One month later..

Its been one month since the tornado that ripped my hometown apart. It is so encouraging to see all the debri removal and construction on some of the businesses! I guess I'll start this post by telling you where I was that day.. May 22nd started off bright and sunny, a beautiful normal Sunday. We went to sunday school and then church. We visited and laughed with our sunday school class like any other Sunday. It is hard for me to think that about what some of them were going through only a few hours later, holding on to their loved ones for their lives, praying to God their children are unharmed.  After church we had lunch with the Thompson's, and then headed to Webb City to see Dave and Jill. Angela texted me while we were in Webb City, she wanted to go see Bridesmaids at 4. (Angela had plans to go see the movie the week before, but didnt..God had his plan.) I asked Daniel if he wanted to go, he said no and dropped me off at the theater. We watched about an hour of the movie before the theater began to get bright and loud because of people receiving phone calls and texts about the tornado warnings and watches. So many people wandered into the hallway..we were all talking, some even joking because these tornado watches are something we see weekly around here. We made our way back into the theatre to finish watching the movie for all of about two minutes before the lights came on and the workers told us to go to the bottom of the theater and stay put. I called Daniel twice while we were waiting at the bottom of the theater, telling him their was a tornado watch and he needed to be watching the news. We waited for a few minutes before walking back up to the hallway to see what was going on.. we made our way to the lobby where you could hear the storm and see how black it was. Everyone just started running back away from the door yelling "tornado, get down, take cover!" We ran to the bottom of the closest theater and I called Daniel again, he said the sirens were going off and he was waiting it out in the closet.  It's hard to say exactly how long we stayed there.. I would say we left the theater within 20 minutes. I tried to call daniel, but I couldn't get through, there was no cell service. I felt nauseous, I felt helpless, all I wanted to do was hear his voice. I know Angela was feeling the same way about Matt. We ran to the car in the hail, not knowing what we were about to see. We started driving down rangeline towards 7th street.. everything except for the rain was still and quiet..it was very eery. We started driving down 7th street. We saw billboards, trees, and light debri along the side of the road. We turned left on Indiana/Murphy and that is when we started seeing damage to homes. We arrived in front of Joplin High School.. it was gone. This was the second it had become real for me that a tornado had hit Joplin. For those of you that aren't from Joplin.. Joplin High school is in the middle of Joplin on 20th street and Indiana, Daniel and I live at about 33rd street and Indiana..and I knew he had been at home. All I could see for miles was debri..homes scattered for miles, cars in trees, people screaming, and fires starting.

My heart was racing, and I wanted to scream for Daniel. I have never been so scared in my life. I wanted to hear his voice, and at that point as we kept driving closer to my house the more helpless I felt about reaching him. We kept driving, swerving around cars, poles, metal, and people running in the street..

Angela was driving and we were closest to her house so we tried to go by her house first. It was nearly impossible.. we ended up on the other side of town.. At one point we ended up in the parking lot at Walgreens on 20th street because there was no where else to go, no way to get around. This is when I started crying.. Survivors were carrying  their hurt neighbors to the Walgreens, I guess because there was medical supplies. After walgreens I dont know how we got there, but we ended up in the entryway of St. Johns Hospital..still trying to find a way to Angela's house around all the rubble.
When we drove by St. John’s it smelled like gasoline, we could see people standing in the rooms of the hospital and hear their screams. Driving was nearly impossible, we drove around uprooted trees and into what was left of people's yards. We finally ended up parking at 18th. Sometime around here Angela had talked to Matt (he was at work at att), Matt had drove to my house to check on Daniel and praise God he was okay. Matt said it took Daniel a good 15 minutes to come to the door because he was taking cover in our closet and he couldnt hear the doorbell. And bless his heart he had my sugar baby hiding with him. Now that I knew Daniel was okay I could function a little better, I was now in help mode. We took off running to Angela's house at 25th and Penn..I remember when Angela realized we had made it to her street. My heart sank for her. I wanted to tell her it would be okay like everyone usually says when something bad happens, but I knew it wasn't okay. People were dying around us.  I'll never forget the things I saw and heard while running down her road. People were screaming bloody murder, some were running frantically, and some were walking slowly like zombies with blood on themselves. We stopped numerous times to see if anyone needed help. We kept on running towards Angela's house in hopes of finding her dogs.We passed Angela’s house without realizing it. We asked someone what cross streets we were at and then turned back around. There were no familiar scenes.. We walked back down the street and noticed Angela’s car sitting in her driveway..under her neighbor’s living room. By the time we got there Daniel and Matt were there and had found one of their dogs. I wont go into all of the things I saw that day simply because of the respect I have for the people that lost their lives. But I will say that my heart aches for their families, and I pray that they find peace and comfort in Jesus Christ while they go through this heartbreaking time. I still cant walk down those streets without looking at what is left of those homes (mostly foundations and sometimes a wall or two), and praying no one was home. I spent the whole next week at Angela's "house." I wanted to find anything I could that would make her feel better. I hated being home.. I felt so much guilt. We got our electricity back on that Thursday, and I didnt want to turn it on. I just couldnt process everything that had happen. I didnt feel luck.. I dont know what I felt besides devastated. Dont get me wrong, I was BLESSED that my family was safe. However, I couldnt get the image of those that were not so blessed out of my head. I wanted to hold them, and I wanted to cry with them. The next couple nights after the tornado were very rough.. we had more tornado watches and warnings, there were different tornadoes spotted around our area. We took cover in Daniel's parents basement.. I was terrified. I had gone from being out in the destruction all day to taking cover from another tornado. I had the people of Joplin on my mind, I cant imagine how so many people that were staying in the shelters felt after losing their homes to a tornado, and now they are taking cover again. How terrifying. Well.. there are my memories of that day. Any talk of a storm or tornado is still breath taking. And there is so much left to be done here. Joplin will rebuild! :)

(Angela's street)



Angela's Street



Angela's House

26th Street.. St. John's is in the middle of the picture





St. John's Hospital