Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the U.S. Army’s chief of state, visited Fort Leonard Wood on Tuesday to visit the Pulaski County installation after a tornado ripped through there on Friday.
“I don’t remember an Army installation getting hit by a natural disaster of this magnitude,” Casey said. “As I went around today … I was just amazed at the resilience of our soldiers and families and amazed at the teamwork, not only on the installation, but from local communities.”
After visiting several areas on post, assessing the damage and discussing pre-plans for recovery operations, Casey’s main goal remained evident: the ongoing safety and support to soldiers and families. “We’re all very lucky that there were no fatalities or serious injuries here, and I’m very thankful for that. Everyone of the families I’ve talked to today said they had been very well-cared for,” he said.
Maj. Gen. David Quantock, commanding general of the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood, reported Saturday that military personnel, civilians, leaders and volunteers within the surrounding community have worked together to make tremendous progress in a very short amount of time.
“Most of the essential services are all back on at Fort Leonard Wood. All of our families that have lost housing are in safe, dry locations right now, so their basic necessities are being taken care of,” he said. “We couldn’t ask for better support from the surrounding community. We always knew we had the greatest community surrounding a military post in the United States and it sure comes through when you have a disaster like we suffered yesterday morning.”
Two persons lost their lives in northwest Dent County and two deaths were reported north of Rolla. No twisters were reported in Texas County; tornado spotters were called to keep an eye on the skies.
Quantock suggested that soldiers being gone on holiday block leave may have prevented any further injuries or fatalities from the tornado. Only four minor injuries were reported, and those people were treated and released. There were no fatalities.
Other contributing factors to low injury count and no fatalities include training, public service announcements on what to do in the event of a tornado, sirens and what the installation coins, “giant voice” or post-wide messages broadcast through speakers located on the installation. The installation had 15 minutes notification that significant weather was imminent, allowing people on the installation to seek cover and most likely saved some lives.
According to Quantock, “The priority is getting people back to some level of normalcy. We’re making sure that all those families that lost everything get their claims filed, so they can start to buy and restructure their lives.
“Then of course we’ve got a mission here, we’ve got 8,000 soldiers getting ready to come back and we’ve got to make sure training facilities are up to standard and safe.”
The general closed the meeting with a final comment, “Everything that’s put in front of you in life is a challenge and you’ve got to figure out something positive about it and overcome the negative – make something positive out of it, and that’s what we plan on doing here.”
A claims center has been set up at Army Community Service, Building 486, phone 573-596-0212.
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