This post is a continuation of my sister Ellen’s email about what happened as a result of the tornado that devastated much of Joplin.
St. John's Hospital after a partial clean-up from the tornado.
The hospital that was destroyed has mobile units set up and is back in business. They have room for about 35 patients and have started doing surgeries.
The hospital just reported that they were keeping all of their employees and continuing to pay them.
[For an excellent article on what happened at St. John’s, read this Sunday Kansas City Star article.]
Our schools sustained over 150 million dollars damage.
Fortunately our school district has insurance that has a $5000 deductible per event.
A fence how surrounds the destroyed Joplin High School.
Next year 11th and 12th grades will go to school in a former Venture store in the mall.Home Depot has a large tent up and is selling outdoor stuff such as building supplies.
How long is the right amount time to not do your regular routine?
Denny didn’t golf for almost two weeks. The country club canceled their 100 year celebration.
Joplin postponed our annual “Boomtown Days” (I know, classy name, huh?).
Our tennis facility is not having their annual professional tennis tournament.
Since the tornado, we have received more love from others than you could imagine.
Several of the big schools in MO, have sent their football teams to help. The KC Royals (a few of the retired ones) served us lunch (along with our grandkids) at Sam’s Club the other day.
Denny said the Cardinals stopped by the boys free baseball clinic today.
Three Louisiana chefs brought seafood and a fiddler. The chefs called themselves "The Taste Buds." "Three Chefs - One Mission" was also on their tee shirts.
Last night we went to a park where three chefs from New Orleans had come here to cook for us. They even brought a fiddle player and band on stage for our entertainment.
The Oklahoma casino so close to Joplin that it has Joplin water and sewer.
The Casino had a benefit concert for Joplin last weekend.
Some of the kids on the south end of town had their baseball equipment destroyed. Some organization donated 250 bats, helmets, shoes and gloves to the kids.
One boy, in the grandkid’s game tonight, broke his glove, and son-in-law Brandon, gave him a new one.
A young girl is knitting elephants for children in Joplin.
I saw in the news today that Brad and Angelina are donating $500,000 to Joplin. Pitt grew up in Springfield, MO which is about an hour away.
Home Depot, Walmart, and our local roofing company, TAMCO, are a few companies that have each donated 1 million dollars. I wonder where all of this money is going.
The governor has been here several times.
Two more days of stories in this series.