Tornado Aftermath: Victim considers himself fortunate compared to neighbors in destroyed apartment complex

This report was filed today from the ground in Joplin, Mo., as storm victims started to re-emerge in their neighborhoods to sift through the rumble and find anything of sentimental or monetary value after Sunday's historic EF5 tornado, that has officially claimed 126 lives and injured hundreds more.

Jay Watson (center) searches for any salvagable belongings near his building in the Somerset apartment complex. Watson was not home at the time the EF5 tornado struck Sunday, but returned to find his apartment located on the third floor to be gone — along with the entire third floor. / Rick Rogers - ACM News Service

Headline: Storm victim says he feels fortunate compared to neighbors

By Rick Rogers / American Consolidated Media News Service

JOPLIN, Mo. — The buzzing sound of chainsaws.

The rhythmic chirp of fire alarms.

The hum of generators.

These are the sounds of a disaster area.

Throughout Wednesday residents and volunteers emerged in the neighborhoods and city streets of tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., where an EF5 tornado, spanning three-fourths of a mile wide, claimed the lives of 126 people, injured hundreds more and caused widespread damage in this community of 50,000 in the southwest corner of the state.

Tornado survivors, with the help of family, friends and thousands of volunteers, took advantage of sunshine and warmer temperatures Wednesday morning and afternoon to begin the daunting task of salvaging anything of sentimental or monetary value out of the rubble where their businesses, homes or apartments once stood tall.

Now all that can be seen in the tornado’s wide path of destruction — spanning from nearly 7^th Street to 32^nd Street to the north and south and Schifferdecker Road and past Highway 249 from the west to east — are many homes reduced to their foundations, trees stripped of their limbs, leaves and bark, and cars crumbled and tossed like Hot Wheels in a sandbox.

Standing on a mountain of debris outside of his apartment building in the Somerset complex was 22-year-old Jay Watson. The apartment complex is located at the hard-hit area of 20^th Street and Connecticut Ave., in the heart of the tornado’s path.

The Missouri Southern State University student considered himself to be "one of the lucky ones." 

He was not at home in his third-floor apartment when the tornado struck. He was watching the St. Louis Cardinals game on TV at his grandfather’s house, located on the north edge of Joplin and away from the storm’s fury.

Watson considers himself fortunate because his third floor apartment is nowhere to be found. The entire third floor of the structure is gone, blown away by the tornado’s 200-plus mile-per-hour winds.

Watson said after the storm passed, he and his friends decided to go back to their apartment. When they got as close as five blocks away, they quickly realized something was wrong.

“People were running everywhere,” he said. “People were screaming for people. They were calling their names. And then you could hear the sirens. We parked the car, and started running up (to his apartment complex). It was chaos. It was lightning still. You could hear the car alarms from cars that were damaged. No one knew where to go, what to do. People were basically dazed. They walked out of their homes, and didn’t know where to go.

“We left the complex, and headed to Freeman Hospital (located west on 32nd Street blocks away from heavily damaged St. John's Regional Medical Center) to check on family. You could see people with dead bodies in the back of pick-up trucks. There was debris everywhere. Everyone was worried St. John’s (Regional Medical Center) was going to explode, and you could see the fire in the background. You could also just smell so much gas. That made you scared.”

The multi-building Somerset complex looks like a war zone. Every building is heavily damaged. Few buildings have a third floor intact, and every car in the parking lot is damaged beyond repair. Water flowed like a fountain from a pipe in one of the exposed rooms of a building. There was a faint smell of natural gas, and you could hear the chirps of several fire alarms going off in all the buildings. The complex's pool had opened recently, and Watson said he and his friends and neighbors were looking forward to warmer temperatures and spending this summer having cookouts poolside. Instead, the water was sucked out of the pool, and the area now served as a makeshift lost and found.

This was not Watson's first visit back to his apartment. The day after the tornado hit, he returned with family to pick up the pieces of his life — what pieces he could find. In the grass next to the building was his couch, a twisted ball of wood and cloth. They found what they thought was Watson’s bathtub, but upon further review it was that of apartment B8, from the building next door.

As they searched through the debris, Watson’s sister, MacKenzie, finally found something that held a special place in their hearts. She moved a piece of wood, and underneath was a Louisville Slugger baseball glove that belonged to their father, Chip, who passed away in the fall of 2008. MacKenzie will marry her college sweetheart, Aaron Cox, on Saturday in Joplin. The tornado will not keep them from tying the knot.

“Most everything is gone,” Jay said.

Watson is a born and raised Joplin resident. His late father served as publisher of The Big Nickel, a weekly shopper publication located at 20^th Street and Range Line which is now just a slab of foundation after the tornado.

Watson, who graduates from Joplin-based MSSU, wondered what the future will hold for his hometown and whether it will be the same as it rebuilds. He will be the only member of his immediate family to remain in Joplin, as his sister had already planned a move to Idaho, where her fiance works with a minor league baseball team, and his mother had previously planned a relocation to Oregon to accept a job in the medical field. His older brother, Chris, lives in Frisco, Texas.

“It may be five, 10 years to rebuild everything,” he said. “It is like Armageddon. There is just trash everywhere. There are broken houses everywhere. It is scary. It took five minutes, and it did that much damage.”