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[Twolanerider]

there any  left in joplin?

This I can confirm.

[HogBreath]

Glad to see you're OK. Drop by for a  I brought 2-3 cases back of somebody's from RibFest

[Twolanerider]

That's a plan.  Need to get caught up awhile longer. Then a weekend out is a great idea.   Hey, by then may even be able to cross the River. 

[spydglide]

The locust plague may be in full force by the time the floods recede.  spyder

[HogBreath]

That's a plan.  Need to get caught up awhile longer. Then a weekend out is a great idea.   Hey, by then may even be able to cross the River. 

Any maybe by then your wires won't be crossed.

[Banana man]

Any maybe by then your wires won't be crossed.

But you might have to use a hot battery and some jumper cables to start him back
up again. 

[Twolanerider]

But you might have to use a hot battery and some jumper cables to start him back
up again. 

That's a shocking thing to say.  Just shocking.  Things like that are enough to get a guy all charged up.

[spydglide]

That's a shocking thing to say.  Just shocking.  Things like that are enough to get a guy all charged up.

At least there was no comment about a 'idiot light' popping on........har. What's the 'latest' from the disaster area?    spyder

[Midnight Rider]

Glad to hear that everything is OK where you are located, Don...and that your family is all well.

Lots of video on our local stations about Joplin because of what happened here a month ago.  And, a lot of support coming from Alabama to Joplin, from what I hear and see.  Like here, it's going to take a while for cleanup and rebuild after such total devastation.

In hindsight, it's probably a good thing that you didn't make Ribfest, as you might have been riding right into the mouth of that thing going home Sunday...if nothing else, you'd have been worried sick about your family.

[Twolanerider]

Glad to hear that everything is OK where you are located, Don...and that your family is all well.

Lots of video on our local stations about Joplin because of what happened here a month ago.  And, a lot of support coming from Alabama to Joplin, from what I hear and see.  Like here, it's going to take a while for cleanup and rebuild after such total devastation.

In hindsight, it's probably a good thing that you didn't make Ribfest, as you might have been riding right into the mouth of that thing going home Sunday...if nothing else, you'd have been worried sick about your family.

It's all too true TC.  Just glad that the family and Travis and all others the site knows locally are all good.  I'm even getting used to a an hour or so break at a local McDonalds to use their free WiFi.  Thank goodness for portable computers.  That service is supposed to be restored "in a few days."  The provider is on the opposite side of the town from the house.  So there's a mile wide zone in between with no fiber, no polls, no nothing.  I'm surprised many services are coming back as quickly as they are.

The hospital that's figured so prominently in the news coverage is on our 26th street.  That street runs east to west.  The general direction of the storm travel was from the west and along that street.  It's surprising how striking and uplifting is the site seen when popping over a hill two mornings ago.  Along a boulevard that the day before had bisected a denuded landscape with nothing taller than you or I was now a more than mile long stretch of tall, straight beautiful new utility polls standing on their own.  Of all things utility poles took my breath away.

There's already a visual difference one can see between the damage zone now and the first night.  Seen on its own it is of course still a blighted landscape populated by little more than splintered remains and the sounds of sirens and generators.  But seen in comparison to what it looked like just a few days ago there's already a difference.  A real difference.  An area that looked worse than many war zones is already showing the signs of the efforts of its people.

It's the damndest things that surprise you too.  Was by a location the second day after.  Right in the middle of the worst of it.  No green anything around.  Only the dirty brown of ruined homes and splintered trees decorated by wire and cable dangling from what seems like everywhere.  And here in the middle of that visual detritus was a little skid loader parked next to a pile of debris that came from a lot one guy had cleared.  Rising from that lot surrounded by ruin was the frame of a new building.  All four sides of clean fresh lumber nailed up and standing like a giant finger raised to the efforts Mother Nature had just thrown.

Folks have started writing street names in intersections or on plywood debris standing at intersections to let those coming through know where they are.  Without all the old visual cues people were getting lost in their own neighborhoods.  Signs all over the place for free food, free water, free fixing of flat tires and a myriad of other services.  Often from people who themselves lost everything.

It's a mess.  It will be for a long time.  Many places won't be rebuilt.  But it's still alive.  The pulse is hardy diminished and people are working hard. 

[Twolanerider]

Internet back at home.  Much quicker than expected.

[hard10]

Internet back at home.  Much quicker than expected.

Glad to hear!

[Midnight Rider]

Same kind of thing happening here in Alabama, Don.  Tuscaloosa is making real progress in their cleanup, and the Mayor, who seems to be a real leader, has put together a coalition of business owners, and homeowners in the area most afftected, to make it even better than it was before.  15th street (the area most devastated) was a hodgepodge of things that had just sort of happened throughout the many years before this, so there is a real effort to make it better.

1/4 mile from my house, where the straight line winds took out trees, and in the process parts of homes, is cleaned up and the people are rebuilding their homes.

The hospital in Joplin is where Judi's late husband spent his last days....it looked on film like it could not possibly have made it through without some real structural damage.  Are they going to move the location, or tear down and start over?  Judi tells me that there is another hospital to pick up some slack, but that perhaps the quality of care at that facility was typically not as good as the one that got hit so hard.

It's almost surreal to drive around in some of these areas...the familiar tree lines that framed the sky are gone.  It looks naked.

It seems that the people of Joplin are much like the folk in Tuscaloosa...determined to come out of the other side of all this better than they were before, and in the process, all the petty differences we all get so consumed with drop by the wayside, and people actually start pulling together.
Glad to hear you are getting some services restored...

[Twolanerider]

The hospital in Joplin is where Judi's late husband spent his last days....it looked on film like it could not possibly have made it through without some real structural damage.  Are they going to move the location, or tear down and start over?  Judi tells me that there is another hospital to pick up some slack, but that perhaps the quality of care at that facility was typically not as good as the one that got hit so hard.

The other hospital is called Freeman Hospital and is only about a mile away from St. Johns.  The damage line missed it by blocks.  That close to losing them both.  To say that would have been catastrophic would be redundant right now.  But the losses that night would have been worse and the area would have dealt with greater difficulties longer.

Fortunately the two hospitals are comparable.  Many years ago the old Freeman was definitely a lower tier facility.  But competition between the two for a generation ended that.  Freeman is a modern and very well equipped facility now.

[Midnight Rider]

The other hospital is called Freeman Hospital and is only about a mile away from St. Johns.  The damage line missed it by blocks.  That close to losing them both.  To say that would have been catastrophic would be redundant right now.  But the losses that night would have been worse and the area would have dealt with greater difficulties longer.

Fortunately the two hospitals are comparable.  Many years ago the old Freeman was definitely a lower tier facility.  But competition between the two for a generation ended that.  Freeman is a modern and very well equipped facility now.

That's very good to hear...quality care is important to all those in the community, and I would imagine even more so now.  Fortunately, in B'ham, there are several good choices, my preference being UAB of course.

The tornado that hit Tuscaloosa missed the only major medical facility by literally a block or two, although they did sustain some debris damage.  The size of the storms that hit both Joplin and T-town throw debris for miles...many here in B'ham, even though the storm may have missed their homes by miles, got stuff in their yards from Tuscaloosa, which is 60+ miles away.  I'm sure similar things happened in your area.  Scarey chit, that's for sure.  Perhaps it's all over with for the year.   Now, it's just hotter than Hades (some people call it Hell...I call it Hades....mmmmmuhhh) here in B'ham.