SE storm update: When no response is the best response!!
There are times when a lack of response to requests made on the OCA web site are a “very good thing!”
Such was the case with the request for information posted on oca.org on March 2, 2012, asking that any parishes experiencing serious damage during the recent string of tornadoes affecting much of the southeastern US share their stories.
To date, we received a single response — from Priest Daniel Talley of Saint Tikhon Mission, Chattanooga, TN.
“Our church’s land received damage from the recent round of storms,” Father Daniel wrote the following day. “We have close to a dozen trees down or snapped in half on our ‘back acre’, though many of them were dead or dying to begin with. Several larger trees are also now leaning and prove to be a hazard. There seems to have been a very violent downburst in the neighborhood but not a tornado thankfully. We also received hailstone damage last spring when a tornado touched down within a mile of the church.”
While we are certainly thankful that damage in Chattanooga was minimal, as Father Daniel described, we also hope that any other communities experiencing damage will write to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). To be more precise, we pray that the silence is an indication that none of our communities in the affected states experienced damage — which would be a blessing indeed!