WAYNE, Neb. (AP) - When a tornado destroys your home, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t control it.
What you can control is how you respond and choose to move forward.
After her family’s house just south of Wayne was destroyed by one of the tornadoes that swept through Siouxland on Oct. 4, Traci Krusemark said the damage was overwhelming. But that’s not what left the deepest impression on Traci and her husband, Matt.
The Sioux City Journal reports (https://bit.ly/JXS7H3 ) people showed up yet that evening to help them salvage what they could. In coming days, dozens of volunteers helped pick up debris. There were donations of food, clothes, money.
Within days, Jason Sears, a Wayne police officer they barely knew, offered to take his house off the market and rent it to them indefinitely. After they accepted, Sears took his furniture out of storage and set it up in the house. He even rounded up some Krusemark family photos from their church, framed them and put them up in the house to greet them when they moved in just before Halloween.
“More overwhelming was the help we received than the tornado itself,” Traci Krusemark said.
Living through such a disaster has given the Krusemarks a new outlook. Krusemark said they’ve always participated in fundraisers, but they plan to take a more active role in helping others.
“I think the magnitude of how many people really helped us, it made us realize we can step it up and do more,” Krusemark said.
The family hunkered down inside the tornado shelter in their house just before the tornado hit. They emerged without a scratch, a fact that still amazes them.
Storm chasers from North Dakota who saw the tornado hit the Krusemarks’ house and outbuildings helped them climb out of a basement window. Within minutes, Krusemark said, people were showing up to help them and others in the area whose homes had been damaged or destroyed.
“Even that night, I was shocked by the people who were there,” Krusemark said.
Traci, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade special education and coaches volleyball at Wayne High School, and Matt, a mail carrier, both took a week off from work. They salvaged some clothes, toys, a computer and a fireproof safe containing wedding photos and scrapbooks full of pictures of their daughters, Kiara, 10, and 6-year-old twins, Jala and Kyla. They moved in with Matt’s parents in rural Wakefield, Neb.
The offers of help continued to come. Sears offered them his house. They received phone calls and cards from people wishing them well, offering their assistance.
Other families whose homes were destroyed received similar offers.
“The whole town of Wayne has helped everyone. Everybody has been amazing,” Krusemark said.
The generosity didn’t end at the city limits. Area schools sponsored fundraisers to contribute to the relief efforts. Folks who had survived tornadoes in other towns came to help.
The Krusemarks’ insurance claims are settled, but they’ve yet to decide if they’ll rebuild their home or buy a different acreage.
“Matt and I have hardly even talked about it,” Traci said.
But they have talked about what happens when tragedy strikes somewhere else.
“Now it’s time for us, when we get settled, it’s time for us to help others in these tragedies,” Krusemark said. “I just know that whether it’s a fire, tornado or someone loses a loved one, we need to be the first to help out and pay it forward.
“We talk about it all the time. It’s a life lesson.”
A lesson no one wants to learn in a similar fashion, but one those of us not touched by such a disaster would all do well to learn from.
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