Missouri Tornado Discussion!

Busy day! As most of you know President Obama came to Joplin today to survey the damage and give a message of hope and support. Very inspiring and well received! There were concerns of protests at the event, but as far as I know it was peaceful. Tons of bikers came to Joplin to help defend us against the protesters. They are true friends. God bless them...

C-SPAN is running the Obama event multiple times this evening. CNN also ran a one hour special on the Joplin disaster earlier this evening. They may have a repeat later tonight.

There is some discrepancy of the confirmed dead count between Joplin and the state. Joplin says 139. The state says 126. Unaccounted count is 40.

Other than that not much to report. Cable tv and cable internet was restored at my home about mid afternoon. Lots of folks sorting through the rubble looking for their personal items. Tons of volunteers in town helping with cleanup. EVERYONE is coming together helping each other.

Will report tomorrow.

 

Update for 5/30/11... 146 confirmed dead and 39 unaccounted for.

Walmart on Range Line and several of Joplin's schools are starting to rebuild. Joplin school administrations have been trying to contact all teachers and students in the district. So far 1 teacher and 7 students have lost their lives. Well over 3000 students are accounted for.

Traffic is getting back to normal. I drove around the mall district and through all of the zones today without much trouble. Traffic lights in the zones are either working or will be soon.

Will probably wait a few days to report again... don't want to clutter this thread anymore than I have to unless something new arises. I do want to THANK EVERYONE for their thoughts and prayers and please remember Joplin weeks and months down the road... we will need them.

 

6/1 Update... Confirmed dead count has stabilized at 134. The count was going up and down in trying to identify found body parts, but that is getting sorted out. Unaccounted for is now zero. All "next of kin" have been notified and 119 bodies have been released to families.

Home Depot reopened at 7am yesterday morning under a 30,000 sq ft metal awning structure in the parking lot that's stocked with home repair necessities. The original store was totally destroyed and several people were killed.

Lots of destroyed businesses are opening up again in other areas of town in storefronts that were available for lease. Spirit is definitely high... people are definitely not giving up. They are doing whatever it takes to keep life as normal as possible under the circumstances.

Still a bit too early to see new construction or major clearing of debris, but Joplin and the state have agreed to start clearing and hauling sometime this week. All of the major roads are open... most traffic lights work... and it's getting much easier to move around.

Joplin police reported today there have been around 75 arrests for thefts in the zones since the tornado... still a remarkable low number. A curfew exists in the zones from 9pm to 6am.

That's about all I have tonight. We're all trying to stay busy at work to keep our minds occupied, but that's hard to do with everything going on around us.

 

6/6 update... Joplin now has the official death count at 138. It was stable at 134 until last weekend, but 4 people have died in hospitals from injuries over the past few days.

Dump trucks are EVERYWHERE in the city consisting of semis pulling dual open containers. Bucket loaders are set up in the zones to load them and the trucks head toward Kansas where a dump site is accepting the debris. Apparently this is the "smaller" cleanup effort... a much larger fleet from another hauler is coming in within the week to tackle the major work.

Joplin schools have now estimated their total damage at $151 Million... up from the previous $100 Million estimate. Officials still say it's under control and rebuilding / repairs are being conducted.

Have started to hear insurance "horror" stories. My friend who suffered major damage to his home was offered a $3000 settlement. He says it will take every bit of $20000 to get back to normal... and there's a good chance the building inspector will go ahead and condemn it regardless once they get around to his neighborhood.

Otherwise... just lots of debris everywhere. Still too soon to see much improvement. Officials say it may take a year to see substantial building. Relief effort is still very strong. Experts have compared this event to the recent Japan earthquakes... folks are staying very calm and spirits are high.

Will keep everyone informed.

 

Hi all,

I'm still around and it's time for an update... 6/18.

Confirmed dead count is now 153. Around 15 have died over the last 10 days while hospitalized suffering injuries from the tornado.

Most of the smaller relief tents have packed up. Several large ones still exist in the zones. Still lots and lots of support in the area. Traffic is back to normal. The "rubberneckers" have seen all that there is to see by now.

The large disaster cleanup trucks are everywhere working hard 7 days per week. City officials are shooting for Aug 15 to have most areas cleaned up since that's when the bulk of FEMA funds expire. Many of the areas that suffered wind damage are shaping up nicely. The entire neighborhood around my workplace looks great. They worked hard in that area last week.

Three firefighters from a small neighboring town that helped with rescue have been disciplined and charged with looting. A warrant was issued to search one of their homes and lots of stolen stuff was found.

The weather has been very warm and dry for a few weeks, but tonight there is heavy lightning to the northwest and north. Hopefully it will pass.

Will post again in a few days. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support!

 

Thanks for the update joplinlocal!

You just can't get any lower than this. I hope they throw the book at them, then put them in general population with a bow on them and wrapped like a birthday present.