Joplin Visit

We have been wanting to go to Joplin, and see if the house we had built for us was still standing.  So last evening our youngest daughter, Erin , hubby and I, did just that.  We lived in Joplin for 3-4 years when we were first married.  This is the house, and it looks like it got  new roof, but it looks pretty good.

The apartments across the street don't look so good however.

We drove a couple of blocks north, and this is the area where my hubby's boss lived.

When we lived in Joplin there was a tornado that went down seventh street.  We weren't aware of it though, and his boss came and got him to take him to work because of all the injured.  (He worked at St. Johns Hospital.)  Funny thing though,  Hubby said his boss disappeared while he did all the work.

This is St. John's Hospital on the horizon.  Not much else is left of the area.  They have got a lot of the debris cleaned up according to the news.  This is the first I've seen of it, and it looks pretty barren.

Our oldest daughter, Jennifer, was born in this hospital.

The area north of the hospital is just a lot of foundations of the homes that were there.

I took these pictures through the window of our car.  

 (You can see the reflection of my striped top in some of the pictures.)  It's hard to imagine how they will ever come back.

Next, I have some pictures of the schools:

The picture below is a distant picture of the high school.  If you click on it you can see the devastation.

Another school here.

I'm not sure if this was a school or not.

(My hubby informed me this was the front of the High School.)

Further north we drove by the rental house we lived in while ours was being built.  It looks a little different now.  There was a huge tree out front and a tall hedge along the front when we lived there.

After we moved away we were in a tornado where we live now.  I wrote about it here.

I wish Joplin the best in their recovery.  They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  I'm sure they are getting stronger, but it's a hard process, and their losses are so sad.