Joplin tornado anniversary: town rebuilds but destruction is ever present

Barack Obama will address graduates of the Missouri City a year after a tornado destroyed the school mass

Tammy Niederhelman

thought nothing could be worse than nightmares. What could be more painful than a dream in which his 12-year-old son is screaming for help and you can not reach it?

A nightmare

based on reality. May 22, 2011 Niederhelman was at work in the Intensive Care Unit Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Missouri, by the end of the shift nurse when it was announced that a storm was brewing. I do not think much of it - these warnings were two a penny - but she called his son Zach and tells him to follow the routine: get into the tub and covered with pillows and wait

When the siren a second time, he called again. "He was real upset His voice trembled told me.".? Bubba, what is it "He said, 'Mom, I'm so scared It's very bad." ".

"Do not worry, it happens all the time," he said. "I'll be right back. I love you. "

last words.

few minutes after the tornado impressive, his world collapsed. While walking the institution was relatively intact, the nearby hospital of St. John was beaten and injured - that seemed to say zombies - began arriving in the ICU. The phones are down, and she was desperate to get home to see her son and her husband Tony, but how was going out with hundreds of wounded arriving?

took five hours to Niederhelman to join her husband - who was brought to hospital with serious head injuries after reviewing the front of the house when the tornado. It took five days for the couple was reunited with his son in one of the many makeshift morgue set up after the disaster.

The nightmares came night after night, month after month, as a recorder in a loop. Zach heard her crying and saying he is frightened, but she would not be able to join who need it most.

Then he calmed down. But what followed was, he says, certainly worse. "Now, I have dreams that he is here with me. Are so vivid and real. Then I wake up and realize he's gone."

Over the last 12 months Niederhelman has suffered these torments during the evening. The days are a little better. As readers work in their new home is a number of reminders of the death of her son everywhere: shovels, gnarled trees, piles of debris, vacant lots where homes like yours has already been

"You can not exceed a tornado. Everywhere you go you see. It's everywhere," he said.

later Monday, the memories will be even more intense, when Barack Obama arrives to address graduates of city high school students. Tuesday, the anniversary itself, thousands will march through the city following the path of the storm exactly a year ago.

The tornado touched down on the western fringe of 5:41 p.m. ET in Joplin soon became a EF5 - that is the most powerful. Then a slow brutal, cut a strip through the city which was six miles long and half a mile wide. You can still see the road today. Joplin seems to have been mowered grass, trees, houses, shops, schools shot instead of grass. A few minutes later, 161 people were killed, which is the deadliest tornado since records began in modern America.

• A year later, Joplin is visibly picking himself back up, supported by an outpouring of volunteer effort. The city estimates that some 130,000 volunteers across the United States and the world have contributed an amount equal to 82 years of service who work every day. Donations came, surprisingly, in the earthquake-ravaged Haiti and countries that suffered the 2004 tsunami.
There are other impressive feats Suites Joplin: 3 million cubic meters of rubble have been approved in the first months of life, of the 7500 homes that have been chewed, two thirds are in the process be repaired or rebuilt, most of the 553 companies that were destroyed have reopened, insurance payments totaled $ 2 billion, the hospital of San Juan, the epicenter of destruction, is dismantled and rebuilt in a location on the edge of town.

"We are stronger and more united, and we will rebuild better than they were before the storm," said the city of Joplin, Mark Rohr.

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