Joplin Missouri Hammered Hard by tornadoes!

reply to post by DaddyBare


I've heard everything from 68 to 400. And those all came from "official" sources. I think it is still so early and chaotic that nobody knows for sure. By this time next week, hopefully we at least have some solid numbers.

My parents are leaving tomorrow to drive down here to Florida and stay through Monday. My brother will still be up there though.

FWIW.....he was severely pissed off yesterday. He tried to volunteer to help, and they weren't accepting new volunteers. He was out all night after the tornado passed. He was directing traffic before emergency crews arrived. He was shuttling people to shelters, and even assisted in some of the preliminary digging that first night. Then Monday morning, his school decides they want to stay open for their students, so he spends the day teaching to 2 students out of his usual 25! After school, he goes to check in and help, and they don't want his help.

So, he goes home, sitting in the air conditioning watching the weather channel, and behind Jim Cantore are an old man and a little lady desperately digging for their neighber, whom they were certain was in the house when it was destroyed. No volunteers, no rescuers on site, and my brother sitting at home helpless and not able to get into the area to help? Piss poor coordination of resources....as usual!

reply to post by getreadyalready


I can understand why he was pissed...
the local stations put out a call for help even I went down there...
but once I get there, "I'm here what can I do to help?" Turns out they needed trained medical help of all types...
So I flash my EMT card from back home... no good has to be a MO state issued card...

By the way, if your close... don't go down to look... several of the roads were blocked... officers twice made me detour... it's not easy getting around esp near the downtown sections.

To those of you in and near Joplin doing all you can to help, God bless you. It was great to hear of some positive news going on there such as the boy in the Hummer being found and the policemen doing all right. Hope the weather holds off and gives you a break for the search and rescue. Take care!

reply to post by getreadyalready


I can confirm............My nurse is still digging through her aunts home attempting to find her..........The rescue people (with credentials) just sat back and watched as her family members plummeted through the piles of debris.........

The rescuers are only looking if the dog gets a "hit" is what one told her.........With all the rain yesterday.......the dogs are not getting good "hits" ..........and there is so much ground to cover…….

As my nurse said that the building where her aunt lived is leveled and many are missing from there……….Its been “un-searched” by rescuers since the dogs did not get a scent yesterday…………

She is headed back down there with her family to dig through the pile…………………..

reply to post by Komaratzi11


The boy was found from the hummer?? We are in close contact with the family and we have not heard that news..........

reply to post by Cloudsinthesky


Dogs aren't going to get a scent...
their handlers are stupid... there was 2 inches recorded at the airport... any scent would have washed away... that and the humidity is so high today what ever little scent molecules are in the air will hang low to the ground and stay close to the source...
stupid dog handlers...

Originally posted by Cloudsinthesky
reply to post by Komaratzi11

 

The boy was found from the hummer?? We are in close contact with the family and we have not heard that news..........

That is what my Mom said she heard on the radio today. Apparently he was with his father in the Hummer, and they made it into their driveway and were waiting for the garage door to open when he was sucked out the moonroof, but he is now conscious in a hospital and speaking.

Please check with the family and confirm for us!!

reply to post by getreadyalready


Made a couple quick calls and no one can confirm what your mom heard................Not saying its not true....news is moving very slowly here.........

reply to post by getreadyalready


CLICK THIS LINK
1230 The Talker - KZYM
News from Joplin, MO
been listening since Mon...

Edit to add... right now their doing local news updates


edit to add more Ted Cook from Joplins Tamco just donated 1,000,000 to the red cross...

station is now taking callers... most looking for missing persons


Edit to add yet more... Just right now I walked out to my truck....I'm At the Parsons KS office today....clouds are building... storms a coming... low level clouds are moving north by northeast... fast


Edit to add... for those members in Joplin... Tyson's food is hosting a free-cook out to everyone... go to the lowe's parking lot... also there is 4,000 free sandwiches to be had over at the Save-a-lot parking lot


More good news... Home Depot will donate $1,000,000 to help rebuild Joplin

Man I feel terrible. My family is from the Joplin area, my brother lives IN Joplin, the rest are in the surrounding areas like Neosho. I can't manage to get ahold of them and I can't do anything to help except pray.

If any of you read this that really don't understand how devastating something like this is, just wait til it hits close to home. Sure I felt sympathy for Japan. Sure I felt sympathy for other disasters...but never did I really understand what it's like until it hit home, literally. Count your blessings, never take them for granted.

A2D

Originally posted by Cloudsinthesky
reply to post by getreadyalready

 

Made a couple quick calls and no one can confirm what your mom heard................Not saying its not true....news is moving very slowly here.........

Hey Clouds, I just checked up on the story. Apparently there was a news story last night, where his teenage sister and an aunt told the reporter that they knew the boy had been found and taken to Freeman Hospital, but he was transferred after that, and they don't know where. They knew he was talking though. They also knew that his father had gone into surgery.

Does that help any?

reply to post by getreadyalready


By the sounds of it, their rescue efforts are extremely unorganized... which is sad because causalities could be the end result. Who is in charge of organizing the rescue efforts? I can’t believe an EMS from another state couldn’t volunteer because his licence was from a different state? …whoever is in charge of these rescue efforts really need to change their policies and procedures. I think everyone here who is outraged by this should complain and keep complaining. If enough people speak out about this, maybe they will review their policy and procedures; so that in the event of another natural disaster this won’t happen again.
They should also be clearer about the requirements needed when asking for volunteers. Why waste more time screening people who would never have come down had they known they would be rejected and sent away? Time is precious in these situations…

Originally posted by DaddyBare
reply to post by getreadyalready

 

CLICK THIS LINK
1230 The Talker - KZYM
News from Joplin, MO
been listening since Mon...

Edit to add... right now their doing local news updates

edit on 24-5-2011 by DaddyBare because: (no reason given)

edit to add more Ted Cook from Joplins Tamco just donated 1,000,000 to the red cross...

station is now taking callers... most looking for missing persons

edit on 24-5-2011 by DaddyBare because: (no reason given)

Edit to add yet more... Just right now I walked out to my truck....I'm At the Parsons KS office today....clouds are building... storms a coming... low level clouds are moving north by northeast... fast

edit on 24-5-2011 by DaddyBare because: (no reason given)

Edit to add... for those members in Joplin... Tyson's food is hosting a free-cook out to everyone... go to the lowe's parking lot... also there is 4,000 free sandwiches to be had over at the Save-a-lot parking lot

edit on 24-5-2011 by DaddyBare because: (no reason given)

More good news... Home Depot will donate $1,000,000 to help rebuild Joplin

edit on 24-5-2011 by DaddyBare because: (no reason given)

It's nice to see the community coming together and helping each other out. I have yet to hear any looting stories coming out of this horrible situation but only good stories of everyone helping each other out. Whether its neighbours who are digging through rubble for their fellow man or people holding cookouts to feed those who lost everything.

reply to post by inanna1234


Unfortunately there was a lot of looting! It is earlier in the thread.

People looted the big Sports Academy store badly, and police had to secure it instead of doing other duties. A friend of my Dads was in the direct path, but his house was miraculously spared. He boarded up the door and went out to help overnight. When he came back Monday morning, his house was busted into and ransacked.

The police got pulled out to go and secure the Flying J truckstop as well.

Looting was rampant in the first few hours after the tornado hit.

They were even stealing bodies from the temporary morgue! I have no idea why, but police could not join the rescue efforts, because they had to secure the morgue.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by inanna1234

 

Unfortunately there was a lot of looting! It is earlier in the thread.

People looted the big Sports Academy store badly, and police had to secure it instead of doing other duties. A friend of my Dads was in the direct path, but his house was miraculously spared. He boarded up the door and went out to help overnight. When he came back Monday morning, his house was busted into and ransacked.

The police got pulled out to go and secure the Flying J truckstop as well.

Looting was rampant in the first few hours after the tornado hit.


They were even stealing bodies from the temporary morgue! I have no idea why, but police could not join the rescue efforts, because they had to secure the morgue.

Oh I didn't hear about that... that’s sad then... the only way I could justify looting is if me or my child was starving and somewhere was abandoned or destroyed (and our survival depended on it) , I would take enough food and water until someone could get to us … even then I would only take what I needed. If I owned a store that supplied food and a natural disaster happened, if that food and water was necessary for others survival… I wouldn’t be upset if they took it. I would actually be happy that it saved lives.

The news at my local station just said that 1500 are missing in Joplin. If even 500 of those are dead these would be the BIGGEST tornado event EVER! I really hope they find everyone. I can't imagine being trapped under debris for 2 or 3 days.

Getting ready to head over to my Grandparents to hunker down for the storms headed our way. No computer! Ah, will check back tomorrow. BIG deadly tornadoes touching down in Oklahoma right now. Lets hope Joplin is spared in the hours ahead.

This night is ramping up to be another killer.

reply to post by DaddyBare


This is good news, be careful toinght and we will talk again tomorrow.

reply to post by getreadyalready


These are the dishonorable and deplorable stories we dont need to hear. They cannot have this much control in situations like these, they do need to have citizens recruited that show ability and the take charge responsibility like your brother has.

This is becoming shades of New Orleans when people missing and trapped are forced to die under the rubble rather than allowing all available men women who are able to join in the efforts.

It comes down to politics, evil politics where if someone gets injured they sue! Also to keep the truth from surfacing to the msm and the GP.

I understand and support the bravery your brother holds in his heart. This is insult to injury.

about people wanting to volunteer, They are wanting everyone to call the red cross office in joplin to volunteer.
as for turning away people with out of state emt licenses I'm not going to call the person a liar But I think he misunderstood what they told him. they are not letting just anyone go where every they want to search they are organizing search parties they probably told him to go to one of the staging areas they set up to organize searches.

they are going house by house doing grid searches they are hoping before night fall tonight to have completed 3 grid searches of the damaged areas. yesterday they were concentrating on areas like walmart, home depot, all along rangeline road and the numerous apartment complexes that were destroyed looking for survivors in those areas where they knew a lot of people could be trapped.

I highly doubt that any rescue worker was just standing around while just regular residents were diging through the rubble. If there was any chance that anyone was trapped anywhere in the city they were looking for them even out side of their primary search areas!

I also know that thousands of people have volunteered to help search they are gathering everyones info and organizing them into teams and they will get in contact with them when they need them to search. they are dividing everyone up into shifts.