“It gives a whole new meaning to destruction”

I posted a few pictures of the devastation of St. Joseph’s Church in Illinois a couple days ago.

Now, there’s more:

Elizabeth Schmitt, who planned to get married in May at St. Joseph Church in Ridgway, never imagined she would be picking up debris from the gothic church that was completely destroyed in the Feb. 29 tornado.

Tornadoes swept through parts of the Midwest and the South, killing at least a dozen people and injuring more than 100 in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee.

“It gives a whole new meaning to destruction,” Schmitt said as she pulled on her gloves to continue cleaning up the church property.

The church, built in 1894, was destroyed just after 5 a.m. by a tornado that tore through the small southern Illinois town with a population of about 800.

“You just never imagine something like this was going to happen,” Schmitt told The Messenger, newspaper of the Belleville Diocese.

Now she doesn’t know where her wedding will take place. “This is where all of our family members were married,” she said as she looked around at the devastation.

Continue at the link. And check out the brief video tour of the church grounds below.