Mike Carnes, Managing Editor, asked an important question in the Oct. 24, 2013 Herald Tab, '4th of Calamity.'
"Where were you when?"
For me, I spent the day in Milford, never having heard of Wayne yet.
I was not here, but during these last few weeks, I learned you all were.
You helped serve meals to the cleanup crews packing and hauling off the remains of The Plant Market.
You walked the fields with Wayne State College athletes and clubs, picking up tangled debris for miles.
You brought tools and gear to clean up family residences with Team Rubicon, sifting through the remnants of lives forever changed.
You embraced a leadership role, finding any way you could organize help; your services written on a sticky note in the Community Activity Center.
You offered a smile, a kind word and a prayer to those who lost jobs.
You donated money, food, tools, time and so much more.
And even if, like me, you came to Wayne in the years following 'The 4th of Calamity,' you still shop at the affected businesses, support public servants and volunteers and offer a listening ear to those remembering the events of that evening.
Ten years ago this week, the EF-4 tornado took so much, but community members, leaders and businesses paid it back ten-fold.
From meeting with individuals who remember every detail of that day and the days that followed, The Wayne Herald has gathered stories of the aftermath.
As these stories reveal, the heart of Wayne illuminated the uncertainty of those dark days.
Ten years later, take time to reflect. Where were you when?
