol

I watched the weather last night and cringed at all the tornado and storm reports. I am so sorry.

This is just horrible! Thank goodness Hilda and her family are okay. I remember Hilda on the forum years ago. I hope things can be cleaned up quickly and her house repaired.

Deb

Kaye she and her family are in my thoughts and prayers. How disappointiing to lose your whole Spring flush(my first thought). Let us know what we can do, her garden was so beautiful and now she has a view, now that's a gal with attitude! Good for here. Give her my love.
la

Please send Hilda my wishes for a better spring ahead.
(A larger kitchen window as well).

Murfreesboro TN just got hit and we have members near there, as well.

Jean is in Nashville, and Murfreesboro is near Nashville.
I hope she checks in.
Sammy

Thank goodness she and her family are okay and they still have a home.

Eric

Kaye---I also joined the Forum in 2002 so I guess I knew Hilda just don't remember her Forum name-

She sure has a great attitude-----I wish her the best and a great big window to look out at the view----

Ask her if she remembers the song from the 'Unsinkable Molly Brown" -- --Molly wanted a big "lookin out" window and Hilda reminds me of that song.

Tell her I wish her the best.

Florence

So sorry to hear, this is really sad. Glad her family was not hurt. Wish her the best.
Olga

My heart goes out to her and anyone else for that matter who gets hit by something like this. I hope she and her family can get going again okay, but realistically it is going to take a while. Spring can be scarey in this part of the country.

My sympathies and best wishes to Hilda, and I hope she and her family start rebuilding soon with the idea of a new and improved property!--she sounds like she has the necessary attitude. I've never been in a tornado and perhaps this image is foolish, but a big old shrub rose, devastated in its top growth but ready to relaunch itself from the roots, seems to me the very symbol of recovery from a natural disaster.

Melissa

Can you give us a plant list of things she lost that she'd like to replace? Postage can't be much from Chamblee's or Lisa Lou's...Just an idea. Sometimes a few small gifts can be quite cheering, rooted cuttings...she had such beautiful Iris in her garden.
la

I do know that she lost all the climbers on garden structures..New Dawn, Reve d'Or, Cl. Pinkie..may be others. I have some I can replace for her but will check with her. Beerhug and I talked to her yesterday and they have managed to get tarps over the damaged roof and Hilda was managing the plastic over the rest of the windows while her husband has helping neighbors to protect their mangled homes from the rains that came today...such is life in small town America where the community rises to the occasion.

When things have settled down, I'll bring up to her what we all can do to help rebuild the garden and I know she will appreciate the generosity.

What a great friend you are, Kaye. Yes, you are right. That's what small communities do. Last year in our neighborhood when the tornado hit, over 200 homes were destroyed, almost all of the houses on the street directly behind me. It looked like a war zone but our mayor, governor, council personnel and churches were so quick to act that within a short time, everyone was accounted for, a triage area for injuries, a little tent city for registering for insurance or government purposes, and an area for overnighters who wanted to stay nearby instead of going to hotels and motels. If you drove through now, you would never know anything like that ever happened. It's all back to as normal as it can be.

Patrica---how scary that must have been for you------and I agree---can't beat "small town America"-------

I hope Hilda and her family are still OK.

Florence