Several have asked for a link to the post I made after the Joplin tornado. Here’s the blog post.
As my friend, Vicky, mentioned in a comment earlier, she called on my cell phone fairly late that night and I was shocked that the phone rang because I had no cell service. I asked her to call Vince and tell him I was safe. She called him, explained that she was my friend who lived in California (at the time) and that she had gotten through to me and I asked her to call him. She said they had a nice chat. 🙂
For those who were not reading my blog back then, this is one of the reasons why I love my blog readers and consider you all truly amazing friends.
After the tornado, most readers knew that Joplin was where we went for medical care, where we went to shop and where we went to eat out. Readers from near and far began asking what they could do to help Joplin. I asked that those who wanted to help send checks to me made payable to The Red Cross and set a deadline for the first week in July. We were moving to Texas and I had to get everything wrapped up before I left town. Vince started the new job in Texas on May 1, 2011 and I was leaving August 15.
Readers ended up sending in a little over $11,000, which was all donated to The Red Cross. Is that amazing?
Chad was scheduled to have his tonsils out right after he graduated from college, which I think happened 2 weeks after the tornado but because Joplin had lost one of their two hospitals during the tornado and the medical area was hit hard, his surgery had to be rescheduled and we were pushing it to get him recovered before the movers arrived.
Joplin has rebuilt and seems even busier and more robust than it was before the tornado. All the major businesses are back, or at least the ones I recall being destroyed. Dillon’s not rebuild, I don’t think the quilt shop, Sew Neat, rebuilt. I’m not there enough to know what came back and what didn’t but I know Joplin now has crazy traffic and lots of restaurants!
MrsB says
Today is the 5th anniversary of the deadly tornadoes that savaged Alabama. There is one memory from that day on Facebook posted at 5:30 am. My house unscathed, but every other house on my street, 900 feet up Shades Mountain, had damage and no power for 10 days. Straight line winds got us. It disabused me of the idea one is safe from tornadoes /straighline winds up here on our mountain.
It was a scary and terrible. I keep a batting helmet and “go kit” close. Spring in North Central Alabama can be deadly.
I once saw a tornado come across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge…..it seemed so harmless uprooting a few trees. Now I take sirens and weather alerts seriously.
patti says
wow, a trip down memory lane! i’d forgotten about the amount of $ raised then, and also chad’s tonsils… every so often you mention something from the past or a reader will comment on how they ‘found’ you. i don’t really recall but i’m sure for me it was quilt related and i check in daily now.
my SIL is nw of ft. worth and our news shows just a u.s. map with general orange, yellow and red blobs across several states so i just have to kinda guess where her house and yours fall in the color scheme. it’s nice to be able to know about you via the blog, now if my SIL would answer our messages.
hugs to you!