It has been 19 months since a deadly tornado hit Northwest Ohio. It has been seven months since I talked with the Blank family, who were the focus of a yearlong Toledo Free Press series about the rebuilding process. It has only been a few weeks since I was asked, “How are the Blanks?”

The short answer is good. The longer answer is this amazing story.

When the Blanks lost their home to the June 5, 2010, tornado, they lost nearly everything inside: furniture, clothes, memorabilia and photos.

One of the irreplaceable photos was a framed picture of Ed and Julie Blank from when they got married nearly 18 years ago. The photo was mounted on the wall of their second-floor bedroom, which was blown away in the tornado.

But for Christmas, Ed’s son, Eddie, gave them a new photo — and the original. When Eddie and his wife, Michelle, went to get photos taken of her pregnant belly (she’s due any day now), the photographer, Tammy Palmer of Eternity of Memories, had the damaged photo.

She had found it in her studio’s yard in Oregon and had kept it since the tornado, Eddie said. It was ripped in half and stuck to Styrofoam; its journey had left it tattered.

Eddie took the original photo and put it together the best he could to make a copy. He included that and the original photo in a box for Christmas.

“When I opened it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, how did you find this?’ Now we have it sitting on a shelf in our living room,” Julie said.

This isn’t the first time their belongings have been found outside of their Millbury neighborhood. In July, their son’s bag with his name in permanent marker was found in Genoa.

The best gift, though, has been their new home. Built on the same property where the old one was leveled, the family just celebrated their one-year anniversary of moving in.

“Oh yeah, it feels like home. I sometimes forget what the old house looked like,” Julie said.

Now it feels even more like home with the photo of their wedding day.

Tags: Blank Family, Brandi Barhite, Community Ombudsman, Storming Back

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Community, Community Ombudsman, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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When riding along on a storm chase, the last phrase you want to hear is, “Speed up or we’re going to die.” Brandon Copic, a 17-year-old storm chaser, said those words as we raced away from a May 29 tornado in Dundee.

“That was my most dangerous chase,” said Copic, a rising senior at Whitmer High School. “That tornado developed within a half to a quarter mile from us, and it was coming for us fast. If it did drop, it wasn’t on the ground for too long.”

After watching a wide funnel cloud start to drop, Copic called 911 to have a tornado warning issued.

“It was getting close, and we had to speed off to avoid getting killed,” he said. “At this time, we were driving along a lot of dirt roads. Lightning was striking close, but I was getting scared by the potholes we were hitting.”

Copic’s interest in tornadoes started at the age of 12. He founded Thundering Skies Media with co-owner James Gustina in 2009.

“I’ve always been interested in weather, but I really started in tornadoes and severe weather in particular after seeing the movie ‘Twister’,” he said. “I just love how small and weak I seem compared to the power of nature.”

A funnel cloud threatens to form May 29 in Dundee.

Copic and his driver went on their first chase May 7, 2010.

“Me and my best friend Austin Stalhood went out chasing supercells near the Indiana border, and we got a wall cloud, funnel cloud, roll cloud and shelf cloud,” Copic said. “It was pretty good considering we had nothing more than our eyes and an atlas. We even beat Reed Timmer of ‘Storm Chasers’ to the area in which the tornado would have formed.”

These days, Copic uses advanced meteorology programs on his laptop to assist in the chase.

“Luckily I got my knowledge from Norm Van Ness at NBC 24,” Copic said. “He taught me all I know in weather as of right now, and for that I give NBC 24 free live streaming video.”

To help pay for chasing expenses such as gas and mobile Internet, Copic streams live video from a webcam on his dashboard. The video is sent to ChaserTV.com and is sold to news stations by KDR Media.

After he graduates next year, Copic plans to follow his passion for weather and major in meteorology at Oklahoma University. The weather patterns in Norman, Okla. played a major role in his choice of college.

“I mainly want to go to OU because that’s where all the storm chasers go,” Copic said. “All my friends are going there, and I love being around people like me. I really don’t plan on getting anything big for a degree, just to expand my meteorological knowledge for storm chasing. I will definitely be chasing once I get out to the plains.”

Copic hopes to translate a degree in meteorology into a career as an Oklahoma state trooper.

“I plan on becoming an Oklahoma state trooper because it’s in Tornado Alley, and state troopers cover a large area of land to patrol,” Copic said. If there’s a severe weather outbreak, I might still see it while I’m working. I’ve wanted to become a cop for the longest time.”

He is getting a head start on becoming a state trooper by taking courses in Whitmer’s criminal science program. He was also in the Toledo Police Explorer program but quit to focus on storm chasing.

Brandon Copic

“Whitmer’s criminal science program is amazing,” Copic said. “We learn and then do mock scenarios of what we’ve learned, like traffic stops. Honestly, it’s the teacher who makes the class. Mr. Palmer is the best teacher ever.”

Copic is combining his passions for criminal justice and meteorology on June 4. He is attending the Ohio Safety Festival in Canton to teach local law enforcement members how to use a weather radar program.

While it may seem like a simple concept, Copic warned of the dangers of storm chasing and the importance of a proper education.

“Do not go chasing if you’re uneducated,” Copic said. “You need a degree in meteorology and knowledge of storm structure, storm dynamics and how to forecast them. No Skywarn meeting can teach you that.”

Copic also warned of the personal dangers of being a storm chaser.

“If you want a girlfriend, don’t become a storm chaser,” Copic said. “It’s very nerdy, and nobody likes a nerd. It’s hard being a storm chaser and keeping a relationship because one day you will randomly pack up and leave for a couple days at a time. I’m still working on one girl. Flowers help. All jokes aside, only chase if you know what you’re doing.”

For those uninterested in chasing, Copic also shared advice on tornado safety.

“Take all tornado warnings seriously,” Copic said. “If there is a tornado warning, then you need to get to the lowest level of your home. If you don’t have a basement, then get into a bathtub on the lowest floor, or the most interior room in your home. If you’re in a mobile home, get out. It’ll get thrown. Stay away from windows.”

For more information on Thundering Skies Media and links to live streaming, visit the website www.ToledoTornadoTrackers.webs.com.

Tags: Blank Family, Brandon Copic, storm chaser, Storming Back, Tornadoes, Whitmer HIgh School

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 5th, 2011 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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Few traces remain of the tornado that ripped through Dundee one year ago. But rebuilding continues for several of the hardest hit.

“We lost everything,” Brenda York said.

The storm destroyed her and her husband Mark’s house, vehicles and the building that housed their nursery business. Picking up the pieces has been slow and arduous.

“It probably took 10 years off my life,” she said. “It’s frustrating; it’s trying to piece things back together.”

But even for the Yorks, normality has begun to set in again. They’ve moved into their nearly completed new home and their business is back in operation.

They received lots of support along the way, she said, a statement echoed by local Tim Domber, who found a hole in his roof and a piece of wood sticking out of his siding after the storm.

A Dundee gas station damaged by the June 5, 2010, tornado.

“It was just incredible to me … the way we all pitched in and helped each other,” he said.

‘A giant weed-whacker’

June 6, 2010, was to have been the first day of operation for Dundee’s newly established police force. That Sunday morning was not the quietest of beginnings.

“There are not too many things that have really scared me like that,” Domber said.

The tornado hit Dundee shortly after 2 a.m., cutting power, knocking down phone lines, shredding homes and heavily damaging several businesses along M-50.

The town “looked like a giant weed-whacker went through it,” said Geoff Gale, an employee at the Cabelas retail store.

“On the street there were just piles, and you knew that’s where a house had been,” Domber said.

The Holiday Inn Express & Splash Universe was one of the town’s most damaged businesses. The tornado blew out a wall in the water park, tore off pieces of the roof, snapped mechanicals and broke a waterline, which flooded three floors of one of the hotel’s two wings.

“You could not step anywhere in this water park without stepping on debris,” said Keith Alexander, the hotel’s general manager.

Alexander said there was never any doubt that the hotel would reopen. But the process was painful.

“One of the worst things I had to do was lay off over 140 employees,” Alexander said. The hotel opened after three months. The water park finally reopened in March. Alexander hired back 150 employees, including many of those he had laid off. Spring Break hit and April was “one of our best months ever,” Alexander said.

‘9/11 effect’

The recovery, Domber said, created a much tighter-knit community. He met neighbors for the first time in the days following as the township pulled together to clean up as quickly as possible.

He spent 12 straight hours with one neighbor as, chainsaws in hand, they cleared away large maple trees knocked over on his property, stopping only for sandwiches provided by the Red Cross or Salvation Army.

David Uhl, the town’s sheriff, said people from the surrounding communities swarmed in to help. Many of them were police officers intent on preserving order, prohibiting gawkers and looters and preventing scams.

Joe Ross, a manager at Cabelas, said the outfitter sent water bottles, loaves of bread, jerky and all the food prepared for the day in the restaurant to help the efforts downtown. It was fantastic, he said, to watch the community react — even at a less local level.

“I don’t know how many calls I got from all over the state [offering to help],” he said.

When Domber checked his phone Sunday evening, he had 67 messages making sure he was safe.

The experience, Domber said, was terrible, something he never wants to go through again.

But the fruit of it, the heightened sense of closeness to each other, remains for the town.

“The community was just out of this world,” he said.

Dundee Baptist Church, which served as a staging site for relief  efforts last year, will host a remembrance service from 3 to 6 p.m. June 5 to commemorate victims and those who helped them.

“We want to bring closure for people,” the Rev. Wayne Vann said. “We want  to bring people together.”

Tags: Blank Family, Cabela's, Dundee, Patrick Timmis, Storming Back, Tornadoes

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 5th, 2011 at 7:27 am and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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A year later, there is still tornado cleanup to be done in Fulton County.

While most major damage has been dealt with, there are still families with damaged trees to cut and clear, said Chuck Whitmire, senior pastor at Shiloh Christian Union Church in Delta.

The church — which served as an initial volunteer center for county relief efforts after the June 5 tornado — recently organized its annual week of community service. Among the dozens of projects tackled by volunteers was helping local families clear storm damage.

“There are still some families struggling,” Whitmire said. “They still have some pretty significant things with actual property damage that are not resolved yet. For the most part, the rebuilding of homes and buildings is pretty much complete. What’s going on right now is still a lot of cutting up of trees, relandscaping, reseeding lawns.”

A Delta church volunteer helps clear branches from last year's storm.

Several lots also now stand empty as families elected to move or leave the area rather than rebuild, added Anita Whitmire, the pastor’s wife and church secretary.

Cleanup also continues in Oak Openings Metropark, where one trail is still closed, said Scott Carpenter, public relations director of Metroparks of Toledo Area.

The tornado cut a 150-acre swath through the park’s 4,000 acres, downing and damaging thousands of trees, Carpenter said. Last fall, a logging company removed all the dead and dying trees, but many stumps and smaller limbs still need to be cleared.

“Amazingly, the lodge and no buildings were harmed and no people were harmed, but, man, it really tore things up,” Carpenter said.

Fulton County had 68 structures affected by the tornado, all private residential: 11 destroyed, 20 with major damage, 11 with minor damage and 26 affected, meaning minimal damage such as a piece of damaged siding or a shingle blown off, said Justin Thompson, director of the Fulton County Emergency Management Agency.

Insurance covered the vast majority of damage.

“I’m sure people are still trying to get back to normal, but most of our affected victims were insured,” Thompson said. “From the county point of view, we went through and we took care of most of the major wooded debris and then we let insurance take its course.”

Costs to the county and townships were mainly paying for extra shifts put in by first responders and those who removed debris from roads. Some of the public time and materials were reimbursed by the state, Thompson said.

“I’m sure it’s hurt the [county’s] budget, but it really didn’t matter to them what the budget was at that point; they just wanted to get done what needed to get done,” Thompson said. “Everyone from the county commissioners to Congressman Latta and the rest of the state government were instrumental and no holds barred to getting things done.”

Although federal aid was denied, the state provided some emergency aid to families, Thompson said.

Local churches and organizations also collected donations, including the United Way of Fulton County, which distributed more than $53,000, said Executive Director Gina Saaf.

Although some Fulton County families reported last year they missed warnings because they did not hear tornado sirens, the county will not be adding more, Thompson said. The sirens, which are meant for outdoor notification, have a 1-mile audible radius, although wind and other ambient sounds can decrease that range.

“We’ve talked about it, but there’s always going to be people out of reach of sirens,” Thompson said. “Having a siren every square mile radius of the county is not cost-effective at all. People really need to find other means of notification. One thing I always push is the NOAA weather radios.”

To mark the anniversary of the tornado, Shiloh Christian Union Church is planning a community commemoration June 5.

The event, which starts at 11 a.m. at the church, 2100 County Road 5, will include an outdoor worship service, potluck, photo display, music and speakers. Everyone is welcome. Attendees should bring lawn chairs and a dish to share.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to celebrate what’s happened since that time — the resilience, the rebuilding, the sense of community and neighbors helping one another. People responded so marvelously and we just want to celebrate that together,” Chuck Whitmire said.

“We want to thank God. Not one person lost their life here. There was millions of dollars in damage, but the one person injured recovered within a few months. Her house was completely blown away and when it was gone, she was still standing there. It was the marvelous hand of protection upon her to not have more serious injuries than she experienced. Most of the things lost were things that could be replaced.”

Tags: Blank Family, Delta, Storming Back, Tornadoes

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 4th, 2011 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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The only evidence of the havoc caused by the tornado that ripped through Moline is the two empty lots and the lone house still under construction.

“If you drive through and you look, you will notice there are a lot of big trees in Moline,” said Lake Township Chief of Police E. Mark Hummer. “And there’s an area kinda cutting right through the middle of it where there’s no big trees, but you’d have to be looking for it. I think they’re back to a new normal in Moline.”

Hummer, who flew over Moline in a helicopter the night of the tornado to survey the damage, said he was relieved no one died in Moline. While he found about 20 homes uninhabitable, he said most people rebuilt in time to be home for Thanksgiving.

“They did a great job,” he said. “They took care of each other.”

When Hummer drove through Moline after the tornado, he said his job was to help people get in touch with debris cleanup crews, the Red Cross and insurance adjusters.

The things that people were most concerned about were universal across the township, “was they weren’t so concerned about their big-screen TVs or even their jewelry or watches or electronics, they were worried about their pictures and mementos, things that truly cannot be replaced,” Hummer said.

Ben Sample said most of his belongings were scattered in the field near the remains of his mother’s house. The house, which has been rebuilt, only had a foundation and a toilet left after the tornado swept through.

The june 5, 2010, tornado left only a toilet and some of the foundation of Ben Sample’s Moline home.

“It wasn’t real,” Sample said. “It was like a nightmare. It looked like a battlefield.”

While he was not in town during the tornado, he drove back that evening.

“When I got here, everybody else was in the street, trying to have moral support,” he said. “Everybody came out and had support. Every day we came out here to clean up, there was a new person. It was amazing how the community responded to it.”

The community response gave homeowner John Pratt new faith in mankind. The roof and ceilings of Pratt’s home were damaged in the tornado, and every window in the back of the house was shattered.

A neighbor who had his house up for sale allowed Pratt and his family to live in the home while they rebuilt their house.

Pratt said he has wondered about the tornado’s timing.

“We were just talking about how lucky our neighborhood had been,” he said. “If it had been a weeknight, we might have all been sleeping.”

He said when the tornado hit, his thoughts were on saving his family, including their three dogs. When the roof lifted off his house, he made his way to the basement.

“By the time I actually closed my door,” he said, “it was over.”

Pratt said his family was one of the lucky ones. They didn’t lose many mementos, only a few pictures of his sons, Bryce and Austin. Two of the dogs, who rode out the storm in Pratt’s bedroom, had a few scratches but no serious injury.

“Everything I couldn’t replace in my house was just fine — and that was my family,” he said.

But for Moline resident Jill Becker, who cooks for nearby The Outpost Pizza & Carryout, life couldn’t have returned to normal faster.

“We slept through it,” she said. “We were watching movies and weren’t even paying any attention to the weather channel. We fell asleep on the couch. We’d have slept till morning if people hadn’t called.”

Becker said she woke up because a friend called her asking if she was OK. When she was told there had been a tornado, she had to see for herself.

“We went and looked out the window,” she said. “We could see all of our neighbors running to help other people.”

After she hung up on her friend, her family went outside and did what they could to help, including about eight hours of raking the yard. The tornado had missed her family by four houses.

But now, one would have to be looking to find any evidence of the terrible night in Moline.

Hummer said the events since the tornado and Moline’s return to normal give him faith.

“It was a positive experience coming out of a horrific night,” he said.

Tags: Moline, Storming Back, Tornadoes

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 4th, 2011 at 7:25 am and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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This issue features the 50th and final story in the yearlong series about the Blank family rebuilding after the June 5 tornado.

Every week, for the past year, when I filed my story, I put the number with it — and usually a message to my editor.

“I almost blew the streak. You would think prom was top secret.” (No. 43)

“I changed my story this week because I found out that Lake is going to help Findlay flood victims.” (No. 37)

“My Blank story is done with a hole or two in it. The fam just got back from vacation and I am trying to reach them for an additional quote.” (No. 7)

So when I say “Whew,” I mostly speak for Ed and Julie Blank and their son, Casey. I called them all the time. Sometimes we met in person. We emailed and texted when I needed to double-check a detail. When I couldn’t reach them, I got on Facebook. Casey quickly responded to that.

I phoned the Blanks when they were out of the country — and they answered. I called Julie when she was giving Casey a driving lesson. In between a terrified scream or two, she asked if we could talk in a few minutes. I even interviewed Casey about going to the Lake High School prom. I then called his date (Casey loved that).

Tough questions

To be sure, the Blanks won’t miss me. I invaded their lives when they didn’t need distractions. I asked questions they didn’t want to answer. I asked questions they didn’t have time to answer. I asked questions they never thought they would have to answer.Can you tell me about your neighbors who died?

How did it impact you knowing you survived and they didn’t?

What is left of your belongings?

People always asked me how I came up with stories week after week.

Sadly, it was easy. When you lose your home, your neighbors and the high school your son attends, the storytelling could go on forever.

That’s what a lot of journalists forget. The story never ends; we just stop paying attention because the next big story arrives. Murders, deficits, elections, car accidents and other tragedies — it all trumps the tornado after awhile.

So when Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller gave me the chance to write a story every week for one year with guaranteed space, I knew this was a rare chance to teach people that stories are never as simple as we try to make them.

The Blanks showed everyone that rebuilding from a tragedy is an ongoing process — both physically and emotionally.

The smallest things in life become a big deal when the rest is so uncertain.

That is why I cared so much when Julie finally had a new closet for her clothes. That is why I cared when Casey’s classmates voted him a homecoming representative. That is why I cared when Ed bought a motorcycle, something he stopped waiting to do. That is why I cared when they found their missing cat Rippy after the tornado separated them. That is why I cared when they moved home into their newly rebuilt house in time for Christmas.

I also wrote about the people close to the Blanks and therefore also affected by the tornado. People don’t walk their lives in a straight line without touching other people.

That’s why I wrote about how Julie’s aunt and uncle, pseudo parents, supported them after the tornado. That’s why I wrote about the Bihn family, who let the Blanks live with them. That is why I wrote about Ed’s grandson, Noah, needing therapy after being at the house on the night of the tornado. That is why I wrote about Casey’s baseball team and how the sport was an escape.

The empty lot next door

If I could change one thing about the series it would be a few people’s reactions to the Blanks. Some readers thought they were rich or their house was too big or they should not have gone on vacation. To those people, I say: The Blanks lost a house in a nice middle-class neighborhood, so they rebuilt a home that was almost exactly the same. Did you want them to rebuild smaller to play into your idea of how victims behave?

Despite the Blanks losing nice things in the tornado, some people also complained that the family bought nice things. To those people, I say: The Blanks would return everything if it meant one less person died in the tornado. I know this because I know the Blanks. They invited me into their lives for one year and held nothing back, especially their sorrow.

Seven people died from injuries sustained in the tornado, three of them lived right next door to the Blanks.

For the Blanks, the loss is always visual. The empty lot next door.

One of the comments that stood out from this series was when Ed said, “Why did we live?”

It was with that comment I knew I had selected the right family for this yearlong series because my selection had, in fact, been random.

My husband teaches at Lake High School, and Casey plays on his baseball team. The day after the tornado, my husband went to survey the damage and saw Ed standing among the rubble. They exchanged a few words, including a comment about Ed wearing a Tigers shirt — the right shirt, according to them both.

I noted that conversation in a column and, a few days later, I was offered a chance to follow a family for a whole year.

Now, I just needed a family.

When I called Ed Blank, he was enthusiastic and willing. He said something along the lines of “this needs to be done.”

He was right. It needed to be done. For once, the story needed to go on. It needed to be longer than a few days of coverage.

Even now, the story isn’t done. The series might be finished, but the Blanks’ rebuilding goes on. If I could write story No. 51, I would continue with the tradition of picking the smallest routines of life and putting them into perspective for a family that is just one year into a lifelong process of rebuilding.

It would make us feel better if the Blanks had moved on. We want them to be OK — for us and them. We want life to go back to normal. But after finishing this series, I have realized the Blanks haven’t moved on; they have just kept moving — and that is a feat in itself and a story worth telling.

Brandi Barhite is associate editor of Toledo Free Press. Contact her at bbarhite@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Blank Family, Storming Back, Tornadoes

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 10:50 am and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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On May 31, Toledo City Council finally got out of its own way and voted to approve the deal to sell the Marina District to Dashing Pacific.

As Councilman Tom Waniewski remarked to his fellow council-persons, this could have been accomplished a month ago, but “better late than never” has rarely been so applicable.

At this point, there are no losers in this transaction. Mayor Mike Bell’s quest to breathe life in Toledo receives a major boost. Dean Monske and the Regional Growth Partnership have a major deal to tout to other potential investors, at home and abroad. The venerable Northwest Ohio firm Rudolph|Libbe gains a major role in shaping the future of Downtown Toledo. All area residents stand to benefit from the jobs, investment and economic boost that could be the first step toward a new era.

“There has been a lot of concern over this particular project, when we went back to China last week, I think we covered a lot of ground in being able to be able to get this project moving back in a forward direction,” Bell said. “Not only are Dashing Pacific prepared to buy the land, they are prepared to put a $200 to $300 million dollar project on that land.” He said if we looked around to see what $200 to $300 million would buy, you could almost buy the City of Toledo. This project would change our riverfront into something it should have been some time ago.

The optimism is warranted, but of course now the work begins. There will undoubtedly be mistakes and complications, as there are on any major development project, but it is our hope — and it should be a voter mandate — that former naysayers support the project and facilitate solutions as Dashing Pacific makes its mark.

Storming back with the Blank family

If the Dashing Pacific investors need any examples of our resiliency and ability to pull together, they need look no further than the local families who survived last year’s deadly storms. The seven lives lost can never be replaced, but as the reporting in this special issue shows, most of the local communities have rebuilt their homes and businesses and are working their way back to a pre-storm “normal” life.

For the past year, Toledo Free Press Associate Editor Brandi Barhite has filed a weekly report on the progress of the Blank family — Ed, Julie and son Casey — as they “stormed back” after losing their home to the tornado. This award-winning series has been a showcase of the monumental moments and mundane details of re-establishing triumph in the face of tragedy.

We profusely thank the Blank family for allowing us to follow their progress and to take inspiration from their yearlong journey.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com. Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Blank Family, City of Toledo, Dashing Pacific, Lighting The Fuse, Michael S. Miller, Mike Bell, Publisher's Statement, Storming Back, Tom Pounds, Tom Waniewski

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion, Publisher's Statement.
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Editor’s note: Toledo Free Press has followed the Blank family of Millbury for the past year as they rebuilt their lives after a June 5 tornado destroyed their Main Street home. This is the final story in the yearlong series.

Julie Blank’s cousin built a steel sculpture to memorialize the tornado victims. Although he did not intend to capture both the heartache and the hope that the June 5 tornado left in its path, that’s exactly what he did.

“It was one of those things I started to build with nothing in mind and it turned into this,” said Tom Zitzelberger.

This dichotomy of emotions reflect what the Blank family has experienced this past year — and will continue to endure — as they rebuild their lives after the tornado destroyed their home.

Ed, Julie and their son Casey are changed, and in many ways for the better. They appreciate every day. Holidays and birthdays are more meaningful. They were grateful their home was rebuilt in time for Christmas. When Julie turned 49 in February, she celebrated all month. She always liked to make a big deal out of her birthday, but this year’s occasion also marked her survival.

The family wants to help others because so many people came to their rescue. Casey still can’t believe all the people, many of them strangers, who showed up in the days after the tornado to help salvage the few items they could find. In return, Casey was part of a group of students from Lake High School who helped the flood victims in Findlay.

Julie and Ed Blank with son Casey. Photo by Lad Strayer, www.wephotophotography.com

The Blanks now realize material goods are meaningless compared to surfacing from a pile of rubble with everyone intact. While they jokingly lament Ed’s lost sweater vest collection, the family only really still misses a few items, among them photos of their deceased parents and a cedar chest from Julie’s mom.

“It was the last thing Julie had that belonged to her mother. It was never recovered,” Ed said. “We could go out and buy it and say, ‘I have a cedar chest,’ but it isn’t that cedar chest.”

That missing cedar chest — likely shattered into pieces by the F4 tornado — is one reminder of what the storm took from the Blanks: a sense of safety.

When it storms, they are terrified. Julie’s heart gets heavy. Ed wants to take action immediately, a change from the man who told Julie on the night of the tornado, “Don’t worry about it honey. They never hit us.”

The Blanks are acutely aware of the pain of those who lost everything in the recent tornado in Joplin, Mo. It is also a reminder how much worse it could have been here.

The June 5 tornado could have hit a more populated area during a time of day when more people were coming home from work. Fortunately, it tore through open fields, not subdivisions. It hit Casey’s school, Lake High School, but the building was empty.

“I do understand the magnitude of what has happened in Joplin and the South. It is tenfold what has happened here,” Ed said. “My heart goes out to those people. I used to say a prayer, but now that isn’t enough. I have sent checks to disaster funds to try to help out. You feel so helpless and you have to do something.”

Ed

Ed was always the rock of the family. He didn’t get ruffled. He assumed things would work out for the best. Then June 5 arrived.

The man who would watch the storm from the porch changed forever.

He longs for the days when a forecast for rain didn’t mean a possible tornado. He refers to his Main Street neighborhood as “tornado alley.” It seems like every time there is a storm, the neighborhood gets extensive wind or rain.

A trip to the movies during Memorial Day weekend proved just how much Ed had changed.

“I am the more paranoid one now, although Julie still freaks out” he said. “We were at the movie theater and Julie has apps on her phone so she gets tornado warnings, and we are getting texts about tornadoes, and I just felt like getting up and leaving in the middle of the movie because I was concerned. I was concerned about being in the movie theater and not having anywhere to go.”

His need to protect his family has been heightened. He wants to make sure his neighbors are safe. In the weeks after the tornado, he spoke frequently about the guilt of not going next door to wake up the Walters. Three of the four members of that family died when the tornado tore through their second floor.

Ed remembers Mary and Ryan coming home that night and saying they were going to bed with their children, Maddie and Hayden. It never occurred to him to run next door and warn them, because why would a tornado hit this time?

“We have a table set up with a picture of Mary and Hayden hugging and a picture of Ryan on his own,” Ed said. “When I go outside to talk to Scott Swartz and I walk through the middle of their property, I am like ‘What am I doing? There used to be a house here.’”

Ed grapples with the question of “Why did I live?” Anyone who was in the basement like his family that night was fortunate to survive. The tornado could have picked up a car and dropped it on top of them.

“Anyone who doesn’t feel they were really lucky on that day to survive and doesn’t wake up every day thankful to be alive, they are completely foolish.”

Ed realized his circle of friends is larger than he ever thought.

“Everyone has busy lives and schedules and after it happened, people we might see once per year, people we graduated with that we haven’t seen in 15 years came forward and helped.”

He is particularly thankful for his church family and Pastor Sarah Teichmann, as well as Al Swartz, the interim pastor, at the time of the tornado.

“They have been there and talked to us and sat down and shared things with us, helped us understand why us. Pastor Sarah, whenever there is bad weather, calls and asks, ‘Are you OK? Are you in the basement?’”

Ed used to scoff at the idea of rushing to the basement every time there was bad weather. Not now.

“When the bad weather comes, your heart starts racing. It isn’t like it isn’t going to hit. Now you know it can hit you,” he said.

Julie

Rossford Fire and Rescue aerial shot of Lake High School

Julie vaguely remembers what she did in the hours before the tornado. She shopped a bit while Ed golfed at a Lake outing. She set up for Casey’s 15th birthday party.

Julie said she feels older these days. Worn out. Tired all the time. Since the tornado, if she has to make a decision, she sits back and processes it a bit more.

Everything seems more special. She recently said to her friend Becci, “Gosh, can you believe it has almost been a year since we lived with you?”

The Blanks moved in with friend Becci and Steve Bihn and their three children before they got their temporary condo.

“Part of me feels like we should be moving in again,” Julie said. “It was a whole different type of summer. We were consumed by calls, by insurance, banks, buying new cars, closing credit cards, dealing with the builder — every day it was something.”

Julie recently looked at her driver’s license. She doesn’t remember going five days after the tornado for a new one.

Everything was a blur. The morning after the tornado she surveyed the damage and started to feel like she was having a heart attack. She spent a few days in the hospital where doctors determined she had suffered from broken heart syndrome. The syndrome involves a condition where intense emotional or physical stress can cause rapid and severe heart muscle weakness.

“It seems to flare up every now and then. When the weather goes crazy like it did the other day, my heart starts feeling heavy,” Julie said. “I don’t remember this as a kid — all the tornado tragedies. We very rarely had a tornado siren go off. I don’t understand why it is so severe. It is never a light breezy day, it is severe winds. It is never light showers, it is a downpour.”

A neighbor, Dave Dunaway, gave her thousands of photos of the neighborhood’s rebuilding process. He took photos from Day One from every angle, on the ground, on the roof, in the middle of the chaos.

It was interesting for Julie to see them because she missed some of the initial cleanup efforts. It was also nice to receive photos from Dunaway, a neighbor she had never talked to before the tornado. The neighborhood is closer now, she said. This closeness will be celebrated with a block party at 4 p.m. June 4.  But the occasion will also be solemn.

“The tornado is the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life,” Julie said. “We lost lives and those lives can never be replaced. I walk out of my house every day and I am faced with the lives that were lost. Maddie will grow up without her mom, dad and brother.”

Casey

The night of the tornado was Casey’s 15th birthday party. The Saturday pool party was hosted in advance of his June 8 birthday. Ed decided one week before the party that the 35 teenagers attending could only stay until 10 p.m. instead of 11. This decision probably saved lives because the tornado hit shortly after 11 p.m.

Casey remembers taking his gifts into the basement and opening them as the family waited out the storm. His half brother, Eddie, with his son Noah and wife Michelle, came for shelter as well.

At the time, Casey thought they would go upstairs in a few minutes and everything would be fine — except it wasn’t.

“I was in awe. I didn’t know what had happened,” Casey said a few weeks after the tornado.

Almost immediately, Casey decided to move forward.

He just finished his sophomore year at Lake High School, which included serving as a homecoming representative. He found normalcy in playing three sports, golf, basketball and his favorite, baseball.

He is turning 16 and getting his license in a couple days. He is inheriting his mom’s PT Cruiser, which he doesn’t think is the coolest car, but it comes with perks.

“I am excited to hopefully get my license and be able to have a little more freedom and drive places and be with my friends more.”

He is also excited for his junior year, which will once again be at the temporary building in Northwood. Casey is mostly looking forward to his senior year, which is set to be in the new school.

“I am excited to get into the new school. It is pretty state-of-the-art and that should be pretty cool,” he said.

Julie said there won’t be a party for Casey this year because the family is tagging along with Ed on a business trip to California in a few days.

“I think we will be jinxed if we have a big party. That last party didn’t go so well,” Julie said, with a wry smile.

She jokes, but only because others can’t. She knows her family is lucky. They have to live and enjoy life for those who died June 5 and for those who continue to die at the hands of Mother Nature.

“We don’t feel like victims, especially with what has happened in Joplin,” Julie said. “We are nothing compared to those people. Those people are living a hell right now. They have nothing. They can’t even go to their neighbor because he doesn’t have anything, and their neighbor’s neighbor doesn’t have anything. We could have gone to our neighbors. I just feel helpless for them.”

Tags: Blank Family, Lake High School, Storming Back, Tornadoes

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Community, Featured, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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Editor’s note: Toledo Free Press will follow the Blank family of Millbury for one year as they rebuild their lives after a June 5 tornado destroyed their Main Street home.

When Ed and Julie Blank lost their home on the night of June 5, they also lost the joy of watching Maddie Walters ride her bicycle, play in the yard and just be one of the kids in the neighborhood.

And while they only see the second-grader on occasional visits, they think of her frequently and want the best for the little girl who lost her whole family and home to the tornado.

“I miss seeing her and her brother Hayden riding their bikes on the driveway and they had a basketball hoop out there,” Julie Blank said. “They used to come over and go swimming, and I am sure I will miss that.”

Maddie’s aunt and legal guardian, Amy Sigler, does her best to keep her late sister’s daughter connected to the Blanks and the rest of the Millbury neighborhood. Amy brings Maddie to walk the property where her home once stood.

“It is something we do periodically. Drive through to just be there. That is where     she was born and grew up. If neighbors are out, we say hello to them.”

But Amy and the Blanks were connected long before the tornado. Amy’s husband, Craig, grew up next door to Julie, and later Amy became her Mary Kay consultant.

Then, six months before the tornado, Ed’s son, Eddie, purchased the Siglers home in Millbury.

With that purchase, God’s plan was under way, according to Amy. She and her husband moved to Northwood with their twin daughters, Abbie and Evie, who are one year younger than Maddie.

Their new one-story home is handicap accessible. This ended up being helpful when they brought Maddie home in a wheelchair because of the injuries sustained when the tornado threw her 20 feet into the air.

Maddie also used their pool for physical therapy.

“God’s hand has been on that girl since Day 1,” Amy said. “It has been difficult this past year, but also a blessing to see how God has used this tragedy to bring people closer to him.”

People have been forced to look at Maddie’s life and said, “I want to make sure I don’t mess up this life,” Amy said. They have also secured their eternal life with God.

Amy and her family talk to Maddie about seeing her family in heaven. Life on Earth is short and temporary — and sometimes cut way too short — but Maddie will see her mom, Mary, dad, Ryan and little brother, Hayden, someday.

While Maddie has become their third daughter, they don’t want her to lose the memory of her parents and she still calls them aunt and uncle. One time, long before the tornado, Amy and her husband talked about possibly adopting a third child. When the will called for Amy to take Maddie, they knew it was part of God’s plan.

People often say her religion has helped her find peace in this tragedy, but it is more than religion, “It is a deep relationship with Jesus Christ,” Amy said.

For now, nothing will become of the property where Maddie’s home once stood next to the Blanks. Amy said it is in the estate’s name and it will remain empty so the family can walk the grounds freely. Although grass and sidewalks will be installed, “nothing will become of it until we feel God’s direction,” Amy said.

After all, it is up to God. The tornado. Maddie. The empty lot.

“God is good. God is still in control,” Amy said.

Tags: Blank Family, Storming Back

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 11:31 am and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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Editor’s note: Toledo Free Press will follow the Blank family of Millbury for one year as they rebuild their lives after a June 5 tornado destroyed their Main Street home.

Lake Township police officer Joe Musil wishes he could forget the devastation he heard and saw after the June 5 tornado: Gerald Lathrop saying fiancée Bailey Bowman had been killed, freeing the injured Beverly Hicks from her basement and finding out family friend Ted Kranz had died.

But the Millbury resident knows how important it is to remember.

“I knew quite a few of the people who were lost. We never want to forget. We want to remember how it brought our community closer together,” Musil said. “We never thought we would see levels of devastation like this. We saw the best part of people come together.”

For this reason Musil is part of the tornado anniversary committee, which is hosting an event themed “Triumph over Tragedy” on June 4.

The event will be part celebration of life, part memorial. The 4 p.m. block party with food, alcohol and music will take place on Main Street in Millbury, just south of Ayers Road to Cherry Street, the neighborhood that bore the brunt of the tornado. At midnight — the one-year anniversary of the tornado — several pastors will lead a moment of silence for the seven people who died from injuries sustained in the storm.

“We aren’t celebrating the tornado,” said Millbury Mayor Michael Timmons. “I think it is a good idea to celebrate all the people coming together. People know their neighbors three or four doors down when they might not have before.”

Timmons is on the tornado anniversary committee, which is being led in part by Ed and Julie Blank. The Blanks lost their Main Street home the night of the tornado, as did several other neighbors. Three of the four members of the Walters family lost their lives and a 5K run/walk will be hosted in their honor on the morning of the block party.

However, the evening event cannot take place without the help of others. The committee is searching for a primary sponsor or several sponsors, as well as bands to perform throughout the evening. The committee also needs food vendors, in addition to those who want to set up arts and crafts booths within the block.

Lake Township Police Chief Mark Hummer said he appreciates the committee’s desire to give back. Part of the profit from that day’s sale of food and alcohol will be given to the fire and police departments to cover costs that went beyond what the insurance paid.

“The community is on the heal,” he said. “It is going to be a new normal. In the past year, a lot of accomplishments have been made and we have done that as a community. I think it is more than appropriate to come together in a more positive manner.”

Hummer said the administration building, which was destroyed by the tornado, will be open by June 5 — another reason to celebrate.

Musil rushed to the administration building the night of the tornado. He was working off-duty at a wedding when he heard the screams for help from Lake Township dispatchers. When he got there, Lathrop told him what had happened. Lathrop and Bowman were running toward the building for safety when the tornado hit and Bowman was killed. Musil’s daughter was friends with Bowman.

“We really have remained together and strong in the past year,” Hummer said. “Not forgetting those folks who can never be replaced is important.”

Triumph over Tragedy

4 p.m. June 4

Main Street, Millbury

To become a sponsor, perform, donate or set up a booth, contact Ed Blank at (419) 508-9693 or via email at eblank@lubriplate.com.

Tags: Blank Family, Storming Back, Tornadoes, Triumph over Tragedy

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 19th, 2011 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Community, The Blank Family: Storming Back.
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