Outside walls of building, destroyed

“You’ll love this place!” she enthused. “We think it’s the most beautiful campground ever.” We’d been planning to go camping with our friends and they suggested an RV park in the Northeast portion of Oregon state. We would be going a day earlier than them and we anticipated a relaxing time in the Wallowa River Valley, the Blue mountains on the horizon. 

As we drove through the tiny town of Wallowa, it looked very dry and dusty. The trees looked like they had lost most of their leaves and it was only August. We noticed as we drove slowly through the highway in the middle of town, windows were  boarded up. All of the buildings on the west side had plywood on the windows. Was it because of the hot summer western sun? I wondered. Crossing the bridge, over the Wallowa River, I noticed a good sized tree had fallen into the water. Everything looked messy, leaves scattered everywhere. Big branches covered the ground. Not the usual green summery view near the river banks.

We drove into the campground and I wondered again, I thought she said this was the most beautiful campground ever. It doesn’t look very pretty to me. Jim went into the office to register and asked the camp host, “Why were all the windows boarded up in town?” 

“Haven’t you heard?” the host exclaimed, “We had an F3 tornado blow through here last Thursday!” he continued, “There were twenty-three RVs totaled,” he shook his head, “We’re kinda traumatized here.”

As we drove through the campground, there were tarps covering most of the RV roofs, the vehicle windshields were smashed as though a giant fist hit them.

Five days earlier, they had experienced a terrifying event.

As we spoke with many of the campers, they told us how rapidly the storm hit. “We were just sitting around, visiting, and it started to rain. We made a move to get inside our campers and the drops kept getting bigger. All of a sudden, they were hailstones. Huge ones! As big as a baseball, some of them!” She —her name was Sherri—described trying to get her dog to go into the camper. The dog was scared and wouldn’t move. Sherri was afraid her door would be blown off if she didn’t close it soon. When inside, her window was blown into the camper. She shielded herself with a blanket so she wouldn’t be hurt by flying glass. Hailstones hit her body. Later she showed me a large lump of swollen tissue on her calf. She said she had a huge bruise on her torso. The wind was violent! No one in the campground were hurt except bumps and bruises and the trauma experiencing it. No lives were lost. I think of Sherri, how she was able to shut her door to the camper and her quick thinking by shielding herself with a blanket so glass wouldn’t hit her.

The next day, Jim and I strolled into the town and in awe, we looked at destroyed siding on the buildings, boarded up windows on the west side, vinyl siding ripped off in bits, signs blown apart.

One of the camp hosts told us how everyone worked together to help out. 

This morning I read in Psalm 133:1 How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony! I believe God was pleased when He witnessed the cooperation and grateful attitudes the people who experienced the storm had shown to each other. On woman was down to her last can of spam and other campers shared their provisions.

Jesus was once asked, “What is the greatest command in the law?”

He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love  your neighbor as yourself  (Matthew 22:37-39 Holman).

I believe God was pleased as He witnessed the people help each other without question. They shared their food, helped clear things up. Sweep out glass from the car interiors and the mess inside the campers. 

I’m quite sure, those people will never forget this experience and will look back one day and see how God protected and guided them. And most importantly, experienced that neighbor-loving-neighbor that Thursday afternoon which so swiftly descended on them.