Blessings for the day: We have a roof over our heads and wonderful friends and family. I cannot say this enough. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of people that have just showed up. I posted as I was coming into town that I was going to the house and that anyone who wanted to come was welcome. We had five people show up and four more called and wanted to come help. We were leaving and I told them to meet us at the house we are staying at to help unload and it was wonderful. There were so many people just driving cars around stopping, honking, and saying "take anything you want out of the back". They had water and food and tools and just anything. There was water sitting on a random street corner in my neighborhood. People walked up to us to offer to help. We did not know them. There are just not enough words. We did not have another Tornado that evening. No one was injured while working at our house. We salvaged many priceless things from our house including our wedding scrapbook.
This first night back we slept alright, but we were both anxious about the coming day. I realized this morning that I had not eaten enough food in the past two days. It was such a long two days that I had forgotten how much time had passed since the tornado. We got up and checked email, fielded phone calls, text messages, and responded to Facebook posts and questions. I ate some breakfast but every time I tried to eat I wanted to throw up. Josh received a phone call from his office asking if we wanted help as they had trucks, men, and tools that may be needed to dig out anything. In my perfect Social Work-ee way and half asleep, I wanted to make sure that they knew it was bad and to make sure that they had boots and gloves to protect themselves. Looking back I realize they knew this more than I did. The anxiety at this point was almost overwhelming. I knew that it was going to be a bad day so I requested prayer on Facebook. Prayer is something that I had not stopped doing since Sunday night. Every thought I had included a prayer asking for or thanking God for something. The plan for the day included my mother-in-law driving me to XNA airport to get our only car and to see if our luggage arrived. These two things were the only worldly possession we had at this time. My husband planned on going directly to Joplin, Missouri from Tulsa, Oklahoma and start the salvage process. My mother-in-law and I left and got to XNA around . We stopped in Bentonville, Arkansas to get gloves, water, and snacks for us while we were in Joplin. We knew that water was difficult to get due to a boil order. I got our luggage, which was one of the happiest moments of the day. I received a phone call from my sister-in-law while I was at the airport and she wanted to send us money. My husband told me that he had opened his PayPal account to his board gamers and he said that people were sending money to us. It is amazing to see how many people have just given us money...wow.
I drove to Joplin for the first time since Saturday, May 21, 2011. When I left XNA, I knew that I would need some moral support and called a friend to come and be with me as I went to where my house was. As I drove into town, the debris was on both sides of the highway at mile marker 18 on Interstate 44 headed east. Joplin is at mile marker 8. The damage started at mile marker 13. Once I got to Joplin, it was pretty unscathed. When I got into town, I crested the hill at 32nd Street and it was completely different than I left it. It was damaged until 28th Street and then there was nothing, only debris and tree limbs.I started praying for God to just get me through that moment and reminding myself to breathe. I met my friend and drove to within two blocks from my address. We walked the next two blocks.There were hundred year old trees that were pulled out of the ground at the roots. The roots were taller than I am tall; I stand 5 feet 2 inches tall. Everything is gone...EVERYTHING. I walked holding hands with my friend, tears rolling down my checks in utter shock. The devastation is immense. There are not enough words to describe the decimation. It is gone for more than three miles in a one mile strip wide. What else is there to say? Nothing. Nothing at all.
When I arrived at my house, my father-in-law had spray painted my address on one of the only flat pieces of wall on the front of my house. There is the search "X" on my house. There was so much debris that I could not traverse my yard. It was completely covered. I had to go into my neighbor’s yard to get to my house. My husband saw me and said that I should go to what used to be our bedroom and look for clothes in our closet. I was shocked at how much was in my closet. I pulled out some things and started my share of salvage. (I have back problems and I am not supposed to lift much of anything.) I was initially somewhat disappointed at how much was actually gone, but after I spoke with my husband I found out that seven of his co-workers came and started to "loot" our house before he got there. He said that they pulled out four truck loads of stuff from our house. FOUR TRUCK LOADS out of that mess, you saw the picture. Josh found several things that were important to him. My great great grandmother's chest of drawers was still mostly intact in our house. Many other family heirlooms were gone, but we were safe. No one was hurt at our house the entire day. Praise God!!! (If they were though, there was a crisis center not far from our house that was treating the walking wounded and providing free tetanus shots.) While we were cleaning up, the CBS national news came and interviewed my father-in-law and filmed us cleaning up. Not even the newscaster was injured in her 2 inch platform strappy sandals. We cleaned for a little while longer and had several friends come by to help. Much of it had already been done. I was able to talk to my neighbors that I knew and say that I was glad they were okay. My husband saw another one and I talked to some people that had information about another one. It was overall a much better day than I anticipated. We were able to joke most of the day about the stuff because it is just stuff.
Afterwards we went to another friend’s house who is letting us store our belongings and house us while we are in Joplin. He is about 15 miles southeast of Joplin and has well water, electricity, and lots of things to keep our minds occupied. We are sleeping in bunk beds and our host apologized, but we just laughed since its better than the floor, outside, our house, anywhere in Joplin, etc. We have had several friends come and just hang out. That evening, we came back from dinner and immediately were told that there was another tornado in the area and for everyone to take cover. We went into his "storm shelter"/theater room and waited out the storm. We are not the only people being housed by this family. The wife's parents were also displaced and living at the house now. They lived through the tornado with only bruising, and large gash on the wife's arm, and the husband broke his arm. They were in their laundry room during the storm and after the roof was taken this couple was being sucked up into the storm. They held onto some built in shelving as it crumbled under their grip. The couple said it lasted for what seemed like five minutes. They do not know how they survived. I have heard many stories similar to this and just as chilling.
From my house we could see both St John's Mercy Hospital, which previously had been obstured by trees. In the opposite direction, you could see the high school which was down the hill and there used to be houses and trees between us. It is crazy to see these "landmarks" from my house.
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