DR284 Mo 05/03 tornadoes

[L. Wakefield]

   Which could be entitled 'What happened to my vacation'.

   I had been planning a week in DC and WV, but I am a nurse with the American Red Cross, and when they announced the tornadoes in Mo, I volunteered. It's my first national disaster assignment. I've been in Stockton for the last 5 days, and it is truly unlike anything I have done before, though it incorporates many of the more extreme aspects of EMS and emergency room work- which, of course, are already a great portion of my professional practice.

   I didn't know if anyone else on the forum was working with this disaster.

   Also, I have a day off tomorrow, and I am based in Springfield. I have some maps and am planning to look on the internet. I am hoping to find botanic gardens, prairie, or just plain plants to tour and enjoy. (No, not the Case plant..)

   The country around Stockton is truly magnificent, and the people there are the most wonderful I can imagine. The outpouring of support gives credence to the Biblical passage- 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in Heaven.' That is not- in this case- a preface to passing the plate, but instead an accurate description of what is happening.

   Join me in holding up these people in their grief and time of trial.    lw

[Tom]

Check out the Members Map, LW.  You might drive right past a forum member without it.  You're right in there within an hours drive of a handful.

[L. Wakefield]

   Oh, my word- you are SO right!..and here I'd been gossiping with a fella on the plane (he looked quite like a couple of our members' photos but hadn't heard of the forum- not til he met ME, anyway) and he thought there wasn't enough wood in these parts to have many sawyers.

   Well, I certainly have seen plenty of splintered and twisted wood- not to mention buildings that were entirely exploded and smithereened. Plenty of sawing going on. Not much in the way of safety gear. One young fella I bandaged up and sent off with his dad to get stitches had tinged his leg not once, but twice. Didn't bother to tell dad the first time- not til he laid his leg open about 2"- fortunately a very shallow wound. No chaps, no goggles, no hardhat- dad had a cut in his hat (not in his head) from a saw as well. I've been preaching safety. Saw one guy shinnied up a tree, no safety rope, saw in hand, ready to cut off some limbs. One hopes not the one he was hanging onto, nor yet one of his own.

   Well, I am quite glad I spent the inordinate amount of $ they wanted for 24* acces to the net via Arescom. I'll see who I can bother tomorrow.

   Any of those fells from around here have family that were hit? There's now been well over 300 tornadoes. The last one was last night. Weather this AM was COLD- I was glad I'd brought my windbreaker. Funny name for a coat, by the way.    lw  

[Bro. Noble]

LW,

We are about 2 hrs from Springfield and would love to have you visit.  

I would sure appreciate it if you could check on the well being of John and Helen Hubbard in Stockton.  I used to work with John and have worried about them since the storm.  They are wonderful people.  John knows just about every plant that grows in Mo.  You would enjoy visiting with him.

It's kind of a sorry way to get to Mo. but a wonderful thing you are doing.

Noble

[L. Wakefield]

   Yo hey! It looks like Noble is online and I just posted him a request to let me stop by to meet and greet the cows and see the operation. This is farming heaven out here. I left my pasture barely 2" long, and out here the corn is WAY up and the grass is belly deep. Lilacs have gone by and iris are in full bloom. I have blitzed by multiflora rose, but haven't had a chance to stop ad inhale. I shouldn't like it- and I do hate the thorns- but between rose and honeysuckle, you have 2 of the great fragrances of the southland.

   Some magnolia trees had been trashed in Stockton.  lw

[L. Wakefield]

   Noble, I am going to stop by...as long as my nurse replacement for the team shows up tomorrow. I am going to headquarters to turn in some paperwork, transfer the nursing supplies, and see I am replaced- and I hope to be on the road by 9am. There is one other nurse who expressed an interest in touring with me but she said she wasn't much of an early riser.

   It will be Tuesday before I can check on the Hubbards. I don't THINK I have seen them yet.

   Phone service was completely gone. I had been in DC when the call went out, and while I was waiting to see if they would post me out here, I went shopping for a cellular phone. The 2 criteria I had were- rugged- and good reception. They sold me Verizon service and a Samsung. I don't know hpow many minutes in the service plan- but I bet Ive used a massive amount. Headquartes had issued a few phones that just DIDN'T work well. This puppy has outperformed most of the other brands and services. I'm quite pleased with the purchase- it's been a Godsend too. We even used it to register one person with FEMA.

   I found Drury on the map. When I get there, how do I find you? (I am actually certain that I can just ask and folks will know, but maybe you'd better give me a notion of which direction to look.)   lw

[Bro. Noble]

LW,

Detailed directions await you in a IM.

We are about 15 miles south of Drury,  the only one that lives at Drury is a distant cousin and could give you directions if he were at home :D  That's out of the way from Springfield though.

Looking forward to meeting another of the forum family.

Noble

[CHARLIE]

LW, that is a fine thing you are doing by going down there to help out those Missourians.  Of course you realize that ya can't tell 'em nothing......they have to see it to believe it. ;D  I sure hope all goes well for you down there. Take care of yourself.

[L. Wakefield]

   I got there alright! I was about numb as a hake this morning, so I made a few wrong turns, but after a drive through some truly lovely country, I arrived at Noble's farm. I have taken a few pix- and no, I STILL can't post them directly (toldja I was numb..- I have now run out of the trial time for the optimizer program and I'm too tired to mess with it tonite)- but I did post them to http://photos.yahoo.com/heretik1211  .

   I have 2 photos of Noble's place on there. I about fell over laughing the first time he fired up the saw and when it took off, he rode down the log right along with it  :D :D :D ... of course it had NEVER occurred to me that the seat was mobile. I'd figured out where the blade was, but.. that's what it's like if you've only see a Mobile Dimensions rig or some other huge type with a stationary saw booth.

   I like the unit a lot- but I think the sawing itself is only a small part of the operation. For example, I'd be hard put to get trees that big   :-[

   I sure like that barn. I think he told me that was the first thing he built with wood from the mill.

   I also posted a of of my team for our emergency aid station- that's me on the left, Mary in the middle, and Bill on the right. we'd just got done eating some incredibly good bratwurst. It sure hit the spot. I'll be back up there tomorrow.

   The clouds are mammatus type- associated with tornadic systems. But I never saw a funnel cloud. I'd'a been torn between duck and cover, and snapping a shot. Good thing I didn't get the choice. I'm not ready to go to Oz.

   That last shot is from Forsyth, I think it is, looking down toward the vicinity of Rockaway Beach. I am just too lazy to go out to the car right now to get the road atlas and figure what the river is. It's the one down by Branson.

   I made it down there and back- I drove back through parts of the Mark Twain National Forest- but boy am I tired..  

   Thank you, Noble, for the tour and the saw demo. I'll check up on your friends up there.

   Take care, y'all- I will yack at you later. I have access til tomorrow night at 5:49.  lw

[Bibbyman]

Now I thought I saw everything!    But Noble didn't show us that barn.  That must be the most modern tractor on the farm.

[Bro. Noble]

Bibb,

It's your own DanG fault-------you just had tickets for the sawmill and junk machinery tour :D  Shoulda said you wanted the delux package that included the dairy. :

Noble

[L. Wakefield]

    Oh, yeah, the tractor collection..he has a geniology of tractor generations- the oldest down by the crick (I didn't get that far), then 'a higher class' of tractors in a group of 4- he could point out one that I think was his mom's dad's at one time- but you know, he didn't have a single backwards steering tractor- at least, not that he let on about. Guess I'm the only one ever to have had one- and even I didn't exactly WANT it, I just HAD it.

   It was a good visit. I wasn't about to ask to saw, not at this point in my investigations. But it looked slick. I can see why Mary likes it. You can do production, alright.  lw

[whitepe]

Bib,
If Mary would have done some milking like Becky you
would have gotten free tickets for the dairy operations.  :D

LW,
This must be the collection of 4 tractors that you
are talking about.  I thought it made for a nice picture.  
The world needs more folks like you who are willing to
help out in times of disaster.  I noticed at the Farm and Fleet store in Morton, IL that there were signs posted that said
Red Cross vouchers accepted.

[Jeff]

Hey pew we need a bigger photo. That is a good one but I would like to see one a little bigger

[Bibbyman]

That's just four of many. The others were under roof someplace or in use. I lost count and know we didn't see them all.  Every one had a story.  

[Bro. Noble]

LW,

If you thought it was funny to see me going down the log with the saw head you would have really busted a gut if I had forgotton to latch the seat to the saw head----------not that that has ever happened :-[

Noble

[whitepe]

The South Pekin and Morton Tornado

http://www.deverman.com/pekintornado/index.htm


Very scarrry  :( :( :(

[DanG]

Man alive! That's some major destruction!  It's a miracle there weren't scores of people killed.

[L. Wakefield]

   Stockton makes such an impact- I have cried almost every time I came into town. It was bad enough to look at as a 'done' event- but after 1 1/2 weeks of work it suddenly came together this morning as I drove in (for the last time)- and I caught just the tiniest glimpse of what it was like when it was happening- when the multiple vortices came together and just GROUND their way thru town. It was after I had walked or driven most of the town, door to door, with our teams- seeking out people who needed what we had to offer- hearing their stories- and suddenly it somehow came alive.

   It's a phenomenon that's a bit hard to explain- not a hallucination- but somehow along the line of that sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning- you know- 'How do I love thee, let me count the ways'.  She has a line describing the domain where you measure love- 'when reaching out of sight, for the ends of being and ideal grace'. (I just checked cuz I wanted to get it right- I had it all but 1 word..)

   What I'm trying to say is- I can just touch it in a form of perception that obviously isn't realtime but it's quite vivid nonetheless.

   So other things- how much does land go for in this part of the country? It's so incredibly beautiful (and so clearly incredibly dangerous at times).

   And then- I had bought a bottle of sake at the international wine store here- I can't fly back with it- and there is about half of it left. My assignment (should I be inclined to accept it  :D ) is to finish it before I get on the plane at 10:45 Monday morning in KC. So if I post multiple times this evening with progressively more inane drivel (and in ever more need of spelchek and being more of  a GPITA than usual), you will know why. Hmm..time for another glass of sake..  lw

  

[L. Wakefield]

   DanG- I'm really doing QUITE well- got down to ABOUT 1/3 of a bottle or less- packing and realizing that instead I am playing around with booting an empty wal-mart bag around on the floor- hey hey, that's about ENOUGH wine for one nite.

   OOoohh..  lw

[L. Wakefield]

   So OK, do you happen to remember the site www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/soilmst/img/loop_wanom.gif  ?  :D

   The reference to it was a long time ago- but it is very useful..I was looking at how wet Mo. seems right now and wondering where that fit with the tornadoes.

   I don't get any great enlightenment, but I DID step back one and found the parent directory, which is functional (heh heh..)

   That's always fun to do because of what you can find. So look at just www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/soilmst/img/  .

   There are a lot more looks at the same data and you aren't confined to the loop (which moves too fast for my brain..). My primary interests are the fire danger and the crop implications, but..hmm..lw

[L. Wakefield]

   Safely home! Thank you all for your concern and good wishes.

    The animals are doing well, the asparagus is up and so are the peas. Touring the perennials, I am thrilled to see that the goldenseal that had died back last year seems to be back!! Now to see if the ginseng comes up..

   Maine has its own charm. Spring is dancing right now, and about time. The black flies, of course, are out..I have to give catnip oil a good trial this year as compared to DEET. I keep remembering it when I am already outside..well, the catnip itself is up, so I could try crushed leaf I suppose, just as we (ineffectively) use sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina I think that one is).

   Most of my little transplants from WV have returned- calamus, mint, and squawweed. Sassafrass will have to wait til next time..  lw