Me Knows Better Than to Say This... but I will. Shortly after the tornado that ravaged Joplin hit, Jimmy drove through the town to see the damage for himself. My car load of four was pretty somber as we came across a wide open spot in the middle of town that was a completely annihilated.
The swath had to be over a mile wide and stretched for what appeared to be another three more. Nothing was left standing except for a few brick homes, some large trees (no bark with only the largest branches left) and the hospital.
It's hard to say the hospital at the top of the hill was left standing because it looked like a bomb had gone off next to it with all the windows blown out. Entire blocks all around the hospital were completely leveled. How anybody survived is a miracle.
The next day, we drove back by the city and stopped for dinner just north along the interstate. We had heard of some of the strange sights where blades of grass were driven into tires and I am sure everyone has seen pictures of the splintered 2x4 which was impaled through a blacktop curb... but the waitress provided a few personal touches.
She said it was hard to talk about it since she lived in Joplin and knew so many people that were hit. But luckily, that day she had been working north of town when the tornado struck. She said, "You can't imagine the number of people that I've talked to and others I've heard from that all said, 'the only part of the house that was left standing was where I happened to be.'"
Of the 8000 homes that were demolished that day, only 160 lives were lost. And when I say demolished... literally there was nothing left. That was a miracle in itself that more people did not perish.
However, the waitress wanted to relay another story she had heard floating around town about a mother and her young daughter that were trapped inside their home. After the tornado passed, they crawled out of the fallen structure and the mother could only see the total devastation for blocks around. Then she looked at her daughter who could only say, "Wasn't that beautiful mommy?"
What? The mother again looking at the demolished rubble for as far as she could see wondering what her daughter found so beautiful about the disaster other than the fact that they were both still alive.
The little girl finished by saying what she had witnessed, "When the tornado went through, wasn't that beautiful watching all the angels circling around us - protecting us?"
The swath had to be over a mile wide and stretched for what appeared to be another three more. Nothing was left standing except for a few brick homes, some large trees (no bark with only the largest branches left) and the hospital. 
The next day, we drove back by the city and stopped for dinner just north along the interstate. We had heard of some of the strange sights where blades of grass were driven into tires and I am sure everyone has seen pictures of the splintered 2x4 which was impaled through a blacktop curb... but the waitress provided a few personal touches.
She said it was hard to talk about it since she lived in Joplin and knew so many people that were hit. But luckily, that day she had been working north of town when the tornado struck. She said, "You can't imagine the number of people that I've talked to and others I've heard from that all said, 'the only part of the house that was left standing was where I happened to be.'"
What? The mother again looking at the demolished rubble for as far as she could see wondering what her daughter found so beautiful about the disaster other than the fact that they were both still alive.
The little girl finished by saying what she had witnessed, "When the tornado went through, wasn't that beautiful watching all the angels circling around us - protecting us?"
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