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This picture is taken from the Front stairs are the basement level. One would come through the front door or go through the back door and go all the way to the elevator and turn Left to be able to go through the door to be able to walk to this location. As you can see, this is the front end of the downstairs where we would have the thrift store door off in the distance. Noticeable because of the sign on the door. That the water is up to at least a quarter of the column that you see in the picture below As you can see there are tables chairs and other things that were probably floating around in here, because the water was up to the 8 foot mark which is to the ceiling.

It destroyed ceiling tiles as well, so everything behind the doors, and I mean everything was literally destroyed! I'm not sure exactly if we will be able to recover to the level that we were, and that makes me sad, but Trinity United Methodist Church has done amazing things before, and if we ever have to work or need to work together, it's right now! A meeting was held on August 26th 2023 to decide the next steps for Trinity, and any time there will be a meeting I will be in attendance if at all possible. It is my hope that in some way Trinity will be able to come back to some point, but they will have to probably gut the entire downstairs and never use it again, then reconfigure the areas we have on the 2nd and third floors of the building so that we can serve the community as we always have.

I said this was bittersweet and it is: it took everything I had not to cry on Saturday as I were to see the building! I could not enter the building nor would I because I did not have an appropriate mask, but even if I could I would not be able to ascend or descend to anywhere because the elevator was offline and destroyed. They said that they would have put the elevator on the first floor, and I think they did, but they had no idea that the water would be as high as it was. You will see water in here, because apparently the water was that high when the picture was taken.