Ozarks Local News – March 15, 2006:
Chris Graber didn’t know what his family’s future would be Sunday night when he saw a “dark spot” come barreling over a hill and take dead aim for his modest home in eastern Webster County.
“I never thought we’d be rebuilding the next day. I thought we’d be getting ready for a funeral,” he said late Tuesday afternoon.
The Grabers escaped unharmed from the tornado that plowed through Webster County.
Not so their home. It was torn apart by the twister’s fury.
But in less than 15 hours, the Grabers were back in a new home rebuilt on the same spot — a peaceful valley south of Missouri 38 about 10 miles east of Marshfield — by more than 100 men and boys from neighboring Amish homesteads near the Grabers.
“By 2 p.m., we were mopping the floors,” he said.
It’s easy to build a house without wiring and internal plumbing, without them it’s just a box.
“By 2 p.m., we were mopping the floors,” he said.
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By 5 p.m. there was a “Condemned” sign posted on the front door followed by a destruct order from the State Inspector’s office for failure to obtain the proper permits…..
Note: nowhere in the original article does it say that the Grabers are Amish; the Amish community were being good neighbors. The rebuilt house has aluminum siding, which probably wouldn’t be found on an Amish home. Hopefully the Grabers will help someone else in turn.
I wish I could remember where I just read an article on how the Amish work out health care with local hospitals for their entire community.
They *haggle* with the hospital about the cost of just about everything you can imagine ever using in a hospital, then pay that final set price when one of their folks needs care and pay it all with cash. They have a community *health pool*, everyone donates their fair share and this is where the money comes from.
They do not believe in insurence, so they kind of do this Amish HMO kind of deal. It was quite interesting.
A few people hit on the problem here. This Amish group did not get permits, have the construction inspected, or have all the other amenities such as central heating and electricity installed. Nor do we know how much of the material would pass “code”.
Those living in the storm ravages south and are still having problems have run into brick walls. While there may still be those who haven’t done anything because of laziness, most are stuck in bureaucrat nightmares. If they don’t get the insurance money, they can’t pay to have the work done. Too often they don’t have the skills or physical ability to do it themselves.
So while what the Amish community did is admirable, it is quite possibly illegal and wouldn’t pass building codes. Which is fine with the right wingers that wouldn’t things like this hold them back. It also gives further fuel to the right wingers to say the blame lies with the victims instead of the insurance companies and bureaucrats.
It makes you wonder doesn’t it…
Those shifty Amish folk with their techno-less lifestyle were able to pick up on the fact that they knew someones house was destroyed. Maybe the Amish have super-senses. Because it’s not as if Billy Bob could send an email to the Grand High Priest of Amishville and mobilise the troops with their cheap, but quality rugs and their hammers, chisels and non-electric stuff.
Maybe they can hear me type this right now. Maybe they’re watching me too.
Either way, they won’t be reading this any time soon. That is, until they get themselves some Internet!
I live in Pennsylvania and this is quite common. and for one of the first comments, they use nails.