Solace after the storm

By Natalie Shelton

Anna Faltermeier/Liberty Tribune
At left, Chris Gabriel, assistant principal at Shoal Creek Elementary School, talks with a representative from the Clay County assessor’s office May 7 outside of his home on Northeast 109th Terrace in Kansas City North. Gabriel’s home was condemned by the city after the storm that ripped through the area in the early morning of May 2.

Life’s circumstances can be a bit overwhelming, and for Chris and Carrie Gabriel, overwhelming circumstances hit them twice in one day.

The first happened when an F3 tornado blew out the side walls of their Brookridge home at 2 a.m.

several Fridays ago when two tornadoes hit the Northland.

The second happened when they experienced the outpouring of support that came from neighbors, family, friends, and their colleagues from the Liberty Public School District, who bombarded them with love in the wake of the storm.

“Our schools have just done a ton for us,” said Carrie Gabriel, a South Valley Middle School teacher. “It’s been our colleagues, parents, students and former students, strangers. One of my co-workers sent her husband. Another sent her child, who’s a senior at St. Pius because they had the day off.

“That morning, people just starting walking up to our house with packing materials, food, gift bags for our son,” Carrie Gabriel said. “I just can’t believe how everyone has helped us.”

Carrie Gabriel and her husband, Chris Gabriel, assistant principal of Shoal Creek Elementary

School, heard the winds that fateful Friday morning and hurriedly went down one flight of stairs to get

their son, Grant, 2. They saved their beloved boxer, Cassius, who became trapped in their bedroom, where shards of glass were scattered on the floor the following week as insurance adjusters contemplated whether their home should be condemned.

Their living room and kitchen wall blew off the home, as did the side of their garage; the kitchen wall hung by the house, still attached by electrical cords.

The force of the tornado also blew in their garage doors. The particleboard replacing the garage doors has been signed by many of those who helped the Gabriels return to some sense of normalcy in the days following the storm.

One student wrote, “You rock, Mrs. G.” Another person wrote, “God bless.” Still another penned, “Just stand and keep walkin’.”

The mass of people who descended on their home worked for 15 hours straight to remove all their belongings because they weren’t sure if or when their home might be condemned.

“It was all of those people, the fire marshal, the Red Cross, everybody just did it,” Carrie Gabriel said. “I’m not sure what we would have done had we not had all that help.”

Chris Gabriel said they’re not quite sure how to thank all those who helped or even simply offered to help, including their neighbors and also friends who work with them in the school district.

“We knew we had good neighbors before, but now through the midst of everything they’ve become our family,” he said. “And we know that school district is not only a unit, it’s also a bunch of individuals who make up the district who gave of their time and money to us. It’s people who make up our district.”

Carrie Gabriel said seeing individuals walking up to her home on Friday morning to help brought tears.

“I’ve had such an incredibly blessed life,” she said. “This is an inconvenience but it just doesn’t matter because our family is OK.

“Some people have so many hardships in their lives, and I’ve often thought that someday I’d have to have my hardship too, one where

my strength and faith is tested. If this is mine, I got off lucky.”

Staff writer Natalie Shelton can be reached at 781-4941 or nshelton@npgco.com.