As communities across the state continue to pick up the pieces of the aftermath of the devastating tornado outbreak early Saturday (December 11) morning, one man in Mt. Juliet is dealing with the loss of his family home — for the second time.
Warren Bondi's Mt. Juliet home was only one of several hit during the EF-1 tornado and severe storms that swept through the community over the weekend. While cleaning up the debris and assessing the damage, which blew out the side of his house, he saw similarities to when he and his family lost their New Orleans-area home during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, News Channel 5 reports. One trend, he noticed, was that people were driving by to see the homes that were destroyed rather than lend a helping hand.
"When I was younger we had a lot of people driving by and it got to the point where there were tours," said Bondi. "There were tour buses driving by. Back then, I got so angry as a kid and I really couldn't mess with people about it. When we started seeing the same thing here, I was like I'm going to mess with people about it."
While he wasn't as frustrated as the first time, thanks to no tour buses driving through his neighborhood, Bondi decided to post a sign to his mailbox telling curious onlookers, "If you are just looking – donations accepted! Cash only. Tornadoes Suck!"
"[I] kinda did it as a joke," he said. "We don't expect anything from anybody and I definitely don't want to imply that. So far, this mailbox is empty ... Maybe somebody will laugh a little and appreciate it."