Joplin virtually destroyed by tornado

[tk13]

Please post any ways you can donate/give relief to the people in need in Joplin.

DONATE BY PHONE:

You can send $10 to the Red Cross relief efforts by texting "REDCROSS" to 90999

or

Send $10 to the Salvation Army Disaster relief efforts by texting the word “JOPLIN” to 80888

RED CROSS - Volunteer, donate to disaster victims, donate to a blood drive

http://www.redcross.org/

UNITED WAY - Donate to relief efforts

http://www.uwheartmo.org/

COMMUNITY BLOOD CENTER LOCATIONS - Give blood for those in need

Administration Offices & Donor Center
4040 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64111
toll free: 1-888-647-4040
816-753-4040

Blue Springs Center
1124 W. 40 Highway
Blue Springs, MO 64015
816-224-0728

Gladstone Center
7265 N. Oak Trafficway
Gladstone, MO 64118
816-468-9813

St. Joseph Center
3122 Frederick
St. Joseph, MO 64506
toll free: 1-800-725-6791
816-232-6791

Overland Park Center
Times Square Shopping Center
10568 Metcalf Ave.
Overland Park, KS 66210
913-383-6800

Olathe Center
1463 E. 151st St.
Olathe, KS 66062
913-829-3724

Topeka Center
800 SW Lane
Topeka, KS 66606
toll free: 1-800-279-5943
785-233-0195

http://www.savealifenow.org/services...-locations.php

VOLUNTEER IN PERSON - Volunteer efforts are being coordinated through Missouri Southern State University.
Many people have contacted the City of Joplin to volunteer assistance to the victims of the storm. ALL citizen volunteers should report to the Recreation Center at Missouri Southern State University. Volunteers’ services are appreciated, but to be effective, will need to be coordinated through this centralized location. Citizens are reminded that the American Red Cross, in cooperation with the City, has set up a shelter at Missouri Southern State University in the Leggett & Platt Center.

http://www.joplinmo.org/article.cfm?AID=966

Relief coordinators Facebook page - Get the word out on fundraisers:

Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery--
If you are coordinating a fundraiser in your area, please send information to joplintornadorecovery@gmail.com so that it can be posted as an event [on the Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery page on facebook]. Remember to include date, time and location, along with any images.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/joplinmo?sk=wall

Columbia area blood donors needed:

A blood drive will be held 2-6 pm at Achieve Balance Chiropractic in Columbia at 3901 S. Providence. If you are wanting to help Joplin, this is a great way to do it.

Here's some info I got from my work e-mail

Message relay from Troop F @ 2120 hours:

In reference to the SEMA Incident the command post is currently operational in the Troop D Joplin area. Due to an overwhelming number of Volunteers, SEMA officials are not currently requesting any further outside assistance until further notice.

More relief organizations:

Missourians interested in volunteering to assist should call (800) 427-4626 or 2-1-1. Those with medical skills interested in volunteering should go to: https://www.showmeresponse.org

Missourians wishing to make donations to help with the relief effort can go to http://www.sema.dps.mo.gov/recover/donations.asp or call (800) 427-4626 or 2-1-1.

Residents affected by the tornado who wish to notify their friends and family that they are safe should go to: https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php. Friends and family who would like to check on their loved ones in the affected area can use the same site.

Missourians who need disaster information, shelter information or referrals are urged to call 2-1-1. The United Way's 211 service number is now available for most areas in Missouri. In areas where the 211 number is not operational, citizens can call 800-427-4626.

United Way of the Ozarks in Springfield is waiting to hear plans from the American Red Cross – Greater Ozarks Chapter regarding mobilizing volunteer efforts. As soon as it has confirmation on how and where to volunteer, it will release that information.

If you would like to help with a monetary donation, please send your checks to United Way of the Ozarks, 320 N. Jefferson Ave., Springfield, MO 65806, marked JOPLIN TORNADO DISASTER RELIEF and all funds received will be distributed to the United Way of Southwest Missouri (Joplin).

Emergency blood drive this afternoon - Monday 5/23

The Greater Kansas City chapter of the American Red Cross will hold an emergency blood drive this afternoon to provide blood for those injured in the tornados over the weekend.

The blood drive will be from 2 to 7 p.m. in the Cass County Room at 211 W. Armour Blvd.

Meanwhile, the Community Blood Center is requesting area residents to donate blood this week to help support the rescue efforts in Joplin.

The blood bank has shipped 15 units of blood to the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. Local hospitals are performing surgeries on some of the victims and the need for blood will increase as the rescue efforts continue.

To find a mobile blood drive, go to www.safealifenow.org or call 1-888-647-4040. Donors can also go to one of Community Blood Center’s seven Neighborhood Donations Centers.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/23...afternoon.html

Chiefs to hold bottled water drive at Arrowhead - Tuesday 5/24 and Wednesday 5/25

In response to the tragic tornadoes that touched down in Joplin, Mo. and Reading, Kan. this weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs will contribute $35,000 to disaster-relief efforts. Additionally, they and their media partners are teaming with the Salvation Army – Midland Division to hold a bottled-water drive at Arrowhead Stadium for individuals in Kansas City to assist victims in the tornado-ravaged areas. The Chiefs will also be accepting financial donations for Heart-to-Heart International.

Bottled-water donations will be accepted in Lot C on the east side of Arrowhead Stadium Tuesday from noon until 7 p.m. and Wednesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Those wishing to provide donations of bottled water may use any entrance to the stadium and may learn more from Chiefs broadcast partners KCTV5, 101 The Fox KCFX and Sports Radio 810 WHB, who have joined the Chiefs in supporting this important effort.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/article...9-fc840ea9fece

Springfield school district fundraiser and donation drive:

Springfield Public Schools students are finding ways to raise money and collect supplies to assist local charities with relief efforts for families in Joplin who were affected by the May 22 tornado. A Joplin school nurse has shared with SPS staff that there is an urgent need for water, toothbrushes, toothpaste and food.

http://springfieldpublicschoolsmo.or...id_Joplin.aspx

Other resources for those looking to contribute:

The following charities are accepting donations of money and relief items:

American Red Cross
United Way
Skaggs
Greater Ozarks Red Cross
Dillons
Springfield Jaycees
OTC
Springfield Public Schools
Springfield Paper Company
Edward Jones
Salvation Army
Great Southern
Area banks
Habitat Springfield
Community Blood Centers

http://www.news-leader.com/article/2...relief-efforts

Originally Posted by luv

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?not...17118671706061

Great page to go to in order to see what faundraisers and collections are going on in your area (in Missouri anyway).

Originally Posted by luv

Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery:
The City has established the following phone numbers for people interested in donating their time or items to aid in the recovery effort:
Individual volunteers wanting to donate their time should call 417-625-3543
Volunteers wanting to donate items can call 417-625-3542
Volunteer groups (churches, businesses, etc.) should call 314-623-9991

[Red Beans]

Originally Posted by DMAC

What was the building right to the west of the high school? Was it like a community college or something? I cant remember.

Franklin Technical School. Through my college years I lived at 24th and Kentucky St, right up the road...

[ShortRoundChief]

Originally Posted by luv

I have a ton of clothes I could donate. I was going to take them to a collection site here, but they were only taking new clothes. WTF?

I heard the mall at this point is a collection center, but it's not the only one. I've heard dav was giving away clothing, but I am not sure.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Alton deFlat

Thanks Donger! That is the high school near the bottom of the picture with the ball fields. The top of the photo is west. The east/west road to the right is 20th street, with Mian Street being that larger north/south road near the top.

How wide is that path? It's 2.5 blocks as far as I can tell.

[DMAC]

Originally Posted by Donger

How wide is that path? It's 2.5 blocks as far as I can tell.

WAAY more than that.

[MOhillbilly]

4sq miles by my math.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by DMAC

WAAY more than that.

Really? I count 2.5 max width.

[DMAC]

Originally Posted by Donger

Really? I count 2.5 max width.

Well, that map is a little deceiving. The part that looks like the path is really just the ground zero area where EVERYTHING is gone. Beyond that is devastation on a lesser scale (think "typical" tornado destruction").

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by frazod

This is a link to an interactive map of the damage area. Really puts things in perspective.

http://www.news-leader.com/interacti...Tornado-Damage

I posted this a couple of days ago. The only comprehensive map of the affected area I've seen.

[DaFace]

For what it's worth, this Google Map shows the damage areas in quite a bit more detail than the above.

[luv]

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/joplinmo

Just wanted to post this. I probably haven't seen five minutes of news coverage on this with work, school, gym, and lack of tv at my place, but I've been able to keep up with needs, numbers, and general information just by liking this facebook page. Whoever is running it is doing a tremendous job of keeping people up-to-date.

[gblowfish]

Tom Uhlenbrock with the Missouri DNR posted some photos here:

http://www.mo.gov/05222011joplintornadoes/

Go to the bottom of the page for the photos.

Tom is best friends with one of my good friends.

[ShortRoundChief]

Originally Posted by Donger

How wide is that path? It's 2.5 blocks as far as I can tell.

The school complex itself was easy 21/2 blocks.

[Great Expectations]

Originally Posted by Donger

How wide is that path? It's 2.5 blocks as far as I can tell.

I've been through it several times, I'd say it is 7-9 blocks. Not all parts are the same width.

[gblowfish]

Guest Column in yesterday's Joplin Globe:

R. Duane Graham, guest columnist:
Walk to ballpark reveals Joplin’s Hiroshima

By R. Duane Graham Special to The Globe The Joplin Globe Wed May 25, 2011, 06:28 AM CDT

JOPLIN, Mo. —
Sunday evening, before the onset of the cruel aftershocks that pummeled our devastated city with remorseless storms and rescue-impeding rains, my youngest son and I undertook a journey to a destination he — a high school student and baseball player—seemed desperate to see.
He wanted to go to his school.
He had heard it had been destroyed and he wanted to see for himself, see if his home away from home — the school and the ballpark — were still there.
Just an hour after the historic tornado hit, we began our walk to Joplin High School. We stepped over thick, once-pulsating power lines; we listened to a natural gas main hiss an awful hiss as it filled the air with that unmistakable odor and imminent danger; we stepped on and over shards of civilization — the wood, glass, and other fabric that make up a life-home; we passed by pummeled, twisted sheet metal no longer confined to driveways or cowering in garages, but like wildly wounded or dead tin soldiers on some strange and dreadful battlefield, they testified to the power of a fearsome and formidable opponent, in this case a monstrous whirlwind of nature.
In short, we walked through the rubble — how terrible it seems to call it that — and we watched the landscape, once so familiar, disorient us with its new unfamiliarity, the product of an appalling but natural disregard for our pattern-seeking and sense-making needs as human beings.
And that smell.
The stale smell that no CNN report can convey, no matter how detailed or how crowded with images. That wet-wood, musty, gassy smell that democratizes the neighborhoods, the poor and the middle-class and beyond, as it wafts through the scene.
And the sounds.
The unrelenting sirens, of all kinds, with their Doppler effects and with their piercing seriousness. But the most amazing sound of all was the quasi-silence, the eerie effect of the shocked and shaken as they made their way to loved ones, or to be loved.
And then we turned the corner and there it was. Our Hiroshima.
The school, and the surrounding landscape, was now a victim of nature’s Enola Gay, which dropped a Fujita-5 tornado in the middle of our city, and in the heart of the familiar, and in the education commons, the place where rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black and white, came together to learn, to socialize — and to play high school baseball.
From the elevated soccer field that overlooks the ballpark, the inspired geometry of the diamond was still discernible, even though the place had been leveled and the ground was littered with pieces of the neighborhood. A four-wheel drive pickup made its way across the outfield to get to the street beyond, the fence no longer an obstacle, no longer a fence.
To the west, the houses were gone. The houses whose windows and roofs had been the targets of years of foul balls, duds bounding off the bats of too-hopeful Major League aspirants. Those familiar houses were gone. All of them, and all behind them, and behind them.
And to the south, all gone. And to the east.
And the boy, becoming by necessity that moment more manly, spotted a figure below, standing near the field, behind what used to be the visitor’s dugout.
“Coach Harryman!” he shouted.
And the stunned coach, whose attachment to the field and school is measured not just by years but by a career, turned around and greeted us, making his way up the hill to where we stood, his tearful wife soon by his side. We shared our disbelief, exchanging inquiries about loved ones, standard practice around here these days.
Then it was time to get back home, before streetlight-less darkness made getting back home even more dangerous, and getting back home now even more necessary, after the sights we had seen.

[DMAC]

One thing that kept going through my mind....What the hell are they going to do with all the debris? Dump it in the ocean or something?