I'm alright. Certainly not going to complain, compared to what others have lost.

Hope this isn't true, but, from what I'm hearing from people who have gone up is that there are a lot of people who have died that haven't officially been counted yet due to not being identified.

A friend of mine wrote this after volunteering down in Joplin for a few days. He has quite a way with words and I thought it deserved to be read by more people.

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JOPLIN - Unedited impressions and notes.
by Daniel Loomis on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 11:31am

"I'm here to identify my wife." says an elderly man covered in dirt and blood. "Where do I go to claim her body?"



"Go up to Missing Persons and they can help you." I point the man up the hill and he drives away.



The skies were dark and word was being passed around that new storms were on the way. There were rumors that it would be more tornadoes but no one wanted to think about what that could mean. Silently, everyone just wanted to know where to go in case a tornado did come. It turns out that basements are a one-time only tornado shelter after that you have to find a new place to hide. In the case of Joplin, no one felt safe anywhere. How could anyone feel safe from a tornado after they have just seen six miles of what one determined tornado can do? Interior room of the house? Bullshit. I just saw the interior room of the house two miles away from the house it used to be in. It was wrapped around a tree with two cars smashed on top of it.



Joplin is a survivor's tale with thousands of people on "The Pile" trying to gather up of what they could find of the lives before they could begin to think about what had actually happened to them. Pets were gone. Photos. Clothes. Wives. Horror stories on every corner. The faces on The Pile telling you all you need to know.

"My mother died over there." says a man on The Pile. It's considerably easier to say that then to think of what actually happened to her. They found her "there" but she lived for many years 300 feet away and spent the last few moments of her life in a horrifying move to where they found her. No one dares to think what happened to her or how awful those last few moments were for her. It's easier to just hang your head and say, "I'm sorry." Give the man a hug if he will take it and keep on walking down The Pile.



Everyone has a story to tell. There is blood drying on their arms and faces, but no tears. Not yet. First they need to find what few pieces of their life they can. It gives them something to do. They are focused. No one here cares about American Idol. No one is talking about box scores or politics. Concern for the rest of the world ends at The Pile's edge.



Each item they find is precious. Each item has a story they like to share with you. "This used to be the Star we put on our Christmas tree each year. It's junk now." and with that, a woman throws the damaged ornament back on The Pile. "Keep it" says her mother, who quickly picks it up and tries to clean it off. No one likes to abandon great memories, even if we take them for granted most of the time. Even with a thick coating of mud, each item they find has a luster that mother nature can't take away. The star gets wiped off and put in on a cart with other salvaged items.



Rumors fly around about the number of dead: 300? 400? More than a 1000? Bodies keep showing up and the list of names of the missing keeps getting longer. Who do you ask for help? Where do you turn for answers? How do you reach people? Phones don't work. People don't know the numbers to call because they "were in the phone." There is no internet. Who can help me?... Who? The list of missing is very long.



Houses made of stone do not fall. Nor do they allow debris to get inside. The Pile is a billboard for building stone houses. The rest of the world uses balsa wood and brittle bricks to build houses, but the stones are a testament to geological engineering. Every stone house we pass is missing the roof but the walls are still standing.



The debris field flows to the east and large piles of destruction have gathered on the West side of stalwart trees and the walls made of stone. Rescue crews peel back layers of debris like an onion and with each layer comes the thought that maybe someone could be found alive. Your heart races but more often than not, you find a torn up teddy bear or a dog collar. A marching band uniform. A cowboy hat. A photo album. A piece of a car. And so it goes, pile after pile. Layer after layer.



I hear stories of babies being pulled out of the hospital windows by the tornado. No one has found them, or any of the other patients. You hear this and you realize that you may find one of those new born babies. I don't want to find one. I don't want to find the parts of one, or the whole of one. I don't know if this blinds me or defines my humanity. I don't know if I have the capacity to do this at all.



The volunteer center is at a junior college on the north side of town. A few miles away from The Pile. There is a long line of cars trying to deliver anything and everything to the cause. The cars have have license plates from Wisconsin, Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Georgia. They are people with various skills who felt a strong need to help: Police, Medics, Doctors, The Humane Society, Men on Horses, Men on quads, Semis full of water, Men with grills, People with dog food, cat food, diapers, batteries, water, pillows, toys, clothes. Everyone comes. People who would normally find reasons to stay away from each other are willing to come here and help people they don't know. But there are other people here, People with cars with no tops, no windows, or doors. They are covered in blood and mud. They ask humbly, "Is this where I come for food?" "I'm looking for my dog. Is this where I come to find my dog?"



First impressions are everything.

hey, sorry if this is a repost. this is sickeningly amazing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ouri-town.html

Yeah this has to be one of the stupidest things ever posted here... I am sure my cousins and nieces whom are medic's and RN's from Parsons KS really feel the same way when they have been recovering bodies for 5 days now...

Jesus some of the stuff people say in times like this are just ****ing amazing...

..............

http://www.mo.gov/05222011joplintorn...=joplintornado

Contains a link to unaccounted for individuals, etc.

KOLR10 and KSFX on facebook:
Missouri DPS reports the 232 missing in #Joplin is down to 156 today. 6 on the list yesterday are now confirmed dead. 2 were duplicates, 22 new missing persons reports filed since yesterday for a net change of 76. Details coming up on KOLR10 News at Midday

Mind-boggling.

Wow. Unbeleivable.

****!!!!!!!!!!My former Spanish instructor at MSSU is still on the unaccounted list

I see one on the list that is deceased, but isn't marked as such.

Wow. Both excellently written stories, but so difficult to read. I had to stop in the middle of both of them to ....uh, deal with my allergies, yeah.

I don't think any of us are able to comprehend the shear power and destruction that this tornado created. Only those that lived through it will ever know.

I picked a bad weekend to move.

1. It's a popular weekend for moving.
2. With the tornado in Joplin, a lot of people are nabbing up boxes from grocery stores and such to box stuff up to take down.