I never knew that destruction had a smell.
It does – and it’s very distinct. Walking the streets of Joplin in the days immediately following the tornado of May 22, the stench permeated my nose.
The few people I passed digging through the rubble of their demolished homes and businesses had perhaps grown numb to the smell, or maybe they were simply still in shock. If so, then they had also drowned out the constant peal of sirens echoing across town, the endless barrage of chainsaws and the shocking little nuggets of life strewn haplessly around town in the strangest of places.
The top of a baby bottle in the middle of a road.
A doll’s head in a toilet bowl.
A dirty baseball in the middle of a spotless yard.
As I have made my way through the destruction during the days following the tornado – some of it searching for my missing daughter who was at St. John’s Regional Medical Center when the tornado hit (she’s safe and relatively unharmed) – I have continued to ask myself how we as a business journal cover such a monumental event. We are not a daily newspaper, though our Web site,
joplintristate.biz, is certainly a tool that we’ve been able to use to provide constant updates and images. Nor are we a television station that can stream information nonstop. We are a twice-a-month publication whose purpose is to connect business-to-business.
Who in their right mind is thinking about business in a time like this?
No one ... but we will be.
I know we will because of the people I’ve seen in this amazing city. We of the tri-state area are not a group of people who let despair overtake us. We’re not ones to give up when everything around us seems lost.
We don’t think about how difficult it will be, how much work lies in front of us or how much rubble there is to dig up. We simply put our heads down and do what needs to be done.
Mayor Mike Woolston made that point while being interviewed on some national news stations.
“We won’t let this tornado kick us in the ass!” he said.
The thousands of volunteers who have dropped everything to help their neighbors is testament to that.
The joy of those finding simple items like shirts and trophies is testament to that.
The shoulders lent to those grieving lost loved ones is testament to that.
We will mourn our losses, but we will look to the future. And though it’s hard to think beyond the present destruction, we will do like the rest of our community members and put our heads down and press forward. Joplin Tri-State Business Journal will continue to serve as a business-to-business publication – and I believe that in this time of rebuilding, we’ll prove more valuable than ever as a tool and resource.
Chris Roberts is editor of Joplin Tri-State Business Journal. His e-mail address is croberts@joplintristate.biz.[[In-content Ad]]
