Joplin, MO Relief Mission

[mitunnelrat]

Joplin, Missouri, 05-22-2011, 5:41 p.m.

Twenty minutes... According to a report I read that's all it took. Twenty minutes from 5:41 p.m. for a one mile wide twister with 200 mph EF-5 winds, and multiple vortexes within its funnel, to destroy a six mile long section right through the heart of the city. As of 7-30-2011 there are 160 confirmed dead, making this the deadliest tornado in the US since 1947. Other, earlier statistics said 1,100 were injured. 7,000 households and 300 businesses were destroyed. 4,000 jobs were lost or affected.

If its easier to grasp, that equals out to just under 30% of the city.

I was told that volunteers from surrounding cities had arrived in Joplin within an hour to search for survivors and victims. Doctors were already en route/ flying in from Springfield, Kansas City, and St. Louis. These volunteers were on site and at work before most of the residents in the unaffected parts of town knew anything extraordinary had occurred.

And according to the host of my relief team, the extraordinary is still occurring in his little corner of SW Missouri, because we the volunteers are still pouring in - and with us comes hope. We bring hope because our numbers and effort have reduced what seemed to be an insurmountable task (from the first phase of Search & Rescue, to the current phase of clearing debris) into a short term issue. Its only been a little over two months since the tornado, and realistic estimates put the town being clear and clean by the end of this month.

This, but just a small portion, is what they still face:






I didn't get an exact count, but it appears that five of their schools were totally destroyed, with three more taking varying degrees of damage. The tornado lifted a nine-story, concrete hospital off its foundation - and moved it 4-6". It has to be leveled.

And yet, as stated, there is a spirit of hope within the community - and faith. There was no desperation, no despair, no depression in evidence. Some sadness, but overriding was a quiet strength and resolve to rebuild and continue on.

[mitunnelrat]

This was as evident on the streets...


...as it was within the walls within the walls and under the canopy of the organizations still operating within Joplin:



Incidentally, most charity organizations and non-profits appear to have pulled out already for various reasons. The American Red Cross may still be there, but I never saw or heard them. The Salvation Army has pulled out. The National Guard, once there enforcing curfews (and possibly some martial law), was not in evidence either. Chief among their reasons for withdrawal were lack of funding and the intrusion of politics. I'll get to what groups I witnessed as still running momentarily, but want to note that I was disgusted to learn within my first hour there just how inhibiting litigation and regulation were to relief efforts. You'll note in one of the pictures that I'm serving food. The reason I'm so dirty already is due to the other half of that operation: They're building sheds for the displaced residents of Joplin to either store possessions or live in. Yes, to live in. This next picture is a view of their construction site from the mess area between it and where you see me serving food.

As you can see, its flush with salvaged lumber such as planks and 2x4's, but there's no plywood in existence. Its within my first hour working in Joplin that I worked with that group, and went looking for plywood to advance work on those sheds. During that hunt I learned how limiting some things can be. There was no salvageable plywood in sight, so the next best method is to buy some. The volunteer I was working with had a permit (needed it to avoid arrest for looting) to salvage scrap and had the means to haul it. We did not have an effective means of loading it, so we went looking for machine operators to help us. We found several within a reasonable distance. None could help. The couple that would were bound by rules and regulations requiring authorizations, release of liability... many other things. My partner had been there almost from the start and told me this was a recent development. Up until then, people just helped each other.

[mitunnelrat]

My laptop crashed. I'll have to pick this up later cuz my Blackberry just doesn't cut it

[The Stig]

Wow. That's mind bending.

How did they handle sanitation issues? Any running water in the effected areas?

[mitunnelrat]

There are currently no services running to any of the affected area. The estimate I heard on electrical restoration was 6 months, but if clean up is only going to take one more month I can see that bumping up. Sanitation was handled through porta potties and hand sanitizer. Water was also brought in by the truckload. For the most part though, volunteers are being housed outside of the disaster zone and have access to showers and laundry facilities. Some of this actually leads me into the next post I was going to make. Before I go further please note that I have no interest in discussing theology or religion, but my next statements are relevant and should be take for what they are: Every organization and/ or volunteer I met was either housed by, affiliated with, or partnered through a church. Its possible there may have been some independents operating there, but everyone I personally saw (or heard of) volunteering fit what I just stated.

My own team was partnered with an organization called Poured Out, and we were all housed and assigned tasks by one of the local churches. They renovated two of their rest rooms for us and installed tile showers. Poured Out also had a shower trailer they'd brought in before those showers were installed. Members of the congregation volunteered to cook our meals (breakfast and dinner, not lunch since we were in the field) and some of them laundered our towels. Some clothing got washed too, but not mine, nobody wanted to dig around my stuff to find it while I was gone.

The items I've pictured above were available for distribution from the church housing us as well. Two of the church members volunteered for that each day to help the families and people coming in. That side of the operation is getting phased out, but only in favor of a larger distribution center in town, operated from - you guessed it - another church.

The largest meal supplier, where you saw me ready to serve, was another faith based operation. FEMA is not the one feeding the residents or volunteers, but the people they employ come in there to eat. Incidentally, they were also the only ones bitching about the lack of variety and size of the portions. There are no scheduled food deliveries, there are no regulars to dole out what does come in. We ate a lot of hot dogs at lunch, but we (the volunteers and Joplin residents) were happy to get a hot meal and a cold drink. The average temperature while we were there was 110* F. Having an ice cold drink was pure bliss at times... Anyway, I only served food the one day, but if my team of 11 hadn't gone in and done it that day it wouldn't have happened. The same is true of the shed construction I've already mentioned. They are almost totally dependent on crews bringing in the materials to salvage and build with. They are totally dependent on volunteers doing the construction. Two of the exceptions to this are their scrap operations (as I've mentioned) and brick recycling. However, they still depend on field teams bringing these to their operation.

Collecting brick was actually one of the bigger operations I took part in down there. I and a group of others spent the better part of a day on this. The bricks sell for 50 cents each, and I'd estimate we got roughly 800-1000 bricks per load. I'm not sure exactly how many loads we sent because I was retasked before we were through, but I'm guessing somewhere between 6 and 8 on the time frames of the first few loads.

Its the second part of the brick recovery day that most captured my attention. The area we were working in had already been cleared. The residents already allowed in to recover what they could, and we were just ahead of the demolition crews ready to level everything and load it into dumpsters. As such, a decision was made for a few discerning individuals to search for and recover items of use. Tools, household cleaners, medical items, appliances... Somebody actually remarked on how the PAW would be just like this - people searching ruins to live and survive.

We recovered 30 appliances that day, among numerous and various smaller items. Items destined for a landfill if we hadn't gone in after them. Items some people of Joplin won't have to purchase now to replace.

[mitunnelrat]

So, brick day was day 3 for me there. Days 1 and 2 were essentially half days where I felt too much time was spent on my ass. I hadn't gotten to know anyone outside of my small team yet, so didn't go out to work with them. My team was largely youths and women. They like going back to the church after lunch. I actually got ridiculed for helping on a sewing job because a demolition crew came in and saw me doing it... I was just happy to be doing something!

That sewing project was actually kind of cool though. They were making neck coolers. These are essentially tubes of cloth you can tie around your neck. They contain some kind of dehydrated water bead that swells with water and retains cold.

Day 4, the longest work day of my trip, was a demolition day. Bobcats are incredible machines and I want one now! I watched as they systematically used two to level a house. They have a myriad of attachments to do numerous jobs, and I learned they don't burn much fuel in the process. For a small operation they seem almost indispensable. It took just over half a day for a complete home to become a cleaned, dirt lot. That's with a lunch break and a pause to aid a neighboring homeowner gain access to her upper floor. In that job we also salvaged a lot of dimensional lumber and concrete block for the operation at the high school.

After a run back to the church the crew went back out for a second demo job. I unknowingly missed the bus, but got to the demo site by riding with their team leader - who had been in a meeting and rode separately. Before we left he asked the members of my smaller team (who chose to sit at the church all day, in the AC) to spend one hour each outside cleaning the appliances we recovered. I don't mean to complain about this, but it plays into my long day - they stared as if he had 5 heads and had asked them to perform a human sacrifice. Even one of our adults! The commentary after he walked off was nasty.

Anyway, we go to the second demo site. Not much to do there but run machines, so I wasn't sorely missed, but imagine my surprise when we got back to base at 6 pm (instead of the normal 3 pm) and saw numerous dirty appliances - and nobody cleaning any of them! I was embarrassed and even a bit angered over the poor representation of my team, and spent the next 30 minutes until dinner working on one of them. After dinner my day still wasn't done. We had blown a trailer tire on the trip to Joplin, and needed to go replace it. Due to all of this it was almost 10 pm before I got my shower and fell into bed.

Day 5 was a recovery day. I spent it outside helping Poured Out reorganize their equipment trailer for the ride home. They have an amazing setup that made me drool! Their small trailer alone is enough to make you pause, but they recently stocked a semi truck as a complete shop - and 95% from donations! Either way, many of you know how I feel about expanding my personal preps into caring for the community around me. This trip and the setups I saw have given me new fire and a direction to follow on this. After I finish this review I'll be working on a proposal for my church to set our own system up. If that idea sours some of your stomachs, but you like the idea of community operations, I might suggest looking at the American Red Cross and how you can impact them with your experience, knowledge, and or personal resources.

Finally though, some random thoughts:
First, dummy cords are good! I lost my Surefire E2D somewhere down there and can only assume its in a landfill now. I don't care, its loss is nothing compared to the loss I witnessed down there, but its loss was totally unnecessary.
Second, stout clothing is a must! I wore all light cotton, and it did ok, but I have to mend some button holes now. My boots were awesome though! I ended each day with my feet feeling good and not too sweaty.
Third, secondary injuries will occur. We had two teens receive minor injuries while we were there. I gave one a Disney Princess bandaid and told him he'd be good to go. Even he knew the bandaid was just for sanitation purposes while serving food. He took it like a good sport. The other injury was from a nail in the foot. This girl jumped (yes, I asked why too...) right onto one. She was gonna refuse the alcohol wipe until I looked her in the eye and asked her if she'd prefer two weeks of infection and an inability to walk over 3 seconds of a minor sting. Within minutes I had it cleaned, slathered in ointment, and a huge bandage in place to minimize slippage. I had the gear on hand, no one else did.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Let me know what you think and what else you have to ask. I came out of this drained and fired up all at the same time, and I'll being doing more like this in the future. My woman is not enthused. Lol.

[bacpacker]

Rat, I applaude you going there and working to help those folks! As you saw first hand the .GOV don't do much of anything except get in the way and screw things up. It's folks like you who make a difference when disaster strikes, both right away and long term. Very good review of your trip BTW.
I may have missed it, but was any of the local comms back up and running? Also, did you hear of any groups of folks going outside the area working to send money back into the area? Was there supply runs taking place outside the area to bring materials back to speed the building process? Was there any discussion of housing for the upcoming winter? That area will be getting rain and snow within the next 3-4 months as winter approaches.
GREAT JOB

[Twitchy]

What a great thing you did for them! IF I had a way up there I would get up there to help out... I'm not surprised one bit politics got in the way of everything *sigh* Once again, Good on you for helping

[The Stig]

MI,

Great report and thanks for sharing.

Was the attitude displayed by some in your church (hovering around the AC, not cleaning the appliances) isolated to your group or did you see other folks tending to slack off as well?

I'm guessing that like anything in life, a few will excel, many will adequately and a few will be complete turds.

[RedJohn]

Thanks for the reports. Looks like you were ready for most situation (you're the medic now) and whatever else you learnt, like the clothing thing, will help you and us in the future.

Good job and you're the man.