Editor’s Note:
Northwest Arkansas sent help northward less than an hour after a massive, EF-5 tornado tore through Joplin on May 22, 2011. Rescue personnel, supplies and volunteers from the region descended on the devastated town ahead of later waves of help.
Long after the crisis broke, however, a steady stream of volunteers made trips, and individual differences, over the past year.
NWAMedia talked to four people about how and why they got involved, what they did and what the experience meant for them.
One Title at a Time
Bookstore Gathered Literature for Joplin
Most of the donations came from local people, through the front door. The delivery driver, however, had one big box waiting out back. The sender’s address read New York City.
Jo Boucher signed for it gratefully, wondering where she’d store it until the next scheduled pickup, still several days away. The delivery man helped Boucher stack the box in a small storeroom among others from places as diverse as South Dakota, Tulsa and Lowell.
Each box held piles of books, from Dr. Seuss to Tom Sawyer, John Steinbeck to Harry Potter. Eventually, they’d end up in classroom libraries of Joplin schools. A direct hit by a twister destroyed Joplin High School and damaged several other schools.
“These teachers had no books, nothing left, and a lot of it they’d originally paid for out of their own pockets,” said Boucher, manager of the Friendly Bookstore in Rogers. “There’s no way we could recreate an entire school library, but helping restock the classrooms we thought we could handle.”
As the books poured in — along with workbooks, dictionaries, posters, flashcards and other classroom sundries — Boucher began to wonder if space wasn’t the biggest limitation.
“We thought we’d set up a drop point where local teachers could donate duplicate books they didn’t need, or parents could bring in novels their kids had finished,” Boucher said. “Apparently, we were more popular than we thought.”
Bookstore volunteers sorted, tagged and boxed the incoming donations, and local teachers traveled each week to deliver the books to Joplin school officials.
“There was still a lot going on in Joplin, but we knew we had a deadline,” Boucher said. “The tornado hit right at the end of the school year, and we wanted to help them restock in time for the beginning of school in the fall. It was a nine-week push.”
Nobody tracked the number of titles, total pounds or a list of donors, but by late August, school officials in Joplin reported that some classrooms enjoyed better selections than before the tornado, Boucher said.
“I’m glad we could help take care of at least one specific need, because there were so many needs there,” she said.
“I think a lot of people understood that, which just a little different luck, it could easily have been Rogers instead of Joplin.”
Multiple-Trip Methodists
Church Group Cleared Tornado Debris
All an evangelical church needs sometimes is a few Methodists who can work a paintbrush.
Russell Riggs jumped at the opportunity to work inside after 18 Wednesdays in the summer heat.
Riggs and a crew of about 20 volunteers from First United Methodist Church in Rogers made the trek to Joplin many times in the months following the tornado. Trained in demolition and refuse removal, they’d helped to clear what remained of homes and businesses along the twister’s path.
“It was grunt work, and you always wondered who lived there, what had happened to them and if they were OK,” Riggs said. “We went into one apartment complex, and they assigned us a 40-foot by 40-foot square to clear. It took us all day.”
The tornado leveled some homes, leaving few possessions. A mess of clothing, furniture, roofing and framing littered other houses. One volunteer found a tin box filled with old coins under the remains of a collapsed shed.
“That box could have been under there for decades, who knows,” Riggs said. “It just made us wonder even more what the stories were behind these people.”
The group took regular breaks and tried to stay hydrated, a difficult proposition in the heat, Riggs said.
“One of the things you never think about is that the tornado took out all the trees. There was no shade anywhere,” he said. “It was blistering hot.”
An evangelical church in south Joplin served as their rally point and lunch stop most Wednesdays, but despite their many trips, Riggs and several other volunteers don’t recall the exact name of the church. They do remember that volunteers had stripped the main sanctuary pews and converted the house of worship into a staging area.
As the debris of Joplin disappeared, Riggs and several others drove north for the 19th time. Instead of setting out from the Joplin church, though, they remained there, painting walls and bolting down pews to return the building to its own congregation.
Back to School
Former Joplin Teacher Helps Out
Shawn Quinlan saw her old classroom at Joplin High School from a nearby street.
“You’re not supposed to see inside a classroom from the road, but the walls were literally gone,” she said. “These were my friends, co-workers, former students, and everything was devastated.”
Quinlan teaches English at Bentonville High School, but spent her first six years as a teacher at Joplin High. The tornado demolished the school.
Before the academic year could begin again in the fall, schools had to be rebuilt and repaired, supplies gathered and distributed, and phone calls made. Lots of phone calls.
“Half the students in the school district lived in the damage zone,” Quinlan said. “We had to find out who was coming back in the fall, where they were living and which schools they’d be attending. And it had to be done in a matter of weeks.”
Working out of the undamaged North Middle School, Quinlan — along with several other volunteers, most of them teachers as well — helped locate students and families, sort and coordinate donated classroom supplies and backpacks, and generally get students, parents and teachers ready for what promised to be a tough school year.
“I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, so I thought I’d seen the damage and the aftermath of tornados before,” Quinlan said.
“This was way beyond anything I knew, both in terms of damage from the storm and the huge undertakings to rebuild not just the high school, but the whole town.”
Close Enough to Help
Football Team Lended Strength
Zach Hocker remembers the television coverage of a tornado that tore through Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27, 2011. He wished he could do something to help. Tuscaloosa, though, was too far away.
Not Joplin. Not after May 22.
On an early June morning, Hocker and more than a dozen of his Razorback football teammates climbed onto a bus for the 90 minute ride north. An EF-5 twister had torn a path through the heart of Joplin on a Sunday evening less than two weeks earlier.
“They were glad to see us. As soon as they heard who we were, they found plenty for us to do. Strong backs were in demand,” Hocker said.
Hocker, the starting kicker, isn’t a big guy, but some of the others are.
“We went to one of the distribution centers, and there was no shortage of things they needed lifted, moved or carried,” Hocker said. “That might have been a challenge for some volunteers, but not for a bunch of guys who play SEC football.”
Looking back, the trip could have been a form of welcome, Hocker said. Several months after the Joplin tornado, the University of Missouri — located about 100 miles northeast of Joplin — announced it would join the Southeastern Conference.
“When Tuscaloosa got hit, we obviously thought about the Alabama players, about what it would mean to their team, but we couldn’t do much to help,” Hocker said. “Joplin being as close as it is, we knew we could make an impact, help somebody else, our neighbors. And now they’re our neighbors in conference too.”
The Razorback volunteers spent just a day — a long one— in Joplin before piling back in the bus for the ride home.
“It was quiet,” Hocker said. “There was a lot of emotion, and physically, it was as hard as any day of practice.”