(no subject)
I've been trying for a few days to figure out something to say here about what's happened and what's happening in Joplin, but words are hard. I'm incoherent enough speaking about it, sorting it enough to write it seems an impossible task.
It's horrific. The loss of life, the devastation through the disaster zone--it's just a huge swath of buildings that were once standing for people to live and work in, now gone, just gone.
You're not supposed to be able to see the hospital from Main Street. Hell, you're not supposed to be able to see it all the way from Rangeline.
You're not supposed to be able to see from horizon to horizon when you're in the heart of the city. A block or two, maybe. This openness, littered with remains of gutted and collapsed buildings, is just wrong.
You're not supposed to see cops hesitate and look around them when you ask "Wait, where are we?" They're supposed to just know--you should know yourself--but without any of the usual landmarks, that gets tricky.
Now instead of saying "Oh, if you're at 26 and Wall, you'll see a large brick elementary school on the northwest corner, a preschool across the street to the south and homes all around," you can only say "Well, now at 26 and Wall, there's the gutted and crumbling remains of that big brick elementary school, and across the street is what's left of a 30-foot tree, with a rain gutter wrapped around one part of it and part of a corrugated metal roof wrapped around the top part." And that's all you see, all the way down to Main, where, somehow, that Taco Bell building is still standing.
We aren't supposed to have officers stationed at the morgue around the clock. The morgue, which we had to relocate because the first one was getting too full.
I can't decide which is more wrong: people from our own town breaking the zone curfew and sneaking in to loot, or people driving in from other states to sneak in and loot.
For all that's wrong, though, there is a lot that is amazing and coming right.
I don't know if anyone realized how strongly Joplin residents would unite and work together to make things better in such a situation. But they are.
I don't know if anyone realized how eager people would be to flood in from other areas and agencies to help Joplin work to make things better. But they are.
I couldn't even guess how many police officers and other law enforcement agencies have contributed manpower, food and supplies to help us, and that's the only side of this I see--I know there are tons of fire and medical people here to help, too, especially with St Johns inoperable (although they have a bunch of medical tents set up there now, so they're functioning at least somewhat.) And heavy equipment operators, too. And the Army.
(One city has offered to replace uniforms, weapons and equipment for our officers whose homes were damaged and destroyed. That is one of many offers that has just blown us away, that people would be so considerate of needs like that.)
That's a lot of words, for all the fumbling for them. To work now.
It's horrific. The loss of life, the devastation through the disaster zone--it's just a huge swath of buildings that were once standing for people to live and work in, now gone, just gone.
You're not supposed to be able to see the hospital from Main Street. Hell, you're not supposed to be able to see it all the way from Rangeline.
You're not supposed to be able to see from horizon to horizon when you're in the heart of the city. A block or two, maybe. This openness, littered with remains of gutted and collapsed buildings, is just wrong.
You're not supposed to see cops hesitate and look around them when you ask "Wait, where are we?" They're supposed to just know--you should know yourself--but without any of the usual landmarks, that gets tricky.
Now instead of saying "Oh, if you're at 26 and Wall, you'll see a large brick elementary school on the northwest corner, a preschool across the street to the south and homes all around," you can only say "Well, now at 26 and Wall, there's the gutted and crumbling remains of that big brick elementary school, and across the street is what's left of a 30-foot tree, with a rain gutter wrapped around one part of it and part of a corrugated metal roof wrapped around the top part." And that's all you see, all the way down to Main, where, somehow, that Taco Bell building is still standing.
We aren't supposed to have officers stationed at the morgue around the clock. The morgue, which we had to relocate because the first one was getting too full.
I can't decide which is more wrong: people from our own town breaking the zone curfew and sneaking in to loot, or people driving in from other states to sneak in and loot.
For all that's wrong, though, there is a lot that is amazing and coming right.
I don't know if anyone realized how strongly Joplin residents would unite and work together to make things better in such a situation. But they are.
I don't know if anyone realized how eager people would be to flood in from other areas and agencies to help Joplin work to make things better. But they are.
I couldn't even guess how many police officers and other law enforcement agencies have contributed manpower, food and supplies to help us, and that's the only side of this I see--I know there are tons of fire and medical people here to help, too, especially with St Johns inoperable (although they have a bunch of medical tents set up there now, so they're functioning at least somewhat.) And heavy equipment operators, too. And the Army.
(One city has offered to replace uniforms, weapons and equipment for our officers whose homes were damaged and destroyed. That is one of many offers that has just blown us away, that people would be so considerate of needs like that.)
That's a lot of words, for all the fumbling for them. To work now.