Aftermath – The Heart of Joplin

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These photos were taken last night.  I’ve also heard many many stories and it is upsetting that people are Price Gouging and trying to take advantage of these people who have lost everything.  A bunch of people banded together to just go help people dig out, but then there are those who were charging $500 for helping.

One guy was charging $500 and the Jasper Co Special Road district wound up in his area, he was like don’t clean up our area, we’re under contract for those.  They said ok that’s fine.  Then a guy walked out of the house, talked to the JCRD guy and found out they were just trying to help.  The guy was like well will you take care of this for me?  and JCRD said, we’re not dealing with that man, the guy said, you leave that man to me.  So just as JCRD was finishing up the other crew came back from lunch and started chewing them out and they left and the guy took care of the other crew.

Then a group from my company went around to help.  A little old lady asked how much they were charging when they asked if they could help her and they were like, ma’am we’re just trying to help.  She was like oh ok and helped them out.  And then all the people selling or renting are trying to jack up prices.  Luckily the state stepped in there.  Come on people seriously?  And my fave comment about that is, well the government & Fema are paying for it.  Um… Hello… the government is paying for it with tax dollars… aka your tax dollars.  Ok sorry I’m off my soap box… people don’t think sometimes.  So on with the photos… **Again another Photo Overload. Even more than the previous post today**

Also please keep Springfield Massachusetts in your prayers today as well.  They are used to Extreme cold and snow, not tornadoes!

This is driving down 20th Street headed into Joplin.  This is where the Tornado kind of fizzled out and went across the highway.

More of the same area.

Same area but to the north

Still on 20th but I can’t even remember exactly where but still in the general area as previous photos.

This is starting to get close to the new school that was just built.

And here’s the new school.  They’ve had to do work to it and it was just recently finished.  
**please remember we were driving down the road, I was not driving, so my photos might be a little blurry, I’m sorry!**

Still on 20th but before you get to Duquesne

Same as previous

More of the same.

on 20th almost to Duquesne

same as previous

This is just west of Duquesne now.  The man on the left side of the road lost most of his cows and what weren’t killed through the tornado he had to put the rest down.  He also had a very nice old barn, although it was falling in, it’s gone now.

This is on the right side of the road (or to the North) on 20th.

This is getting close to where some storage units were and the Pepsi company. 

This is all that’s left.  It looks like someone tried to blow up Joplin with a bomb.  It’s unreal!

This was where the Pepsi plant was.

Same general area as previous.  There aren’t really landmarks to know for sure.

This is what’s left of Home Depot at 20th & Rangeline

Now you see that building right behind the Empire trucks, Home Depot has made a make-shift building to sell lumber out of, so that is there “store” for now.

Sitting on 20th looking North at Range Line.  Here on the corner used to be a tire and lube spot.

That is what’s left of Jim Bob’s Steakhouse.

Just more of the rubble on 20th.

Still driving West on 20th.

That concrete building there… that’s what’s left of one of the banks… the vault.  That’s all that’s left.

More houses.

What’s left of Dillon’s Grocery Store.

Still on 20th.

This is all unreal!  These photos aren’t even showing you what it looks like.

This is about where I went and bought stock or else where I had my taxes done.

What’s left of Joplin High School.

Another shot of Joplin High School.

That was Franklin Technical Center.  It actually caught on fire after the tornado went through but there was nothing that could be done about it but let it burn and make sure no one was inside.

Another shot of Joplin High School.

The housing around Joplin High School.

I think we’re on Indiana now headed toward 26th which is South.
This is at the corner of Indiana & 26th.

Now we’re on 26th.  This was all housing.

Headed toward the Hospital (west) on 26th.

I can’t remember if this was a house or apartments…

We’re approaching Main Street on 26th.

There in the distance, that big building is St. John’s Hospital.

This is at Main Street & 26th.  it is the old J-Town building.

And as you can see on this side of the road once stood a car wash.

I can’t even remember what was here… housing maybe, but we’re still headed west on 26th st.

More housing.

This is what’s left of Irving Elementary School.

More Irving Elementary School… or what’s left…

That is St. Johns.

One of the doctors was missing from here, I heard (might be a rumor, haven’t read it yet) that they found him in Aurora, Mo, about 45 miles away.  They ID’ed him because he still had his name badge on him.

The parking lot around St. J.

Now we’re headed west on 26th still headed toward Shifferdecker.

You can’t even imagine what this looks like.

They said as an estimate that 8,000 homes were lost (that includes apartments as 1 a piece) and 18,000 vehicles were lost in this tornado.  So far the death toll is 142.

This is on 32nd & McClellan looking at St.J from the other side.  This is more over by Freeman.

um… I forget what this was or where we were, but in that general area as previous.

Now we’re headed East on 20th st.  On the other side of this truck it said, “For Sale, Half Price.”

This is headed South down Main Street.

A lot of the buildings on this part of Main street are gone.

We’re still on Main street here as well.

This is on 26th street roughly headed East.

same as previous.

Now we’re back around Joplin High school.  My camera battery started dying again…

This must have been housing across from Joplin High School.

This is the Charles Burt Realty company on the corner of 20th.

Now we’re driving East again on 20th.

Still east on 20th.

That was a big beautiful church over on 15th st.

This is somewhere on 15th street east of the church.

I can’t even remember where we were but somewhere near 15th.

Driving around, it was great to see some of the humor.  A lot of people lost everything but they didn’t lose their sense of humor.  One was talking about an open pool, one talking about open house and on and on.

Sorry for so many photos but thought someone might want to see.

7 thoughts on “Aftermath – The Heart of Joplin

  1. I know what you mean, Nicole. Dishonest and greedy people are the pits.
    It is so disheartening and annoying. I don't want to get on a soapbox either though. 😛

    All the tornado destruction has been terrible this year. They said we have already had more tornadoes in May than all of last year.

    Hope the rest of your day goes well. ♥

  2. Bless you for helping out. It is truly incomprehensible how people can take advantage of others at a time like this. I heard that Direct TV is charging their Joplin customers $500 if they can't find their satellite equipment. People can be heartless. Makes me for thankful for good people like you 🙂

  3. Oh man, all that distruction… it must be so hard to handle in person. Oh & people who take advantage of the weak are the scum of the earth. Just keep telling yourself that they'll get answer for it someday.

  4. It is so unbelievably disgusting how some people respond to crisis – I can't imagine trying to take advantage of these poor people! Thanks for sharing the pics – incredible.

  5. I am certain the pictures can't and don't even begin to tell it. It's awful. And shame on anyone for charging anything! Good grief.

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