LENA—Two new, recently purchased heating and air conditioning units — gone.
Garage — gone.
Rectory fence — gone.
Windows broken, roof damage on the church and parish hall, and that’s before an official assessment of the damage at St. Joseph Church, here, caused by a bout of wild weather and what the National Weather Service classified as an EF2 tornado ripped through this little town in western Stephenson County.
Lena was just one of the diocesan communities to experience devasting storms on April 17. The NWS also reported tornadoes in the Rockton and Roscoe areas and damage from straight line winds gusts of between 60 and 80 miles per hour.
Despite the tremendous losses caused here, God’s handiwork is still in full view, according to Teresa Brown, business manager of St. Joseph Parish.
Brown recounted some of the damage to the church, parish hall and offices along with that of the Lena community itself. Through it all, she said, there were no reports of fatalities. Damage estimates for repair and insurance are in the process of being completed.
“Parishioners from St. Joseph’s, other churches and neighbors came over on Saturday and picked up a lot of the damage so we could have Mass on Saturday,” Brown told The Observer.
“There were only about 15 at Mass, but it’s understandable because most still couldn’t get out,” she said.
So many people have come together, Brown said.
“It’s not just the townspeople. All the little towns around here and even our rivals in sports have come together to help pick up and help people,”
Brown explained.
“Even in the damage you can see so much of God’s hand in everything,” Brown said as she explained the generosity of others and how a massive tree had been uprooted in town and came down between two buildings with no damage other than to the tree.
“That was God right there,” she said.
Power was restored to most of all of Lena residents by Monday despite some lingering problems with internet and phones.
Brown said the Lena Fire Department, located next door to St. Joseph Church, was packed with donations of clothing, water, cleaning products and toilet tissue, “anything people might need,” so much so that they have stopped taking donations.
The most important need now will be building material, labor, cash and time.
