Scars from the Tornado (7 page)

Kallie
and I were walking around
Silver Dollar City with Kiefer. My parents and the others were somewhere else.
Kiefer had his phone and we got a weird phone call from my mom telling us to
get to the gates as fast as possible. Kiefer picked up Kellie and grabbed my hand
and we ran to the gates as fast as we possibly could. When we got to our
parents and started walking to our cars the tornado sirens started blaring in
Branson. We didn’t know what to do.

On the way to
seek shelter in the lobby at the
Radison
Hotel, my mom
told us what the phone call was about- a massive tornado had just touched down
in Joplin. The tornado sirens stopped so we decided to find somewhere to eat.
We decided the Plantation food wasn’t very good, but we didn’t care. We were
glad we were finally safe.

My mom
received a phone call from my aunt saying my grandparents and great grandfather
were in the same Pizza Hut as
Kayleigh
. My grandpa
did everything he could to help keep her safe because she was a very close
family friend. She died, but my grandparents were ok with small injuries, but
we didn’t know this yet.

Everything bad
was racing through my head. I figured everyone in Joplin was dead!

When we
finished eating, the tornado sirens started going off again. We returned to The
Radison
and got in the lobby and this was what we
heard on T.V. “a massive EF. There’s really no way to describe but a huge
tornado just touched down in Jo….” And lighting struck the building shaking
everything and the power went out, tornado sirens still going off. We had no
idea what to do! Everyone in the building ran down to the lounge, the safest
place downstairs. Everyone was trying to contact
their
friends and families. We got hold of some, so I felt a teensy bit of relief,
but not much.

We started
hearing popping and massive winds, but you could tell it wasn’t a tornado, just
as scary, but not a tornado. When everything came back on and Branson got the
clearing we started driving home and my brother, uncle, and dad went out to do
everything they could to help people. The first person I knew that was for sure
okay was Madison Riddle.

Facebook was
really the only way to get a quick response because telephone lines were down
so texting and calling weren’t very efficient. I lost a couple of people that
day Angie, John Richie, Lantz Hare,
Kayleigh
.
All very close family friends.
Many people died that day and
days later in hospitals from injuries caused by the tornado. May 22, 2011, 5:41
P.M. was one of the most tragic moments ever for people and it is something all
of us promised never to forget. We are still rebuilding and trying to get over
this tragedy almost a year later. Some people will never get over this some
will brush it off like it’s nothing. Joplin just needs to stay strong and we
can all get through these tough times together.

Amber
Fleming was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.

LAPTOPS,
LANDLINES, AND LUNCHMEAT

BY
D
ESIRAE
O
RLASKI

I was on my
laptop, minding my own business, when my dad hollered that we had a tornado
watch. I sort of disregarded that, because I heard it all the time and nothing
ever happened.

Disregarding
it was probably the worst thing I could have ever done. This is my story from
May 22, 2011, at 5:41 p.m.

About 10
minutes after my dad had hollered to us that there was a tornado
watch,
he said it had touched the ground and went from a
watch to a warning. We could hear what sounded like constant thunder. It never
stopped.

My mom, dad,
and I walked outside. We looked southeast of
us and saw
an almost pitch black wall moving past us. At this point, it was about 5:48
p.m. We had no idea what was happening, though we knew it was a tornado. We all
went back inside and I shut the front door and locked it. Just then, it got
extremely dark outside and our power went out. My dad told me to get my iPod so
that we could listen to the radio. Right as he said that, the wind picked up
and rain started racing to the ground.

After I got my
iPod, it started hailing fiercely. I started to see things fly all over the
place outside. The endless thunder was still roaring, only getting louder.

Yet, this
entire time, we stayed in the dead center of the living room. Debris kept
flying around in both the front and the back yard. Trees were swaying like
crazy behind the wall of rain and the sparks of lightning. People on the radio
were calling in saying places were gone. I started tearing up when they said
Range Line was gone.

At about 6:12
p.m., people were calling in saying that it had just gone back into the clouds.
We were very relieved that we did not get hit, but I was worried about friends
and family. My grandma lives right next to St. John’s, and over the radio, I
heard that St. John’s had been hit, so that made me sick. My dad immediately
left and drove to my grandma’s to see if she was okay. Surprisingly, she still
had power.

We probably
scared people more than we normally would have because we have a landline phone
that was still working while the power was out, and our out-of-state family
members were calling us like crazy, and since it was ringing, they thought we
would answer, but we never did.

I was walking
around outside and looked at all of the debris. There were pictures,
instructions to games,
pages
to books, St. John’s
Hospital patient information, and insulation from Home Depot, Academy Sports,
and other places. I walked to the west side of my house, and there were grass
and debris stains on it from the wind and rain blowing at it so hard. I was
thankful that all we got was wind damage, though.

After about an
hour, my dad came back. He had some food that my grandma gave him. At this
point, it was about 7:30 or 8 p.m.
We all had lunchmeat
sandwiches for dinner, and we went to bed much earlier than we usually do.
We decided just to go to sleep at 9 p.m. We had thought of going out and
volunteering to help, but we could barely get out of our neighborhood, so we
thought it wasn’t really that much of a deal. We knew there were thousands of
other people helping already.

The next day,
my dad realized that the landline still existed. He picked it up and called him
mom. After he was done, I called my friend to see if she was all right. Her
phone didn’t ring, so I called her grandma’s cell. They were okay, but they had
lost their house. That upset me. After I got off the phone with her, we drove
to my grandma’s. We were going to take a shower, but we couldn’t use the water
because apparently, it was defective. You had to boil it first, so we decided
not to bother.

We ended up
getting our power back in five days, so that worked out pretty well. But
basically, for those five days, we were living off the heat from outside,
lunchmeat sandwiches, and water.

Desirae
Orlaski
was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.

I AM PROUD
TO CALL JOPLIN MY HOME

BY
T
AYLOR
R
OBINSON

Who would have
thought such a tragedy could happen to Joplin? Trust me, that
is
not what was on my mind when I was at Grand Lake in
Grove, Okla. The weather was so nice. Beams of sunlight peeked through the
clouds and the water felt good on my hot skin.

After a while,
it started to get cloudy, so we headed toward the docks. The wind blew through
my hair as we rode to the campground. We hooked the boats up to our trucks. It
was around 4:30 p.m.
Our
parents started talking, so
my friend,
Kayden
, and I went inside her camper and
got some
snacks.

Kayden’s
parents were in the middle of
building a camp, so they were carrying logs to the side of the shelter. My
parents and their friends stayed to help and all of the six kids let out a
small cheer. We got to hang out longer!

We went inside
Kayden’s
camper again and started to play Monopoly.
After about an hour, we got bored. All of the kids came outside with
Kayden
and me. The time was now a little after 5:40 p.m. We
wanted to listen to music on
Kissin
’ 92.5. We were
ready to sing and dance, but that excitement quickly disappeared.

My parents’
friend turned on the radio in her Jeep and what we heard was definitely not
music. A guy was talking loud and fast in a panicky voice. I heard him say
something about a tornado in Joplin and I was a bit confused. I mean
,
nothing ever hits Joplin, so I figured it was a minor
tornado that blew about five shingles off a couple of roofs.

I was wrong.

We listened a
bit longer and the reports of damage kept getting worse.

My mother
logged onto Facebook and the news feed was overflowing with
comments about this tornado. My mom came across one that
said 18
^th
Street was gone.

That was my
street!

I choked back
tears and tried to stay strong so I wouldn’t worry the
younger kids who were with me. I was scared because I did
not know what
Joplin was like or if it was as
bad as everyone said it was. I longed to know
if
Joplin was okay, if my friends, family, and neighbors were still alive, and
if my house was really affected.

The little
kids didn’t know what was happening, and for a moment,
neither did I.
Kayden
already
had
tears streaming down her face. All of the
four families rushed to their cars. We were soon on the road
heading for
Joplin. My head was going
berserk. So many questions were running
through my mind and
I had a lot of mixed emotions. My uncle sent a picture of the front of my
house. It did not look horrible. After a few seconds,
though, I noticed that only our garage was standing and it
was barely up. I
let out a small whimper, which
suddenly turned to tears. I remembered
that my dog was at
home in the house when the tornado hit.

We texted my
uncle to ask and he said there was no sign of Buddy. I
tried to stay strong for my sister, but it kept getting
harder and harder to
choke back my tears. I started
to see the destruction as we drove down I44. These houses did not look too bad,
but we drove further and the damage was much worse.

I saw people
in hospital gowns being aided and guided down the
street.
We checked on my grandma and her house was fine, but she wasn’t
there. We got back in our car and tried to find our way to
our house. The
police made us stop and park our
car on 24th and Connecticut. We had to
walk the rest of
the way. I had never seen so much damage in my life.
Wires, trees, cars, and many other things were mangled and
all over the
ground. I saw people walking the
streets with leaves/debris in their hair
and on their
bodies. We approached my street and I took a shaky breath.

I ran down the
road, hopping over wires and tree limbs. I looked at
what was once my home. My family and I walked up our
driveway and our
relatives and neighbors
surrounded us and gave us hugs. I kept trying to see the house, but they
thought it would be too overwhelming. I requested to see my room. I stopped
breathing. I started choking, trying not to cry, but I couldn’t hold it in any
longer. I fell to the ground bawling. My aunt took me in her arms and held me
there until I calmed down.

My room was
completely gone; I had nothing left. Broken pieces of my belongings were
scattered across the floor and the lawn. My sister’s room was crushed. Pile
after pile of debris, some walls, and bedroom furniture. The kitchen, living
room, bathrooms, my parents’ room, and all of the other rooms in the house had
all of the contents scattered and destroyed.

It was hard to
take in reality and understand what
was
happening, and
the next several months after this disaster felt like a dream, but Joplin is
coming back stronger and better than ever and I am proud of the hard working
citizens, but most importantly, I am proud to call Joplin my home.

Taylor
Robinson was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.

REUNITING
FOR JOPLIN

BY
K
EISHA
G
RUNDEN

It was around 5:30
on May 22, 2011. The sirens were going off and the streets were desolate with
no cars or anything traveling on them.