The thunderstorms storms that rolled through yesterday afternoon wreaked some major havoc, as lightning struck a church in Mishawaka and set it on fire, destroying it.
Er, yeah, so that sucks a lot. Here’s a video report from WNDU, and here’s one from WSBT. The affected church is the the Albright United Methodist Church; Google Maps satellite view here. The parish has been around for 150 years or so, according to WSBT, and they had been using that church for about 60 years.
At the time when the storm which eventually produced that lightning strike was approaching the area, I blogged about a nasty line of thunderstorms that was hitting Wisconsin, and wondered if they’d make their way down here overnight. Well, they did, and although I slept through ‘em, apparently they packed quite a punch. The storms evidently knocked out power for a while at our apartment, judging by the flashing clocks, and they also caused some serious problems at Notre Dame’s information-technology department:
Here’s what the line of storms looked like on radar (animated GIF; takes a while to load fully) when I woke up this morning, by which time they were already well south of the area.
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:45:57 pm
Sorry. I was in the mood for some heathen-smiting, but it appears my aim was a little off.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:46:38 pm
No storm can awaken the sleeping Brendan! No class, no test, no job will interrupt his mighty slumber… :)
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:47:11 pm
Awwww :( I am sorry to hear about this. I received an e-mail about 12:30 this morning telling me about it. Though I was not a member of this particular church, having grown up in Mishawaka, I have been there/passed it many times. My prayers are with that congregation. Thanks for the great coverage. I liked you on my blog, so you might get some readers from my blog that wander over to see the radar pics ;)
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:42:32 pm
Is this a consequence of Loy the Elder going to Church ?
(grin)
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:55:31 pm
The Unitarians got lucky — this time. Hear that, Mike?!?!?!?
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:50:29 pm
When three hurricanes in a row reduced our church building in Florida to studs, we figured God was just giving us insurance money for the new carpet we needed anyway. Maybe this church needed a new roof…
October 4th, 2006 at 9:55:30 pm
wow … that’s some really harsh sarcasm for a community/neighborhood church trying to do God’s will … (thanks trisha for your prayers) … but as for the rest of you :
i wonder how many of you go to ND ??? … and i wonder how you would re-act, if others made snide comments, upon hearing the news that lightning struck your “almighty golden dome” or cathedral ??? (not to mention the “holy grail” of football, the ND stadium - what would “touchdown Jesus” would have to say about that ) …
show some compassion & don’t kick the down trodden … shame on you
October 4th, 2006 at 10:05:54 pm
a church member,
I can understand you being stressed out and upset over what happened to your church, but what’s your deal? Nobody here is kicking you while you’re down or saying your congregation deserved this calamity. Just because you’re sense of humor has been lost during your current trials and tribulations doesn’t mean we have to turn ours off.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:06:11 pm
*your