Kelly’s Unnecessary Blog

As if I didn’t already adore my local food trucks for their amazing culinary delights, today, in the aftermath of yesterday’s tornados in the Twins Cities, one of which tore through the Camden neighborhood in north Minneapolis, several of the mobile kitchens went up to the area to aid in relief food dispensation. I admire them even more. It doesn’t matter that it was mostly hot dogs and bottled water donated by grocery stores. None of them hesitated in committing to the effort.

A photographer named Tony Webster has a gallery on Flickr of shots from around the neighborhood (one of which I linked to above). There wasn’t utter obliteration as in Joplin, Missouri, but the damage was still pretty devastating. 

We had had almost two inches of rain in the previous 36 hours so the ground was saturated. A lot of the damage was caused by entire trees being uprooted and falling over onto structures, rather than simply snapping and not expanding their footprint too much. I’ve seen photos of entire blocks of trees just toppled over on their sides. It weird and sad. And, of course, plenty of roofs were torn off also. That’s odd, too, to see into homes like you were the Jolly Green Giant who just pulled them off to see what’s inside.

Fortunately, unlike in Joplin, there have been “only” two related deaths so far.

If you’d like to donate to a local relief organization, GiveMN.com has a fund. I contributed what I could.

Smack Shack. At one point there was an impromptu prayer session in front of the truck.

World Street Kitchen. The comfort of a hot meal, however simple.

Chef Shack. A worker refuels.

Photos by Tony Webster, Smack Shack, World Street Kitchen, Chef Shack