The City of Springfield has provided (and may continue to provide as conditions warrant) support to various departments in the City of Joplin as they begin their recovery and cleanup from the devastating tornado that hit Sunday evening, May 22.  Joplin Asst. City Manager Sam Anselm contacted Springfield City Manager Greg Burris Sunday evening with a request for help.

Here’s a summary of support provided (or planned) so far:

A 911 Supervisor left with the initial response team from Emergency Management Sunday evening.

The Springfield-Greene County Health Dept., in coordination with Joplin area city and county health depts. and St. Johns, has provided tetanus vaccine.

The Springfield Police Dept. sent 10 officers with more on standby. Several Police Chaplains along with off-duty officers have also gone to assist with non-law enforcement related duties. The SPOA is working with the Joplin Police Dept. to assist Joplin officers who may have lost their homes in the tornado.

Springfield Public Works has provided two loaders with two equipment operators. 

More than 100 barricades have been delivered to the Joplin Public Works staging area. 

Tuesday morning, five backhoes and five chipper trucks with chippers will be heading out for Joplin.

Sewer Maintenance sent a backhoe and has several pieces of equipment ready to go from the treatment plant (dump trucks, generator, light tower) if requested.

Overall, by Tuesday, there will be approximately thirty Public Works personnel involved to keep equipment running 24 hours a day until the initial crisis is over.

The technical rescue team of the Springfield Fire Dept. was dispatched Sunday evening when requested by the Joplin Fire Dept. just minutes after the tornado occurred.

Southwest Missouri has three Type I Structural Collapse teams (the most advanced technical expertise) trained to deal with large scale building collapses. They carry equipment required to breach, break and move heavy concrete and steel and can shore unstable buildings so they can tunnel in to find victims that may be trapped in structures.

Fire Dept. Equipment provided:

Utility 2 - a 1-ton, 4WD utility vehicle used to pull the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) trailer, which carries the highly specialized shoring and breaking equipment.

 Rescue 1 - a fire apparatus that carries normal extrication equipment including air bags, hydraulic extrication tools, hand tools, chain saws, etc.

Personnel: Eight Fire Dept. staff including five rescue specialists were dispatched Sunday evening. An additional crew of six went to Joplin Monday morning to provide relief. Additional personnel may be sent to rotate with those already in Joplin.

Other Firefighters are working off-duty in the area along with some deployed as part of MO Task Force 1, a FEMA USAR team from Columbia.