As they sat in a corner office at the Houston Medical Complex, doctors Shaun Flaim and Gretchen Price were numb. It had been less than 24 hours since they left Joplin. The images of the tornado-torn community were still hard to digest.
“There just really isn’t any way to describe it — even after being there and seeing it,” Price said Tuesday morning. “You can’t really understand that type of destruction.”
As images of the tornado’s massive damage in the southwest Missouri community aired on local television Sunday night, Flaim and Price felt the urge to help. They were close. They are both doctors at Texas County Memorial Hospital. And they had ties to the town. The best man from their wedding is a resident at a Joplin hospital.
Price, who was on call at the emergency room, found a willing substitute. She and Flaim gathered supplies from their offices and hit the road to help. They left Houston around 10 p.m. and arrived at the edge of Joplin around 2 a.m.
“Being as close as we are, I couldn’t imagine staying here and not trying to help out,” Price said. “Once we were able to figure out how to get coverage for our patients here, it made sense to go.”
Neither was prepared for what they were about to see.
“It was catastrophic destruction,” Flaim said. “Everything was leveled for miles. There are big buildings — Walmart, Home Depot, multi-level apartment complexes — you can’t tell any difference between them and other houses. They are a mangled pile of junk on the ground. It is just rubble.”
The massive tornado that ripped through the heart of the city of 50,000 people Sunday evening was the deadliest single twister since the weather service began keeping official records in 1950 and the eighth-deadliest in U.S. history. It cut a three-quarter-mile-wide path through Joplin and damaged as many as 30 percent of its buildings. Officials confirmed 123 had been killed and about 1,500 were still unaccounted for.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service announced that the twister was an EF-5, the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 mph. Scientists said it appeared to be a rare “multivortex” tornado, with two or more small and intense centers of rotation orbiting the larger funnel.
Flaim and Price were two of the many Texas County individuals and organizations rallying to assist Joplin.
Four members of the sheriff’s department arrived in Joplin around 3:30 a.m. Monday. Four City of Houston firefighters and dog handlers from the Region G K-9 team departed around 11 a.m. Tuesday. Chainsaw and feeding teams from the Texas County Baptist Association have been activated and are awaiting assignments.
Both the Houston Area Chamber of Commerce and Do It Center are collecting necessities to be shipped to Joplin. The Animal Shelter of Texas County gathered 300 pounds of dog food, five boxes of bottled water and other supplies to assist displaced pets, shelter manager Marsha Martin said. A semi full of food is en route from Royal Canin, a pet food supplier, at the urging of TASTC.
The Houston pool will open a day earlier than scheduled to raise funds for Joplin. All entry fees collected from 1-6 p.m. Sunday will be sent to tornado victims. Donations and non-perishable goods will also be accepted.
Lt. Melissa Dunn of the Texas County Sheriff’s Department is familiar with Joplin tornadoes. She remembers driving up chat piles as a girl with her grandfather, who was a tornado spotter, to locate storms in the area. None compared to what she witnessed when she arrived with three of her colleagues early Monday morning.
“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Dunn said. “It was total devastation.”
Dunn said she, Sgt. Travis Davis and deputies Phil Viscioni and Dusty Jones initially helped patrol the devastated area. There was no electricity when they arrived. They later worked a perimeter to control crowds and traffic. Homeowners were allowed in the area to search for any remaining belongings.
Dunn has relatives in Joplin and Carl Junction. They were not affected by the tornado.
“The main thing that stood out to me was how nice the people were,” she said. “They just lost everything they owned and yet, they had no bad words to say. They were thanking us for being there and helping. They were just happy to be alive, even though they had nothing left in the world.”
Flaim and Price responded to a plea for additional doctors and nurses. The tornado slammed straight into St. John’s Regional Medical Center, one of the hardest-hit areas in Joplin. The hospital confirmed that five of the dead were patients — all of them in critical condition before the tornado hit. A hospital visitor also was killed.
One of the haunting images Flaim witnessed were body bags being stacked in the back of a Suburban at the hospital. He said there were six of them.
When they arrived in Joplin, Flaim and Price joined other medical personnel at Freeman Hospital, where victims were categorized based on their injuries. They were assigned 12 patients deemed stable enough to wait for medical care but who had not yet been accessed.
With no medical records or safe water, Flaim and Price split the room in half and spent the next 10 hours caring for the dozen victims. Injuries varied in severity. Flaim said he treated one woman who had a significant bruise to her heart and lungs.
“Those are big physical issues,” Flaim said. “But her house is gone and she doesn’t know where her family is. The stuff we were taking care of was very superficial compared to what they’ll be dealing with over the next few months.”
Both Flaim and Price admitted it was difficult to mute their emotions. Price was especially touched by a victim who had lost a child in the tornado. As Price cared for the woman, she received a phone call with the gut-wrenching news that another child was deemed brain dead. A third child was in critical but stable condition at another hospital.
“She’s my age and she has lost two kids and everything she has in one day,” Price said. “I don’t even know how you start to deal with that. You just hurt for her. How do you take care of someone when they’ve gone through that kind of trauma? Her physical injuries are just the tip of what she is dealing with.”
After assisting for several hours at the Red Cross’ emergency shelter on the Missouri Southern State University campus, Flaim and Price returned home. They said additional emergency workers had arrived to assist and many of the victims were stable.
Still weary from an emotional experience, Flaim said he has taken a few moments to digest everything he witnessed in Joplin.
“It helps put things in perspective,” he said. “We all worry about our jobs and salary. I don’t think I heard anyone ask, ‘What happened to my car and big screen TV?’ It was more like, ‘Where’s my son? Is my grandma OK?’
“All the things we spend our entire lives worrying about really don’t matter. It can all disappear really fast.”
Multiple individuals and organizations are set up to assistvictims in Joplin. Here are a few ways:
Donations
–The American Red Cross is accepting donations atredcross-ozarks.com. You can also text “REDCROSS” to 90999.
–The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) is acceptingdonations through the Joplin Tornado Relief Fund site by calling573-443-4523 or texting “Joplin” to 864833. There is zero overheadand 100 percent of donations will go toward relief efforts.
–Assist the United Way’s recovery efforts by texting the wordJOPLIN to 864833. That will trigger a $10 donation, which will beadded to your cell phone bill.
Locally
–The Houston Area Chamber of Commerce is collecting bottledwater, food, blankets, toiletries and clothing (must be in labeledboxes). Items may be dropped off at the chamber office or FirstBaptist Church of Houston by 5 p.m. Thursday.
–The Houston Do It Center is collecting nonperishable food,toiletry items, blankets and water.
–The Houston pool will open from 1-5 p.m. Sunday and donate allproceeds to Joplin. Entry fee is $3 per person. Donations andnonperishable food items will also be accepted.
State
–The University of Missouri is selling “One State. One Spirit.One Mizzou.” tornado relief T-Shirts, and all proceeds from eachshirt sale ($14.95) will go to support the United Way’s United forJoplin campaign. Shirts are being sold online at mutigers.com.
It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was totaldevastation.”