Today was my first day back in Joplin after a year's absence. Oh my, the things this "Show Me" state has accomplished during this tumultuous year. 1.3 million cubic yards of debris has been removed and there are signs of rebuilding everywhere. Our merry band of Regis volunteers showed up at the Rebuild Joplin offices to hear a short orientation, divided into different work, parties, and start our work day off into the unknown.
During the orientation we learned some amazing facts about the number of volunteer hours (over 800,000) thus far from over 100,000 volunteers. Even as we were receiving our short orientation, we saw numerous groups of volunteers from all over continuing to stream in for what ever work assignments needed to be accomplished for that day. Our wonderful volunteer Amanda who conducted the orientation is a Joplin native. She related a very chilling story of being here the day the tornado hit, where she was, and what occurred during those horrendous 20 or so minutes during the storm.
My first discovery of the day, was when Amanda was explaining about what happened just after the tornado left. Traditional phone lines were down, so she relied on texting and Facebook to communicate with family and friends. Who knew? Well, maybe 30 somethings and younger did but being as old as I am I can honestly admit it would never have occurred to me to fire up my Facebook site to contact family members to see how they were. As my siblings are almost as old as I am, they probably wouldn't have considered it either. Clearly, there are a lot more undiscovered uses to Facebook that I had first imagined. As an educator I'm constantly seeing information about using social media for the classroom, but using Facebook as a means of vital communication after a disaster has very far reaching implications.
My second discovery of the day has to do with butterflies and angels. No, its not a country and western song title, but it could be. Apparently small children throughout Joplin saw or felt butterflies or angels protecting them and their families during the height of the storm. One small child reported being held down by a butterfly while her daddy was let go. Another older child in an unrelated story experienced being seeing angels all over the area holding people down during the tornado. As more reports came in from children being interviewed, depending on their religious upbringing, the saviors were either angels or butterflies. Butterflies are now becoming the cities symbol of recovery as murals painted all over town on surviving buildings have prominent butterflies as part of the backdrop.
My third discovery was an amazing hospital administrator who is both a Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer relate the utterly amazing story of St. John's Mercy Hospital and its response to the community after taking a direct hit from the F 5 category hospital. I was utterly captivated as she reported that she too resorted to texting and Facebook to communicate with her children, family, and hospital staff as she raced to get back to Joplin after abandoning a trip to Dublin Ireland.
My last discovery of the day, while not nearly as dramatic as the first three, was that I could become a competent mudder. We were assigned to work in a woman's home that was damaged a year ago in the storm. After viewing her small home this single mother and grandmother finally admitted needing help. To begin with, her home is older, thus not meeting current building code standards so there is not just reconstruction needed, but serious upgrading as well. Our team of 2 electricians and a carpenter was rounded out by me, general dogsbody, and one of the administrative assistants in pharmacy who has experience doing dry wall work. So, while the electricians were trying to get power restored to the home (the power had to be shut off last week so that a new electrical box could be installed that was up to code) and the carpenter was working on installing some new windows, my pharmacy admin/dry waller was showing me how to mud and sand the newly installed dry wall patches to match the existing wall textures. I don't think I'm ready to change career fields, but it's always good to know that if I needed another job skill I have one. I probably have to put in a lot more hours though before I could even consider putting it on my resume. We also painted the ceilings and walls of the newly built room and hopefully in a very short time, this family can have their home back, in better than before storm condition.
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