On the other side of the tornado: 10 years later, we are still broken and also on the mend

April 28, 2011 the morning after an EF4 tornado killed 53 people in my city, I surveyed my back yard.

I dust off the plastic bin I put away 10 years ago and carefully pry the top open. I stand outside on my balcony because the years of dust cover it.

I gasp when I look inside.

It was the same gasp I took 10 years ago — with a shallow breath — as the tornado rolled over me, hunched in my…