Sunday, April 09, 2000

A dog survives, a family feels blessed

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The Tornado: One Year Later

BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        REXVILLE, Ind. — He survived. And much was left in Finnegan's wake.

Then: Maureen Sheets cried when she found her Corgi alive. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

Now: Mrs. Sheets and her corgi stand before their rebuilt home. (Steven M Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        There was the yard full of twisted, fallen trees. The story of how Finnegan, a Welsh Corgi dog, was found under a collapsed garage door. A destroyed farm house in Ripley County. And an award-winning photograph in The Cincinnati Enquirer of his owner, Maureen Sheets, crying and hugging him amid tornado debris.

        And parenthood. Finnegan is going to be a father. The puppies are due — what are the odds? — today, according to Mrs. Sheets.

        News coverage of the tornado focused on the Montgomery area, but the tornado also ripped an estimated 8-mile path of destruction in Indiana, from the Jefferson Proving Ground to Dillsboro, just over the Dearborn County line.

        Two other dogs the Sheetses owned were killed, and one of the their gelding horses suffered a fractured skull and lost an eye. And yet the Sheetses feel incredibly lucky.

        “We were so, so fortunate,” Mrs. Sheets said. “Everything near and dear, our pictures, we have. Everything else was just stuff. I've never been a material person, but my dad died in '94 and my mom in '96, so pictures are important.”

        The Sheetses' new home “looks just like the old one,” she said, and they have no complaints about insurance or the speed of construction.

        But the chore of replacing things lost in the tornado continues, especially small items from the garage. They spend every weekend at stores.

        But they never lost perspective.

        “We're just tickled that we had so many of the important things intact,” Mrs. Sheets said. “We're just blessed.”

       

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Painting portrays sunflower rebirth
The graveyard of the trees
The roof went straight up, the house flew away
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Tornado of '99 archive