Faith unites community after Palm Sunday tornado (VIDEO)

SHELBY — A school principal, a youth pastor, and a mayor all say miraculous intervention kept the community from catastrophic destruction during an April 14th Palm Sunday tornado.

“I count it a blessing that there were no lives taken by the storm,” says Shelby Mayor Steve Schag. “If the storm had taken a different path just a quarter mile further to the north in the city, the track would have been through
a high population density area where a senior citizen community and a neighborhood of homes with no basements were located.”

“I was at church getting ready for our evening service when I heard the tornado sirens go off,” says the Mayor, who also serves as Leading Pastor of Shelby Calvary Baptist Church.

Another local pastor was driving on the road returning from buying supplies for his youth group when he caught wind that the storm was coming.

Pastor Russell Cushman of CORE Community Church heard a tornado warning had been issued and called his Senior Pastor to discuss cancelling their Sunday evening youth meeting. “He told my wife and I to seek shelter. We turned down Technology Drive which was the worst thing we could have done.”

“I have learned that GOD does not take you away from the storms of life, GOD takes you thru the storms of life. He has promised in the Bible that He will never leave us nor forsake us. And after the experience my wife and I had, there is no one that can tell me otherwise.”

According to Cushman, he and his wife saw soil blowing in the air nearby a red fire hydrant when their Mazda CX-5 was taken up into the air. They had heard there was a tornado, but now they were in the tornado.

“The wind was so loud. As we were in the air I could see the ground and that we were not on it. I grabbed my wife and the steering wheel. We flipped in the air at least six times, both air bags ejected. Our windshield was coming off. I knew I had no control of the situation.”

“When our car made impact.” says Cushman, “I thought we were both dead until I heard my wife starting to talk.”

Lisa Myers, Principal of Sacred Heart School is convinced that prayers to the Almighty spared their community on April 14th just like another recent tornado from September 4, 2017 that struck the area on nearby Hook Road.

“I believe that GOD still does miracles and protects us. We had a kindergarten student sleeping in her bed when large tree limbs collapsed thru the roof mysteriously landing on her headboard within inches of her head.”

Myers revealed that the kindergartner’s parents regularly pray with their children every night before they go to bed.

“The student’s father had to knock the door down to get to her; she was still in bed. With the impact of the large branches colliding thru the roof and being stopped by a simple headboard, there is no other plausible explanation but GOD.”

The rebuilding of devastated areas has left a larger imprint on the minds of the three than the ten minutes of destruction.

“Shelby really is a resilient community,” says Cushman. “Especially when crisis hits, the community comes together, this was one of the reasons why we moved here two months ago.”

According to Myers, “There were fifty Mennonites helping residents this week near State Route 61 to clean up downed trees. Their girls raked the yards, the boys stacked the wood, and the men cut the trees limbs. It was really inspiring to see.”

Mayor Schag reported that the community has received assistance from at least fourteen different communities, and that seeing businesses and churches providing food and water to storm victims has been “remarkable.”

“This was the first time I have been in a helicopter and it was to survey the storm damage; I hope it is the last. It really breaks your heart seeing your own city that you serve and pray for in the condition that it is in.”
According to the National Weather Service the tornado was half a mile wide and traveled 17 miles with speeds of up to 125 mph. The Palm Sunday tornado touched down outside Bethlehem, Ohio and went as far as Olivesburg, Ohio.

Schag commented on the uncanny path by quoting Deuteronomy 29:29 which says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

“My wife and I should not have survived,” says Cushman. “The doctor called it the most dramatic accident he has ever been associated with. He said it was miraculous that there was just a cervical sprain and mild concussion.

“My greatest fear had been heights. It is hard to be afraid of things in life now after the experience my wife and I went thru. It’s like death has lost its sting.”