Day 2 Joplin MO
June 7, 2011
Today we began our assistance with a different kind of help. In retrospect, I would have to say that disaster management is in fact, a disaster. There are so many different organizations with differing services that what ends up happening is confusion, delay, inefficiencies, and frustration. Federal organizations such as FEMA have their purpose while State, local ,non-profit, and faith based organizations have theirs...and never the twain shall meet. When planning our trip to Joplin, our planner coordinated with Southern Missouri University that is located in Joplin, MO.Through them Volunteers of America brings in their troop of people to organize clean up in the various neighborhoods and coordinate some relief services with other organizations such as the Salvation Army. On our first day in Joplin, one half of the team was sent to neighborhoods to sift through rubble and debris while the other half went to the Salvation Army to help distribute clothing, food, and personal care items. Our second day was quite different in that we were all assigned the same task, cleaning up debris in one of the outlying neighborhoods. We were told to arrive no later than 7:15 AM (which we did) and then promptly waited around 1 & 1/2 hrs before we were loaded up into small yellow school bus vans and transported to an area where the tornado began to dissipate. In essence this is where much of the debris was deposited as the tornado ran out of gas. This area was once heavily forested and on private land. The work assigned to us by the Ecology Corps was to aid in cutting down damaged limbs and fallen trees and remove all of the debris left over by the storm. Easier said than done. Imagine a home smashed to smithereens, whirled around in a giant blender, exploding out of its container, and left strewn out hither and yon. That's what we were picking up bit by bit, piece by piece. Shingles, siding, tar paper, two by fours, linoleum, insulation, concrete blocks,fiber glass, foam, a Tupperware lid but no bowl, etc. The building blocks of what makes a home. In some cases 1/3 of a roof blew off and landed in that now decimated forest. What did survive however were the ticks, chiggers, ants, and snakes. Oh my word, us Denverites were not prepared for that one, physically or emotionally. In total I think there were around 50 ticks removed from all of us. I did not have any (that I know of ) but then I have rather poor vision without my glasses or contacts.
The good news of course is that there isn't any known presence of Lyme Disease in MO. God grants us small favors in a variety of way.
As I was picking up various debris I came across a small red plastic ball, the kind you might see at one of those in-door playgrounds where kids (and some adults) go jumping and diving into a bunch of colorful balls. Way out in the middle of no where was this virtually unscathed plastic ball devoid of it's owner! Other instances of random weirdness include the library of a destroyed church where really the only wall left standing was a small library where all of the books were neatly arranged on the shelves, left untouched. I never did get to see the titles of those books but if I were to surmise what they might be titled it would include such tomes as :The house that God built, don't mess with me; St. Peter's guide to building indestructible structures; The Rapture, a day late 5/22/11. Another church was left mostly intact, the roof and 3 walls, but the whole back wall was totally obliterated and it was made of concrete.
As we assisted in this massive clean up effort with at least 50 other volunteers we began to reassess our situation. Our goal, coming out on this service mission was to serve others, not necessarily organizations. Our local connections here in Joplin were telling us of all kinds of people who needed help but were deferring that help because to them " we're not doing as bad as others". These self-less acts spurred us to re-think our mission and begin to deviate from the norm. As it was explained to us by an over-burdened Ecology Corps volunteer, liability suits prevented them from just sending people out into affected neighborhoods unless the home owner signed a waiver. Sure, we got that part as looting was a problem here and these overwrought people don't want to be bombarded by a bunch of strangers while they try to salvage what they can. But our case was different. We had a connection to the local residents and could get permission to help clear their yards of fallen trees, parts of their home, and anything else that blew into and stayed in their yard. So that's what we did. We went to one home in the afternoon. This majestic home that sits on a large corner lot lost most of its 40 trees. That's a lot of lumber to have to move. An outside shed was destroyed, 1/3 of the roof of the home was torn off, Christmas decorations and broken flower pots were mixed together amongst the rubble. This was what we came for; the direct human connection of making a difference in people's lives because they mattered. Because we had already put in a very full morning and afternoon in 95 degree heat with almost matching humidity, we quit work around 4 PM with the promise to return the next day to complete the job. Thoroughly exhausted, filthy, and drenched clear through my t-shirt, tank top and jeans, I felt like I'd gotten dressed in clothes that had not completed the dry cycle in my dryer at home. Despite all of that, it was a good day. Fate is indeed fickle and often leaves us scratching our heads wondering how or why something occurred as it did. And yet, at other times we can see the direction in which we are heading and if it's not of our choosing, make course directions to set us back on the correct tract.
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