JOPLIN, Mo. — Tom Hoening nearly fell to his knees in tears as he sifted through debris Wednesday. Not a single wall of his home was left standing after an EF-5 tornado ripped through this Missouri city in nine minutes Sunday night, killing more than 120 people.
Hoening was digging through dirt, tree limbs and what was left of his home in hopes of finding just one item — a pocket watch his wife gave him on their wedding day. He took a brief break only when volunteers from Northwest Arkansas offered him water and a snack.
Hoening turned away for a moment and apologized for his tears.
“I feel so helpless,” he said. “I want to thank everyone and all, but I’ll never be able to say enough.”
The volunteers, members of the Northwest Arkansas nonprofit organization 3 Bags in 2 Days, delivered encouragement cloaked in toiletries, diapers, sports drinks, snack foods and water. The group gave away bags filled with basic necessities, said founder Chloe Seal. Seal of Bentonville and seven other volunteers with 3 Bags in 2 Days distributed 150 bags along with extra bottled water and snacks to dozens of people Wednesday.
Mary Wier, Hoening’s neighbor, received several bags from the group as she dug through the remnants of her home. Wier and her husband spent Sunday night hunkered in a bathtub as the tornado pulled houses from their foundations, ripped 100-year-old trees from the ground and tossed vehicles as if they were miniature toy cars.
Wier said she normally chuckled at the thought of tornadoes. Sunday was the first time she had taken cover. She only did it, she said, because her daughter called her on the telephone and asked her to. She and her husband huddled in a hallway closet as the tornado passed, ripping the home’s roof off and turning its frame into matchsticks.
She tried to make sense of the experience after search and rescue teams pulled two of her neighbors’ bodies from beneath their homes.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “But it could have been worse. We could have all been dead.”
Volunteers have appeared in Joplin each day since the tornado to help sort through the rubble and feed, clothe and support the survivors. Those volunteers, such as Seal and her friends with 3 Bags in 2 Days, have helped residents pick themselves up, Wier said.
She gathered the bags from the group before returning to work digging beneath the ruins for antiques and handmade quilts.
Kayla Spaulding of Bentonville, a member of 3 Bags in 2 Days, surveyed the devastation as she stepped over downed power lines and walked past a single white, leather baby bootie.
“I don’t think this is going to hit me until after I get home and am by myself for a while,” Spaulding said. “I just want to make (each of the tornado victims) feel loved.”
Eight members of 3 Bags in 2 Days carried the 150 bags of necessities and another $450 worth of snacks and medical supplies and $500 in diapers, baby wipes, bottled water, sports drinks and snacks, said Everett W. Coonfield II, a member of the group. All the items were donated to the group. The 150 bags were put together Tuesday night in Fayetteville.
Bags and supplies that weren’t hand-delivered to victims by Seal, Spaulding, Coonfield and the others were donated to Wildwood Baptist Church, the only standing structure within a mile of Hoening’s and Wier’s homes. The church became a makeshift emergency room the night of the storm and has operated as a first-aid clinic, shelter and supply distribution house since, said Jordynn Poe, a member of the church’s youth department.
The donation from 3 Bags in 2 Days will help the church continue to provide support to tornado victims, Poe said.
“If we were just doing this on our own, I don’t think we would have made it to today,” Poe said.
Some of the diapers donated by 3 Bags in 2 Days went into immediate use Wednesday when Jeff and Gail Parks of Carthage, Mo., picked them up for a family friend who lost everything in the storm.
“This is a God thing. There’s no other way to describe it,” Gail Parks said as she loaded a plastic bin with supplies for their friend’s 7-month old baby.
Seal and the others from 3 Bags in 2 Days were satisfied as they took one last look at the heap of supplies they delivered to the church before heading back to Northwest Arkansas.
“I want to come back again and do some actual work,” said Dwight Baxter of Rogers. “I’d really like to get out and get into helping them clean up.”
Going back to the storm-ravaged city is not a question for Jason Riddler of Rogers.
“I know I’m coming again,” he said. I just don’t know if it is going to be Thursday or this weekend.”
The two friends sat in the front of a pickup pulling a trailer and discussed all the things to bring with them when they return. The No. 1 thing was work gloves.