It’s now been a week since the deadly tornado ripped through our neighboring community of Joplin.  With the perspective of a few days, these are my impressions of the 48 hours after the tornado.

There was a surreal sense to watching the reports on the news channels.  We had seen all this before—the crushed buildings, the overturned vehicles, the reports of deaths—but this time, suddenly, it was different.  We recognized those street names.  We had eaten in some of the restaurants being shown. We had shopped in those areas of devastation.  And we had relatives and friends there.  This was no longer an “Oh, poor Tuscaloosa” feeling—this was here.

City Manager Greg Burris received a phone call from the Assistant City Manager of Joplin twenty minutes after the tornado hit.  The message was simple:  “We need help.”

And like folks in southwest Missouri have always done, we got busy.

Shortly, the first team of Springfield firefighters and first responders were on their way.  This team had specialized skills in collapsed building rescue and were adept at tunneling through debris to get to victims.  I asked if one team were enough. He, along with the Fire Chief David Hall and Emergency Response Coordinator Ryan Nicholls, felt that it was all we could spare until we knew for certain that Springfield wouldn’t be hit.  Keep in mind, the tornado was still marauding through and waging destruction in Southwest Missouri at that time.

As a Council member, I didn’t even know we had such a specialized team of firefighters (I have since learned we have three), but I’m very glad they exist and were able to roll quickly.  Soon we learned that Kansas City was sending a team, Branson was sending a team, and Greg’s job also became one of trying to coordinate a response among all our surrounding neighbors

As the night progressed, plans were made for additional teams from Springfield and Greene County to form and go to Joplin as needed.  Soon teams of Public Works employees with heavy equipment were loaded and ready to go at daylight.  Front loaders, dump trucks, and street barricades were needed.  There was a memorable photo of ten to twelve trucks heading out in a convoy in the early Monday morning mist.

Both the Springfield Police Department and the Springfield Fire Department had more volunteers to go than could be accommodated.  Keep in mind—many of these men and women were volunteering on their days off.  The same held true over in the Public Works Department.

At some point, Greg will issue a report detailing all the help and assistance that the City of Springfield provided.  It will be a phenomenal listing of people and equipment.  We had police officers and firefighters in Joplin; there were Public Works employees; there were Public Health folks giving tetanus shots to volunteers; there were Police Chaplains there to help our employees cope with the horror that they were seeing. 

This will be my only “it’s all about me” statement.  Last Sunday night, as the tornado passed out of Joplin and was traveling along the I-44 corridor, I realized that the Mayor was still out of town.  Jim was due back in Sunday evening, but—with the weather—was likely not to make it.  With the Mayor out of town, the Mayor Pro Tem is in charge.  That’s me. And that was a terrifying realization—that, if the tornado continued on its current path--Springfield would be dealing with the same situation that had just hit Joplin.  The City Manager and I were in almost constant contact—either by phone or by email—and Cindy and I were about 10 minutes away from heading for the Emergency Command Center that is activated in situations like this. Thankfully, for Springfield, the tornado took an alternate path.

A couple of days after the tornado, I was speaking offline with Paula Morehouse, a reporter for KY-3 who was covering the damage.  She made the comment that she grew up on the west coast, went to school on the east coast, but had learned from her assignments here, that—for Ozarkers—it was all about people. 

But that should not be a surprising comment to Springfieldians.  Our neighbors needed help. And we were and are there for them. And I’ve never been prouder to be on Council, to be from Springfield, or to be from this part of the country.  Call us what you will:  hillbillies, rednecks, fly-over country, Winter Bone people—we are still rock solid folks who help and who share.  We just don’t know any other way.