I Will Survive

Just wanted to give everyone a brief update.  I’m still waiting to get my internet service back at home so I can write a longer update, but for now, I’m putting it down on a physical journal so that I won’t forget all of the details, and there are a lot of them.

I’m a resident of Joplin, MO. On Sunday, May 22, at 5:45 p.m., I experienced true fear as an F5 tornado demolished a residential area two blocks from my house while I shook in my closet with our dog.  The one thing I will never forget is the sound, the sound of horror, the sound of the gates of Hell being thrown wide open.  I never want to hear that sound again.

Our home is well intact.  Aside from a couple of broken windows, a blown down fence, and shattered rear glass on both of our vehicles, we received merely a scratch.  If I walk two blocks south, homes are missing their roof, or are vaporized all together.

No pictures or video can adequately depict what you see first-hand here. No words can fully explain the heartbreak that I feel when I drive through this critically wounded city, or the confusion and disorientation as I try to navigate this alien landscape as I realize that all of the landmarks I used to orient myself have been wiped off of the face of the earth. 

Physically, I am okay.  Emotionally, I feel like a piece of my soul has been stolen. Sucked up in the vortex and cast countless miles east of here.

There is hope in this city, as volunteers flood in to offer aid and support. 

That’s all for now. Myself, Tina, and Elvis (the dog) are alive, but in some cases, not well.

Will update the whole experience as soon as I can.

Brian.