by Randy Turner
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 DESIRAE ORLASKI
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.
DesiraeOrlaski was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.
I AM PROUD TO CALL JOPLIN MY HOME
BY TAYLOR ROBINSON
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 18th 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 wir
es 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 KEISHA GRUNDEN
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.
Earlier that day, everything was bright and sunny, and no one could have ever guessed what was about to happen. Now, there were green and black clouds covering the sky and the wind was blowing furiously. Hail the size of golf balls was raining from the sky.
We saw a horrific sight on the TV right before the electricity flashed off. A tornado the size of Mt. Everest was on the ground and coming. It was 5:41 p.m. and Joplin was never going to be the same. We watched out my front door with horror. We did not know where the powerful tornado was. We went down to my basement to ride out what was left of the storm.
When we came out, all we heard were sirens from emergency vehicles flying down 7th Street. We did not know where the storm hit so we went to check on my grandma and grandpa.
As we drove, we listened to the radio coverage of the storm. We heard Range Line was hit badly and so was Duquesne. We arrived at my grandma’s house and their car was gone. Where were they? Did they go to the store before the tornado or to get something to eat? We had no clue, but we were determined to find them.
We drove down Range Line. It looked as if an atomic bomb had hit Joplin. Normally, you could not see very far from Range Line because of trees and houses, but now if you looked out over the horizon everything was flat and you could see for miles. We were on the Walmart parking lot and cards were stacked on top of each other like building blocks. People were bustling about trying to recover and pull others out of the wreckage. That image will stay in my mind forever.
We drove back home and found an old wedding photo that had been blown into our yard. We searched the yard and found more photos, baseball/basketball cards, insulation, and splintered pieces of wood. The tornado had just barely missed our house.
We waited in anticipation to hear from my grandparents. Then at last, my aunt called and said that my grandparents were worried sick because they drove to our house after the tornado and we weren’t home. We were looking for them while they were looking for us. Soon we had confirmation that no one in our family had been injured in the tornado, which was a major relief.
The rest of the night it was impossible to sleep. Emergency sirens kept coming and coming. A little radio, which ran on AAA batteries, was the only thing we had to keep us updated.
Keisha Gruden was an eighth grader during the 2011-2012 school year.
THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE
BY COURTNEY HUNT
May 22 was the worst day of my life.
I was in the tornado and I felt the house shaking, windows breaking, people screaming and crying. We were in a small closet and there were a lot of people who were in there, my aunts, uncle, two cousins, four dogs, and me. After it was done, the house started to cave in.
After we got out, there was only one car that would work. We had to clean it out, then we all fit in. While we were trying to get to the church, my uncle and cousin took off walking. We had to go through yards, over power lines, over trees. We almost flipped the car twice.
It took us about three or four hours to get from the house to my grandma’s. When we were on our way there, we saw dead people along the road in cars. We also saw people with blood all over them.
My two little cousins died, one died during the tornado, while the other died at the hospital.
The Extreme Makeover people built their mom, dad, and sister a new house. They were one of the five families who got picked.
Their mom said she wished she would have died instead of her kids.
Courtney Hunt was an eighth grader during the 2011-2012 school year.
THE SCARIEST DAY OF MY LIFE
BY VICTORIA STEHM
May 22, 2011, was the scariest day of my life.
I remember running to my grandma’s basement. I was terrified and nervous. I am usually never scared of tornado warnings, but this time I was. I felt that something bad was bound to happen.
I instantly started crying when the electricity went off. I knew something terrible had happened. After that, I remember making my way outside. My grandma’s house was fine, so I wasn’t nervous. I thought everything was okay after that, until people came running, saying Dillon’s was destroyed and neighborhoods were gone.
I did not know what to think. I thought my friends were dead. I couldn’t stop crying that night. I was depressed; our town was depressed. I thought the world was falling apart.
Victoria Stehm was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.
A BIG THANK YOU TO THE VOLUNTEERS
BY GARRETT SEVERS
I am a survivor of the May 22 Joplin Tornado. It was a scary night, a Sunday. School was out and it was a beautiful day and it was high school graduation day.
My aunt, uncle, cousin who graduated and a cousin who goes to East Middle School all asked my parents and me to go to Golden Corral for a celebration. We had just returned from my travel tournament in Nevada about an hour earlier, but we told them we wanted to wait for the weather to clear out before we went anywhere.
My sisters, one of whom had a baby one week earlier at St. John’s Hospital, arrived and they were scared.
We started watching the news on KODE and they said, “It looks like it’s going to be a rain-wrapped tornado.” They showed a picture and video from the tower of what it looked like, and then about five minutes later, they said to take cover.
The tornado hit our house, leaving a couple of trees on it. The one that landed on the roof kept the roof from getting torn off.
After the tornado, my dad, my sister and I were walking to my best friend’s house. Luckily, she was at her dad’s in Oklahoma, but we saw a car with all of the windows busted out, two tires popped and two doors ripped off. Everyone in the car was crying and one of them said, “It’s all we’ve got.”
After a couple of days, volunteers started to help with the debris and moved it to try to find people, then they started tearing houses down and for a long time Joplin was so bare. You could see the high school football stadium all the way across town.
After about seven months, some things had been cleaned up and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came and built seven houses in seven days. There were so many people coming to help Joplin. Many of them did not even know anyone from Joplin, but they came to help us.
We thank all of the volunteers who came to Joplin.
Garrett Severs was a sixth grader during the 2011-2012 school year.
STRANDED
BY RYAN BALL
On May 22, 2011, one of the most devastating tornadoes ever recorded hit the city of Joplin, Missouri. The single tornado took out a quarter of Joplin and the size of the tornado from side to side was a mile wide. Looking at an aerial view of Joplin’s EF-5 tornado was astonishi
ng.
That day, after we got home from church, we could tell that there was going to be a storm, but we had no idea that it could become as bad as it did. We spent the whole day inside because it had been a bit stormy all day until about two o’clock. We spent a few hours watching television, eating sandwiches, and playing video games.
It was about five o’clock before we started seeing something happening. As my mom looked outside the window, her phone rang. It was from my stepdad. He called because when he was driving to Fredonia, he saw about six storm chaser vehicles speeding right past him, heading straight the other way to Joplin.
My mom already knew what to do. She gathered the dogs and the kids in the hallway because something was going to happen. We all gathered in the hallway, no electricity, no light, just us.
We heard the tornado sirens go off, then stop, then back on. Then, a big flash of lightning hit Joplin, lighting up the entire sky. We waited in the hallway for about 10 minutes. Then my mom went to the front door to look outside. All she saw was trees leaning diagonally, fences getting knocked down, and the rain getting blown in all different directions. After all that happened in that 20 minutes, we knew that there was going to be a tornado.
We waited in the hall until the house stopped shaking. Then we all looked outside. Trees were down, fences scattered, and people were examining the damage. It was hard to look at. We knew something had to be done.
With no power, we were stranded in our home. Only my brothers and sisters and my mom. My siblings and I agreed that Mom needed to go to work, since she is a nurse.
After she left, we waited for my grandma to pick us up.
Ryan Ball was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.
THE SCHOOL YEAR
