A tornado ripped through the newly constructed home of bride-to-be Graci Boersen and her mother, Christina Parden, on Sunday, May 17. As reported by PEOPLE, the two had just moved into the house in St. Libory, Nebraska, just weeks prior.
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"She's been dreaming of this house since as long as I can remember," Boersen said of her mother. "She planned this thing to the detail, like everything, she had drawn out, and so we were so excited about it."
The Tornado Swept Away Their Home
When they saw the funnel cloud, Parden and Boersen grabbed their dogs and went into a storage room in their basement. When the power went out, they prayed.
"You could start hearing the house shake, and then it just gradually got worse and worse," said Boersen. "Then all of a sudden, I could just hear the whole house just rip off the foundation. And I can't even describe that feeling. I just thought, 'The house is going to cave in.'"
The tornado reached speeds of 160 mph. The National Weather Service classified it as an EF3. Parden and Boersen were helped out of the basement by a storm chaser. Their home was "literally gone." Boersen's wedding decorations and bridal gifts were gone too.
A Community Comes Together
While Parden and Boersen tried to get over the shock of losing their home, Parden's sister-in-law created a GoFundMe to help get them on their feet.
She wrote on the page, "To make things even harder, Graci is supposed to get married in just three weeks, and many of the decorations, supplies, and items they had prepared for the wedding are now missing or destroyed."
The fundraiser has brought in nearly $10,000 in donations. But those in the area, as well as other brides and wedding vendors, have also reached out to Boersen. Vendors have offered free decor, backdrops, and tablecloths. Others have offered to set things up and take things down on the day of the wedding.
"I've had like hundreds of messages from other brides who were like, 'My wedding was a couple months ago or last week, and you can literally use anything from my wedding stuff,' " Boersen said. "People have been amazing."
Amazingly, Boersen's wedding dress was not lost to the storm. It was dropped off for alterations a week before the tornado struck. Parden's dress was found in a cornfield and has been taken to the dry cleaners.
Boersen added, "I already know that I'm probably not going to be able to get through the day without crying just because I'll be thinking of all the stuff we just went through, and all the love, and all the things that people have given us."
