As some of you may know, tornados hit Tim "Sax Alley" Glesmann's town 
and has caused horrific damage.

GOOD NEWS!

I just talked to Tim on the phone... he, his family, his home and 
business are fine.

He reports lots of homes damaged, people without livable homes now, 
trees down, etc.  But he, his family, and business are OK.  He thanks 
people who were concerned.

I rang off quickly so as not to tie up the lines, told him I would let 
you all know he was OK.

Paul Coats

To follow up, I just received this email from Tim about his harrowing 
experience - Paul

Thanks so much for your call, concern and prayers.  I am sorry for 
this rather informal email, but so many have called concerned about 
my well being that this is the only way I can answer and still keep 
things going here.

The tornado that hit around noon on May 22nd was classified as as F2 
or F3, but was quite wide and didn't take the normal appearance of a  
tornado.  The officials called this one a "wedge" due to the wide  
bottom of the funnel.  Most tornados hit after 3PM so the noon  
appearance of this monster was out of the ordinary, as was the extreme
speed of it's travel.  Tornados generally move at 15 to 30 miles per  
hour, but this one was moving at an incredible 50 mph with winds from 
115 to 165 mph!

By God's grace, Sax Alley had no apparent damage.  I was in the  
building during the entire storm, not knowing that a tornado was  
passing less than 100 yards to the south.  I was holding my front door
 shut, with the help of Rick Hanby from Conn-Selmer.  This door opens 
outward and my hand was between the door and door frame since our  
inside handle was loose and came off so we had very little to hold on 
to.  The winds blowing by were so strong that the door would have  
likely been ripped off had we not held on.   I believe my hand being  
where it was allowed pressure to equalize in the steel building or we 
may have lost our roof or windows.

My family are all fine and our home suffered damage only to the roof, 
gutters and some windows.  We were without power for several days so I
 couldn't receive any phone calls or emails.

Our church building (Windsor Community Church) was a complete loss.   
The tornado tore the roof off our building and the fire sprinkler  
system flooded the building and ruined everything downstairs.   
Fortunately, our church secretary began praying the moment the hail  
hit, prior to the tornado, and asked God if she should leave the  
building.  She got an overwhelming sense of the need to leave right  
away and left her upstairs office only minutes before the roof was  
taken off.  That is God's amazing love and concern for those who know 
and love Him!  We spent most of Saturday getting everything out of the
 building that was salvageable and praising the Lord for protecting 
us all.

Thanks again for your call or email and please be in prayer for this  
community and those who completely lost their homes (over 100) and  
those who will be cleaning up and repairing damage of some sort over  
the next months and years (around 700 homes).  Please pray also for 
the friends and family of the man who died trying to outrun the 
tornado in his motor home at Missile Park in Greeley.  They will be 
hurting. Christ was gracious in keeping most everyone from serious 
bodily harm and He is to be praised for that!  Pray also that the 
Lord will be made known through this event and people will see, even 
in their loss, His is goodness love and mercy.

Thanks again for your call and concern!

Lord bless and keep you as He has kept me, my family and all in the  
Town of Windsor from physical harm!!

Timothy
Romans 12:12