May 22nd, beautiful day at work at Olive Garden excited to get out and soak up the sun. Looking outside ready for the summer ahead. Internship, Biology class, time with the GF and friends. Getting ready to clock out of work and poke my head in my managers office and notice a screen full red and yellow blotches all over the screen that is encompassed around the Joplin area. I laugh and tell my manager, "Psh it doesn't even look that big of a storm, it will be in and out by 7." my managers reply," Ya but thats a pretty condensed storm that could grow." As being a Joplinite most of my life I've been through a lot of this before. Whats new some wind some hail some rain, and life goes on. I continue to clock out and head back to 29th and Missouri. I arrive at my house gleeful of the week ahead and the opportunities that will arise from the internship at ARC in Joplin. I get out of my garlic infested clothing and head to the shower. Music blaring through the house, as I sing along I continue to get dressed and proceed to my daily computer checking routine. Facebook, my bank, blogs, ect. I had lost my phone a couple days before due to shipping it to Apple and getting it given back to me not just unfixed but broken more. So I had went to ATT for a replacement and found value in seeing if anybody wanted a broken screen Iphone. I went to Ebay and posted my phone under the cell phone category and thats where the story begins. Preview, enter, "Your Item has been successfully added to Ebay" Great! I then look up and the window in front of me goes dark. Confused I get up from the chair and proceed to the window. Looking outside it is calm as ever but in the distance is a storm I have never seen so dense, so dark, so quiet. I continue to look around outside not a motion. I continue back to my computer and check on Facebook to see if anybody else has seen this. I hear what I found humorous at the time. An Ice cream truck blaring its music making its way down the street. I reply on FB with,
I continue on facebook for a second or two, then the wind starts to pick up outside. For the most part I never over react...ever. But something instinctual made me call my Girlfriend. You see earlier she was helping at a theater that day serving and was heading back towards Joplin with her friend to pick me up to take everybody to church. After a text message or two about where I was and where she was. I instantly picked up the phone and waited for her to pick up. I am now wondering around the house now finding the wind to be blowing the trees around and it started to rain. She picks up,"Hey whats up" I say,"Hey I don't really know whats going on but it is looking pretty bad outside. " she replies, "yeah its not doing anything here I'm on 15th street and Texas." I reply instantly with "You need to get off the road...now," This was the instant that I saw a full sized trampoline with the child safety nets on it float above a yard for a second as if ghostly and then soar across 5 yards north. She said,"Thats weird its not even raining over here, it just looks dark...really dark."...that was it when she said that the phone lost signal and my lights flickered once...twice...thre...they went out as the hail began to come down. I looked out side once more in the front yard as I saw the trees go from a peaceful blowing from side to side to a huge push to the right as if stretching to touch the ground. It was released back to its normal position then as if a convulsion again persisted to push towards the ground, then as if the tree was instantly shocked rushed back up to an upward position and began to shake intensely in circular motions. I took that as "Get to the Bathroom...NOW" I rushed to the bathroom in the dark, granted I couldn't tell you which was better being alone and being able to calm myself or being with people to keep me rationalized. As this was all happening I was continuously pressing the call button on my new Iphone4 that I had bought the day prior at ATT, hoping my GF would pick up. Nothing. I was sporadically getting text messages from people outside the city. Thats when I knew something was up. seconds turn to minutes as I see the hail punish the ground outside my bathroom window, I begin to scare myself because if this was a tornado where was really safe? I didn't have a basement and the bathroom had a window in it so I kept wondering around like a chicken with my head cut off wondering into the hallway thinking well this is the center of the house with no windows, then looking up and thinking well if the roof comes off I am completely exposed so I made my way back to the bathroom. Still trying to contact my GF. Nothing. Then i began to ease up a little and at that time I was looking outside the front window to witness all the trees I saw prior to laying on the ground heading north, one which was right in front of the window nearly hitting the window by inches. I finally got a text message from my GF's friend that said," We are ok, but your GFs car has a tree on it" I replied" Big tree or little tree" She replied ," Big tree bye bye Jasmine" ,with the image of this...,
which was the name of her car. I wasn't necessarily scared or frightened. From the looks outside my window it looked like wind damage. Some trees were down but the houses were in tact and all seemed well now. I told her that I would be on my way to come get them since the car was out of commission. I headed to the front door and opened it up to find that the tree was not going to allow me to exit. I went back to the back door and found that there was flooding all the way up to the door. Welp, I guess I'll jungle gym my way through the front yard. I proceeded through the front yard crawling through a full 25 foot tree to find my self to my car. I got there and realized, what if I need my camera to take pictures of the car? I returned through the tree and came back, started my car and before I could put it in drive noticed that I wouldn't be able to go forward due to the downed trees. I backed up and headed towards 32nd street. I thought Ok this isn't too bad I'll be there pick them up and be on our way. Well thats not exactly what happened. I made it to 32nd and found my self in an instant traffic jam. Hmm what could be the hold up really? I saw a cop pass us and stop to start directing traffic but soon realized it was too chaotic and left. Shortly after I made my way to Connecticut. Bad idea. I continued at a slow motion heading towards 20th street. This is where I came up to where the Olympic Fitness center and Apartments were. My eyes went from relaxed to mouth wide open and eyes glazed by the horrific effect this wind had taken to the area. Not only did it look like a mess but the town seemed to have opened as a field in Kansas. empty and lifeless. I was crawling through the mess as I saw people crawling out of the wood chips that were left hearing people scream, "HELP US!" "HELP" This drew my attention to a huge crowd of people surrounded around a body on top of car that was limp as his hand was lifeless off the side of the back hatch. I turned quickly and started shaking and crying. The emotions took my by surprise. These people needed help and I had absolutely no clue what to do I was stuck staring at the events around me with nothing to do but stare in disbelief. We continued to cross over 20th and Connecticut. where you could see where it looked like Big foot came through and flattened everything. I was amazed to see that the area that my GF turned off of has just the same as the house I was in. It was still green and trees were pushed to the road. We met up and continued back to the house where the car and her resided when the monster came through the town. After days of seeing the disaster and hearing the infamous stories of the surrounding community I have nothing to say, I am fortune and something thought that 2925 Missouri was worth a house not taking. It astonishes me that the view I had in front of me when I entered my car is only 2 blocks away from people that have nothing. Images and video can not capture what happened that day. Even this note will misconceive people as to what happened and what it was like to be in the strongest, deadliest tornado to date. I was fortunate not to have any house of mine taken away and I can't imagine what it is like to not have a home but I do know what it feels like to not have a place to stay. Joplin has been torn apart right through the epicenter and since traveling through the debris I have been lost and for the most part can't remember where my favorite restaurants resided and what streets to turn on to get back to the houses I stay at. We have come together to help the whole community and will someday get back to where we were. The school I got my diploma is no more, and the town will go on with out electricity for quite some time but that won't stop everybody from living the lives that were being dreamed of before May 22nd 2011 at 5:40 pm.
As I plan to move on from this reckoning, I'm sure the community will remember the day that the area came together and worked hard to get back on its feet. Even though the stories will be told for ages to come, I feel that the community as well as I won't need to share the story in great detail because we shared better moments as we recovered from the devastation. And that is why I say that This is the story of a Joplin resident that will never be told in its entirety again.
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