At times like these, we are reminded of the closing lines of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s greatest poem, “Ulysses.” They speak to something deep inside us all: the ability to face life’s adversities with courage and strength ... to rise up when life knocks us down.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
The scenes of the devastation wrought upon the Elon community in Amherst County, in the Timberlake section of Campbell County and across a swath of Lynchburg Sunday evening are painful to gaze upon, even as photographs on the printed page or as a flickering image on a television screen. We can’t begin to imagine the horror, the piercing pain, the overwhelming sense of loss experienced by those for whom the tornado’s wrath is their life now.
The tornado struck Elon at its strongest, but that’s cold comfort to the folks in Lynchburg and Campbell who saw their homes and businesses destroyed or severely damaged.
Two dozen houses — no, more than houses, homes — destroyed or severely damaged by what the National Weather Service says was an EF2 tornado with maximum winds of 130 mph. Miraculously, no lives were lost when the twister struck, but the lives of those who made it through the minutes of sheer terror will be forever changed. Time will always be marked as “before the tornado” and “after the tornado.”
No one who hasn’t gone through such horror can fully know what it must be like — staring possible death in the face and, then, having survived, facing complete rebuilding.
The story of Elon resident Leecy Fink and her family is especially touching.
Fink, who is waging a years-long fight against breast cancer, found herself with her husband (a sergeant with the Lynchburg Police Department) and family huddled in the basement of their home as the winds raged above their heads, destroying their home. Water, both from the rain but also burst pipes, soon began pouring in. Neighbors got them out in the knick of time.
The Finks’ home, like so many of their neighbors’, was destroyed. Possessions, mementos, the knick-knacks of decades together as a family were lost ... but not what truly matters: each other.
In Lynchburg, the story of Hilda Hernandez is just as heartbreaking. The first-time homeowner — she had purchased a mobile home in the Brentwood Mobile Home Park on Lakeside Drive — saw her dreams pulverized by the tornado. She had been renovating it since December, readying it for the city’s final inspection on Monday. And a pickup truck, her only means of transportation? Split in two by a tree toppled by the storm. But Hernandez, too, is grateful that her family is alive.
Much was taken Sunday evening in Central Virginia, but much abides. And that’s what will get this community through this nightmare.