ISSUE DATE: 04/01/2012
SPECIAL ISSUE 03/02/2012 TORNADO THAT DEVASTATED WEST LIBERTY, KY. & ATTU'S TEMPLE PLANS E N C O U N T E R W I T H
By; Sha Poe Ryu / Anthony Elam PUBLISHER / FOUNDER A.T.T.U. Copyright©2011 – 2006 by ATTU's American All Worldwide Rights Reserved!
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03/02/2012 TORNADO THAT DEVASTATED WEST LIBERTY, KY. & ATTU'S TEMPLE PLANS By; Sha Poe Ryu / Anthony Elam PUBLISHER / FOUNDER A.T.T.U.
TRUE STORY On March 2nd 2012 an F3 Tornado sit down in Morgan County, Kentucky the home of the American Temple Training Union. The tornado devastated the city of West Liberty and surrounding areas claiming 8-lives and injuring several while causing millions of dollars worth of damage. Many of the old land marks, such as buildings, scenery and monuments have been destroyed or completely removed from their place. Currently there is an estimated recovery time sit at 5-years, however the county will never be the same “hopefully� with the proper leadership it will be even better than it was.
Hello, my name is Anthony G. Elam and I am the Publisher of our magazine and Founder of ATTU's Sha Soo Doo Jitsu Ryu. I have been in the martial way since 1970 and have trained with some great Grand Masters, Masters and practitioners from various styles of martial arts. Since the development of Sha Soo Doo Jitsu Ryu, I have trained and sit forth many students, some police officers, military, security personal as well as others. As martial artist, we train our minds to always be prepared for the unexpected! After 42-years in the martial way and facing various adversaries in various situations, I was confident that I was in good sound control of my emotions and that I could face most any situation. On 03/02/2012 I was completing some work on my parents house, a weather report came on the TV giving sever storms and an tornado watch, a few days earlier our county sustained an EF-2 tornado which caused some damage and a lot of commotion. I quit work and walked outside on my parents patio where I found my mother praying and naturally I began praying as well, then within just a few minutes I seen the first funnel then another and then they merged into a huge one, it was as if the whole sky was turning. I could see that it was coming from the Woodsbend direction where we have been working on developing our temple and residence and it was passing through where my daughter lived, we were staying with her while we were remodeling our house and at the time my 86-year old mother in law was there alone. My wife and daughter were in West Liberty at the time to pick up my daughters 3-little girls. When I seen the tornado form I called my wife on her cell phone and told her it was coming and she told me she seen it, in the midst of it my wife who is the manager of a store located in Morhead, Ky. Where we now reside, use to manage the store in West Liberty where our daughter works and due to picking up the kids another young girl stayed while my wife and daughter were going to get them.
While the tornado was coming my wife and daughter went to the store to make sure the young girl got out, the young girl had already locked the door and was getting in her car. My wife began looking for somewhere to take cover and she chose to get behind the biggest building in town which was Commercial Bank. During this my daughter called me on my cell phone and the last thing I heard was her screaming and crying “ITS ON US” then the phone went dead, I could hear and feel the terror in her voice and there was nothing I could do about it. I thought I was prepared for just about anything “BUT” when I heard her screaming in terror knowing my wife and her could be dying and that would be the last thing I heard and knowing I was completely helpless from doing anything to protect them my hart melted and I jumped in my truck and headed toward West Liberty as fast as I could. My wife pulled as close as she could to the bank building and covered our daughter, as the tornado was hitting, she told me she felt the car trying to lift off the ground and that she prayed and God held the car down and after seeing the car I believe her. When I got to West Liberty I had to go down Riverside Drive where we use to live and where my old dojo was. It was very dark outside and barely raining, I drove over trees and debris and made it to our Extension Office what was left of it and got out and began running to where my wife and daughter last were. I seen people who I knew and quickly seen they were OK while I made my way to my wife and daughter, as I ran down Main St. I seen my wife and daughter standing out in the street with a few people, I felt my spirit return to me as I hugged their necks and thanked God for protecting them. My wife got a little cut on her nose and a hurt wrist “but” I took care of it with some Dita Jo and she is fine, our daughter came out without a scratch thank God. Before this happened, I would wake my wife when a bad storm came and make her get up, she always made fun of me and so did others “but” I have been in tornado's on the road and now no one seems to think I'm funny.
After I seen they were both OK, my wife and I agreed I would go and help others who might need help, I was one of the first four men to begin searching for people. We found a man trapped in his basement and several in their homes scared and bruised up. We had to brake up in order to cover more ground, I went back down Riverside Drive, it had been severely hit by the tornado, as I kicked open doors yelling for people and looking under debris I tried to prepare my self for what I might see. I found several people and one couple who had tried to pull a mattress on top of them, the woman seemed to be in good condition but the man was sick and hurt from the roof falling in on them, I cleared away the debris and made them a shelter with the mattress and part of the roof because it had started to rain. As I went to get help I got completely soaked from head to toe and the rain was extremely cold not like normal rain. I had to be very careful going back to get help because of all the debris, nails and electric lines and so forth, the lightening helped me see. After reporting the couples need my wife wanted to go check on her mother, I knew I had to go “but” the way things looked and the path that the tornado took I was afraid my daughters apartment was hit hard and I wanted to spare my wife all I could after all she had been through so I told her to stay there and I would go and check on her mother “but” she wouldn't hear of it, so we headed back to my truck and made our way up to the apartment. As we drove up the hill the damage was extreme, we passed the Hospital, Doctors Office and School they were hit, cars and trees were every where and the electric lines were down a real mess. Then as we got closer to the apartment we seen it was OK, again my spirit was refreshed. When we went into the apartment, my mother in law was sitting on the couch and said she had been sitting there praying and she seen what looked like a branch fly past the window she said, the next day I went outside and seen the branch she talked about, it was a 30' tree, lol. Since my father in law past, my wife and I take care of my mother in law who is now 86 years old.
After getting my wits about me I asked my wife where my daughters van was and my wife told me that it was parked across the street at the pond shop which the night before I had entered looking for people due to knowing the owner and his daughter who cut hair in the bottom portion of the building, Curves was also located in the bottom portion and we had no idea of who or how many may have been in there and due to the urgency of getting things done I entered the building alone and thank God everyone had left before the tornado hit. As I entered the building I remembered climbing over a bunch of debris and now I think it may have been my daughters van.
Now when trying to recover, FEMA wants an itemized estimate of the damage to the van and due to the van being in my wife's name and having full coverage on the car they don't know if they can help or not. Currently I have a good friend who has a body shop and can take care of the estimate “but” looks like I will have to buy the paper lol. To tell the truth, I don't think FEMA is going to do any thing, I think the organization is a political thing for politicians to make themselves look like their doing a good job and helping people in disasters like this, when in fact their a bigger headache then my van. Further the RED CROSS has had some disturbing issues, one Red Cross shelter refused an elderly gentlemen anything to eat after he walked 2-miles and had not eat for 2-days. The NATIONAL guard also had a disturbing issue concerning attitude and was kicked out of one area here for poor manners. These organizations are suppose to help “not” take over! In my personal opinion and experience, all 3 of these organizations have plenty of room for change and need to revise how they help in these types of situations along with a major attitude adjustment.
This is the store where my daughter worked, no one was injured there. The company store owner has truly earned my respect, the company has allowed all the West Liberty employees to work at its Morhead location and gave employees who qualified the option to draw their unemployment until the West Liberty location has been built back at which time everyone will be called back to work. The company and the owner have truly proven that they care for all their employees by allowing their actions to speak for them. I personally could “not” believe that a company had such a great hart and caring spirit until now! The owner has wasted no time in getting things going. Due to selling gas and owning the Bulk Plant which also took a direct hit from the tornado, his team wasted no time to ensure our communities safety. His clean up phase was the fastest in the city and now the company is looking at getting back at serving the community as quick as possible. It is a strange thing in today's world to actually thank a company for their effort in a small community such as West Liberty and truly mean it “but” the truth is this company has truly done it! I would like to see more companies do what this one has done for their employees and communities, it would be refreshing to see that on the nightly news.
After the tornado I got involved and began delivering water, food and other supplies. One day I got a couple of guys together and delivered around 1000 cases of water to people around the county. I began working through a local distribution center to help churches and other organizations get stocked and provide help to people. During g the process I helped to sit up a food pantry by delivering needed supplies and donating our intended store racks for the next year, in an effort to provide food to people for the long term. I also identified needed items and soon became the go to guy for hard to find items such as adult elderly supplies, baby supplies and much more, I even helped a couple find a house to buy lol. Personally I took on over 100 families and personally seen to it that they had what they needed in their time of trouble, I never received any donations for gas or anything else, I felt and still feel that it is each of our responsibilities to truly help others in a time such as this no matter their station in life, they are our neighbors and are hurting. While I was out delivering in one part of the county where the National Guard was kicked out, I saw the devastation first hand, the next day I saw a great clean up effort, the next day I saw homes being rebuilt, the people in that community worked day and night pulling together rebuilding their homes, buildings and lives. My small group put together make shift first aid kits and we delivered them to the distribution center we helped to sit up to hand out to the people their. The ladies running the Pantry have the hart and spirit to provide service to the area and ensure that everyone is taken care of, due to sitting up the Pantry the ladies are also providing support to our neighboring county and its citizens and have become a 501c. I have talked to many people here and urged them to take an active part in helping in communities across the county, I simply tell them that when you are in a war you need people to draw water and some to carry it to the war zone and some to back up those who are fighting on the front line and that it is better to be the Lords water boy than to sit back and do nothing, we either have to stand for something or we will die for nothing.
Currently I am always availible to various families in the county and the Pantry to help with deliveries or find hard to get items for those in need. After taking a long hard look at the area we were developing for ATTU we looked at the recovery time frame and decided it would take to long to make the area even close to nice again. The tornado hit on both sides of us, every thing around us looks as if a B-52 carpet bombed it back to the stone age, so with a heavy hart we decided to accept our loss and move from our intended location. We now reside in Morhead, Ky. and are planning to recoup from all that has happened and revise our Temple Plans. We are hopeful that with some hard work and support for ATTU we will once again purchase property to build our Temple on and provide a great place for martial artist to enjoy. ATTU may have got knocked down “but” be sure we are getting back up with a new vision for our future and our ATTU family. My wife Sheila and our daughter Jenifer. I thank God every day that he kept his protective hand upon them and that he continues to do so. I know, God is with her and has faithfully kept a protective hand upon her, I thank God he seen fit to give me a God fearing, Scripture believing, Holy Ghost Filled, Blood Washed, Ground Taking, Devil Stomping Warrior as my wife. Here is the Commercial Bank Surveillance Video, it is a little lengthy “but” it shows the ally and my wife and daughter coming through in the small gray car. I knew she could drive and this proves it, I asked why she cut over and she said it was the wind that blew her over as she was getting behind the bank. Talk about defensive driving, I would have to pass her for out maneuvering an EF-3 Tornado, that is definitely defensive drive in my book, lol. http://www.frequency.com/video/bank-surveillance-video-during/38896724
The aftermath of the EF-3 Tornado has and will cause many chages in communities across Morgan Co. Some changes hopefully will be fore the better, while some changes that are trying to be implemented by the current adminstration have met local opposition by businessmen and citizens.
Personally I attended the first county meeting held by the current administration and listend closly to what they had to say. While listening I clearly seen politics at work with empty promisses to the citizens and a display of self heroics. The truth is I was there and the statements made by one of our elected officials was destorted in its truthfullness. I seen men who truly took action to help others and I also seen thoughs who took true leadership rolls as well as thoughs who are like leaches, who spin the truth for political gain. Morgan County citizens deserve to know the truth and truly who was the man of the hour, who took control and prevented people from being injured, as well as controlling and securing the situation and leading by example. As an eye wittness I can truthfully tell the citizens of Morgan Co. that it was “not� the elected officials or members of the local police department.
A.T.T.U. Moving Forward Now that we have relocated, we are sitting forth a “NEW” plan to achive our temple goals. We will be keeping most of our basic structure “but” due to the EF-3, we are forced to make certain changes with-in the scope of our original plan. We also know that through time, hard work and dedication, we will over come the challenges that are before us with the help of God and the support of our A.T.T.U. family. We know there are many of you that would like to help our humble organization to achive our temple goals through donations “but” we can “not” accept such kind genorosity. A.T.T.U. is a humble organization and takes “GREAT” pride in its self and members and through its combined faith, support and leadership will endevor to provaile over the challenges it faces. For thoughs of you who would like to help us over come these challenges you can do the following; ● ● ● ●
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Here at A.T.T.U. We strongly believe in working for what we get, wither it be a product or service. We have some of the best martial artist in the U.S. on our team, their capabilities and leadership are second to none. Out of devistation and from the ashes of battle, through the spirit a single warrior can over come insurmountable odds, this is the spirit of A.T.T.U.