Destruction in the heartland...September 5th...Part 8.....Cleanup.

Memorial Day weekend 1 week after storm

If only it were so easy to forget and move on.

About 80 days after the storm, I had to bring my mom to Joplin to close her old checking account and get a new I.D. card with her new address on it. She said that she wanted to go by and see her old place.

When we drove up and saw how much of her old home was gone, she was very upset.

She said, 'I didn't even know it was a tornado. I was never scared of storms and I'm still not. I just thought it was a mean man, hitting me in the back with the door. I didn't know what was going on.'

A week or so later, a severe thunderstorm came through. There wasn't a tornado warning, but the thunder woke my mom up. She called me. She was scared and upset. I think a lot of people were afraid that night.

The cleanup in Joplin is miraculous. Here are some pictures I took last month around Joplin. I tried to take them to 'match' the photos I took immediately following the storm. 

About 80 Days after the tornado