just wanted to let all of you know that we're ok here in Bartonville.

tornadoes have devastated Washington, IL which is a short distance away from me, Pekin IL & East Peoria also had tornado damage.
It was scary for awhile there, sirens started going off & didn't stop, the boys, the dog, & I ran down to the basement & the wind was unreal. Dan was at the business in West Peoria hunkered down under his desk.
We are all safe, no damage but some branches down. to see the devastation in a town so close to mine is just mind boggling. entire neighborhoods just leveled to the ground. thankfully so far there was only one fatality, many injured, but i'm amazed there was not a greater loss of life.

Julie, glad to hear all of you are okay.

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Julie I am glad for you.

You already know but will mention to the others on the board. I grew up in Washington. Well I don't know if I ever grew up but I did live in Washington as a kid.

Only 1 cousin lives in Washington now and she and her family are fine. I have a lot of family in the area. Dad's family lived about 5 miles north of the damage. All my aunts and uncles have passed away but my cousins and their families are all over the greater Peoria area. Same goes for Mom's family. The lived a little further north but a lot of them live in the area and all of them are fine too.

This whole incident got me to thinking about the family a little more. Most of my grandparents came from large farm families. Mom and Dad both had over 30 cousins. The number of kids in parent's generation were more than 60 especially on Mom's side. It would be near 100. My kids generation probably over 200 on Mom's side and over 100 on Dad's side. I have no idea how many kids would be in the next generation down the line. Both Dad and my grandfather were one of the youngest in their family so I know some of the people that would be considered in my kid's generation are as old as I am or older.

I know almost none of them. It would be interesting to have a reunion where the family could get together just once.

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Illy, glad to hear that you and your
family are ok. It was a terrible storm.

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link to aerial photos 

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wayne if you need me to check on anyone from your family, please let me know & i'll be happy to help!

the fact that only one man died is amazing. sadly, my husband's best friend went to school with steve neubauer & had been lifelong friends. steve's wife & her friend were home with steve when it happened. he sent the ladies down to the basement & was halfway down the stairs when the tornado hit. his wife watched him get sucked out of their house & was found later about 200 yards away in a ravine by emergency personnel. he had been decapitated. praying that his death was quick.

the outpouring of support from all over the USA has humbled the area. there is a lot of clean-up to do & the chaos surrounding the past few days has been insane. I went through our closets & donated as many clothes as possible, sent a bunch of Halloween candy, some markers, pens, pencils, notebook paper, soap, lotion, deodorant, books, shoes, & just about everything that wasn't nailed down. the volunteer effort is just mind boggling.

one of our teachers had his home pretty much destroyed - moved his house 2 feet off the foundation so he's assuming it will be uninhabitable. my husband's aunt & uncle live in Washington & their house is GONE but they are fine. I can't really describe it but for some reason, the storm was deceptive. Cory & I were outside cleaning up some of their scooters & various trash around the backyard not 5 minutes before the first storm came through. it started raining so we went inside, took our shoes off, & the sirens started going off. we had a bad storm & high winds here but no damage & I was pretty scared but what those in Washington are going through - I cannot imagine!

Thanks Julie. I appreciate it. All our family is doing fine. They too are busy lending a hand to those in need.

Instead of donating clothing and other goods we are simply sending prepaid cards to Target and other stores. It is a whole lot easy to mail them.

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