Websites Reunite Tornado Victims with Lost Belongings

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There were a yellow football jersey, wrinkled prom photos, canceled checks and a birth certificate.

There were wedding photos and pages from a scrapbook that elementary students made for their teacher.

When the deadly March 2 tornadoes destroyed homes and businesses across Kentucky and Southern Indiana, they also swept away thousands of family photos, documents and personal items, mangling and scattering them as far away as Ohio and West Virginia.

Now some of those treasured possessions are being reunited with their owners, thanks to several lost-and-found pages that have sprung up on Facebook, including one created by an unemployed casino worker from Corydon, Ind., that is getting thousands of visits.

Since the not-for-profit page dubbed “Returning Memories to Tornado Victims” was created earlier this month, it has been “liked” by more than 2,000 users. The site has returned 30 recovered items to owners, including a photo of a 4-year-old boy killed in Chelsea, Ind., and posted 50 others, with more coming in daily, creator Chase Horton said.

Another Facebook page, “I Found Your Memory,” has more than 570 members. It lists recovered items and was created by Victoria George, a New Pekin, Ind., native and graphic designer who lives in Jeffersonville, Ind.

“Memories like photographs can’t be replaced,” George said. “For someone who lost everything, it means the world to them.”

That was certainly true for Ron and Carol Short. They were in Florida when their Nabb, Ind., home, garage and barn were reduced to rubble _ losing many possessions such as treasured photos.

Last week, daughter Debbie Dockter, a 44-year-old church secretary who lives in nearby Charlestown, Ind., got a call and Facebook messages alerting her that a Cincinnati resident more than 92 miles away had found her perfect-attendance form from fifth grade. Someone else found a sixth-grade cheerleading certificate.

Before long, they were on their way in the mail to the family.

“Now they’ll be a reminder of what could have happened if my parents were home. We’ll treasure them,” she said, marveling at the distance they traveled. “I was shocked. I don’t see how they could stay in the air that long,”

Ron Steve, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said far-flung debris associated with the strongest and most violent tornadoes can be swept up thousands of feet into the atmosphere, where wind currents are strong enough to carry them hundreds of miles before they fall back to earth.

After the March 2 tornadoes, for example, Jerry Enderle, of Pleasant Plain, Ohio, found a receipt with a New Pekin address from 160 miles away. Residents near Charleston, W.Va., found receipts from West Liberty, Ky., 120 miles away.

“With a powerful enough tornado, it gets carried downstream a good distance,” Steve said.

The idea of harnessing social networks to reunite owners with lost items has been employed before.

When deadly tornadoes hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., last year, similar sites emerged, posting hundreds of such items, garnering tens of thousands of “likes,” and connecting victims with residents in different states who found their far-flung belongings.

Horton said he began the site after he’d read about Southern Indiana personal checks landing in Cincinnati. And the power of social networking quickly became evident.

“We’ve had an amazing response,” he said. “A lot of times, I’ll put a post up and, within an hour, the network of people made a connection.”

Among those retrieving items was Cincinnati-area vineyard owner Melissa Howard, whose husband found a photo of a young boy near their barn and wondered if was from the tornado.

Howard posted the photo on Horton’s website and, in short order, she’d been connected with Chance Ritz, the father of 4-year-old Daylynn Terry Jackson, who was killed, along with Daylynn’s great-grandparents, Terry and Nancy “Carol” Jackson, when the tornado hit their Chelsea, Ind., home.

“He said he’d love to have it back; that it was special,” said Howard, who mailed it to him earlier this week.

Ritz and the boy’s mother, Amanda Jackson, couldn’t be reached this week. But Amanda Jackson posted a comment: “Thank you for everyone involved.”

Eric Chase, who was working to remove tree limbs in hard-hit Henryville, found a purple scrapbook with laminated pages that elementary students made for their teacher.

He posted it, and 20 minutes later someone identified her as Scott County teacher Liz Wimp. And he was soon working to reach the Vienna-Finley Elementary teacher.

“It went through my head that it wasn’t much, but it was something, something that she’d like to keep in memory of everything that was lost,” he said.

Wimp’s home was destroyed in Henryville. Some of her photos were found in Cincinnati, along with blank checks and her husband’s business cards. She said the scrapbook was made several years ago.

“It’s amazing people take the time and care to return these things,” she said. “It was horrible situation, but it definitely brings out the good in people.”

The wrinkled documents and photos posted on the Facebook pages provide a telling snapshot of the rural communities hit by the tornadoes.

They include a boy in a prom tuxedo posing proudly in a double-wide trailer. A farm family near a tractor in the 1970s.

Worn black and white photos of U.S. sailors sharing drinks decades ago. Military awards and high school diplomas.

A group of white-haired seniors sharing summertime soft drinks on a back patio. And a ’70s-era photo of a family cutting a birthday cake.

The items returned by mail, Chase said, include a yellow No. 18 football practice jersey, a diploma from Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, a married couple posing with relatives and a high school varsity wrestling award.

“If we can help people get back just a little of what they lost, it’s worth it,” Horton said.

Resources:

Returning Memories website

I found your memory website

Kenning is a reporter with Louisville, Ky.’s Courier-Journal.