Neighbors and emergency responders in Frazeysburg have called it a miracle: A tornado traveling 130 miles per hour strikes a small town without warning in the middle of the night and leaves just eight people injured in its wake.
Sarah Caslow and Corey Roby, whose home was destroyed in the June 6 storm, agree. But that doesn’t make the grief of losing their home, most of their possessions, and the life they once knew any less painful.
Caslow, Roby and their two roommates were enjoying a slow Wednesday night – a nap on the couch, a video game on the living room computer – when their house on the outskirts of Frazeysburg in Muskingum County took the full brunt of the tornado. The two-story home, a rental that had been lived in by members of Roby’s family for seven years, collapsed. Caslow required stitches for the gashes on her left arm from the windows that blew out and flew through the air like shrapnel. One roommate’s cat was sucked out a second floor window.
The four friends, barefoot, bruised, and bloodied, managed to find one another amidst the pitch black of the late night hour. Emergency Medical Services were called to the scene. By 3 a.m., the Red Cross had arrived, setting up in the local elementary school to provide care to Caslow, Roby, and their neighbors on West Third Street, the only area of town to be hit.
In all, the brief but powerful tornado that swept through the community destroyed eight homes and four businesses, and caused major damage to 3 homes and minor damage to another 40 homes, according to the Frazeysburg Police Department.
“The whole town kind of banded together,” said Roby. “Everyone was helping each other. Everyone was stopping by to make sure we were okay. People in town thought no one was home because nobody died.”
The immediate outpouring of support from the community was something that struck Red Cross Disaster Program Manager Taylor Anderson. Anderson coordinated the response to the tornado, which involved working with the local Emergency Management Agency as well as the fire department.
“The thing that stuck out the most to me in this response was just the resiliency of the community,” said Anderson. “We had Red Crossers on the ground immediately. But the donations we were receiving were from family owned restaurants and all different towns coming over to drop off dozens and dozens of pizza boxes and Gatorade and pallets of water. People were coming to donate, people were coming to offer help. It was just a really strong, really beautiful community response, and it was cool to see that.”
It’s a trend that Anderson has noticed in many of the more rural communities that she works with: though there are often fewer social safety nets, when disaster strikes, the resilience of individuals and their neighbors is put on full display.
Caslow and Roby, who have been staying with family in nearby Dresden, are proof of that. Their experience is also a testament to the gaps in systemic support that exist, both before and after disaster has occurred.
“Our lives were destroyed because of a lack of radars,” Roby said of the gaps in National Weather Service radars that left his household without a warning or an opportunity to take shelter. “We could have avoided stitches and strokes. Why do we have these blind spots?”
See also: Blind spots in weather radar system may leave some central Ohio areas vulnerable
Due to the trauma and stress of her experience, Caslow, who has high blood pressure, suffered a stroke the day after the tornado. While she has made progress in regaining control of her right arm and right leg, the loss of her independence, in addition to that of her home and years of mementos, sometimes feels overwhelming.
“The more that we start talking about it to kind of process it together, the more bits and pieces start coming back,” said Caslow. “Little by little I’m remembering a little bit about what happened, but it was a whirlwind — quite literally.”
In the nearly two months since the tornado struck, the couple has been wading through an insurance claim in hopes of replacing their possessions. Some items, like a cap and gown from graduation and Roby’s collection of nearly 1,000 books, are not so easily replaced, though. Most of what wasn’t destroyed in the initial storm was ruined while sitting in Caslow and Roby’s front yard, exposed to the elements. In the chaos of Caslow’s medical issues and a condemned categorization of the house that required the couple to have a police escort to return to their home, most of their possessions became unsalvageable.
For Caslow and Roby, it’s been a lesson in what’s truly important. They will be grieving the home they had hoped to build a future in for a long time. They count themselves lucky, though.
“We’re here,” said Roby. “It puts in perspective what matters.”
Emma Baum writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.