Childress Storm Damage
Youth Camp was good. Might post about it later. Sunday night at camp after worship I went to check my
phone and had a message from Mom saying she thought she was hit by a tornado and had windows
blown out of her house. Needless to say I left youth camp and spent all day Sunday boarding up windows
and hauling off tree limbs. On Monday, June 16, Childress looked like a war zone. The Friday paper said
at least 15 million dollars of damage for a town of roughly 7,000. Over 1500 homes had damage, 6 of
them were destroyed.
FBC Childress, the church I served as youth minister, is looking at $750,000 damage from what I'm told.
The sanctuary is totaled and they will be in the fellowship hall for months. Calvary Baptist Church, my
home church, lost the north wall of the church and about 1/4 of the roof. Their sanctuary was also totaled.
If you have been there the only thing left standing of the wall behind the pulpit was the cross and the 2x4
it hung on. From then on you see the northern sky.
Lots of work has been done in cleaning up the two churches. Calvary had a host of men working on the
church Saturday and I believe they almost got the church back in the dry. At least the framing for the wall
is back up and there is plywood being applied. There new pastor will be there this Sunday. Keep them
and First in your prayers.
They said the hail/wind lasted at least 30 minutes Sunday night. Reports are anywhere from 6 inches to
2 feet of hail were on the ground. You drive into Childress and looks like winter based upon the look of
the trees. Very few green leaves. The homcoming bonfire should be good this fall with all the tree limbs
that are being piled up in behind the football field. The good news, only minor injuries. It could have been
a lot worse!
Here is the picture of the storm over Childress taken about 20 miles east of town.
