Storm damage from Tompkins County in April of 2011
ITHACA -- A little more than one year ago, severe storms tore through Central New York.
In April of 2011, Tompkins County was hit by a tornado. In the City of Ithaca, the storm destroyed a business called Tea Garden Ithaca. Owner Sheela Kingsbury says she worked hard to build her business, and remembers every second of the night her dream was destroyed. "Every time there was a bolt of lightning, I watched the storm going by horizontally, and I watched mud and sticks, and it was like watching inside the funnel," she says.
Kingsbury says the tornado was a life changing moment for her. She didn't take the loss of her business lying down. She picked herself up and started dreaming again. Kingsbury worked to salvage her favorite things that had been scattered, clear the trees, and build a garden around the remnants of the Tea Garden. She says hundreds of people have helped her over the past year. "I've often wondered, 'how do people do it?'" she says, "I've realized it's through the goodness of the people around them. It's through that love, and I just felt incredible love."
Now Kingsbury is looking forward and building a new tea house. She says in some ways, it will be even better than the original Tea Garden. "I would never have cut a tree to have a sunset, and yet the path of the tornado opened up the view to my pond, opened up a park like a meadow, and it was stunning how beautiful it was." Kingsbury says the new location will be bigger than the old one.
