Like me, I suspect many will encounter mixed feelings while reading the first comprehensive book about the deadly tornado that ravaged Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2011.
But on further reflection, there are good reasons to buy “32 Minutes in May — The Joplin Tornado” (142 pages, hardback, Pediment Publishing, $34.95) — other than a portion of proceeds will benefit Bright Futures of the Joplin School District.
First and foremost, “32 Minutes in May” acts as a historical record to America’s worst tornado in 60 years. With 161 dead, more than 1,150 injured, and 8,000 buildings destroyed, it stands as the biggest disaster to hit a Route 66 town since the Mother Road was certified in 1926. The tornado cut a six-mile path through Joplin in 32 minutes — hence the title.
All the source material for the book was compiled by the Joplin Globe newspaper, which did a marvelous job covering the ongoing story despite more than a dozen staffers losing their homes and one copy editor dying during the disaster.
The book contains hundreds of color photographs, including Roger Nomer’s now-famous image of a police officer carrying an 11-year-old girl from the rubble of a business. Fortunately, the book’s editors didn’t include graphic images of the dead and wounded.
Many of the Globe’s stories contain enough horror. One father suffered broken arms when he tried to keep his 18-year-old son from being sucked out of the window of his Hummer when the twister struck. (The teen was later found dead in pond.) Checking a nursing home after the tornado struck, a passerby encountered “bodies and broken bones and blood and stuff.” (Ten died at the scene.) The first man in the local hospital’s emergency room after the storm had been nearly eviscerated. “It’s the tornado. It’s devastated everything,” he told a nurse. The man later died from his injuries.
One heartbreaking moment was witnessed by a freelance Globe photographer.
” … I remember a woman walking around the foundation of a house calling out for her missing son. Her voice was hoarse and her initial panic had since been replaced with despair as she repeated his name. … Later, I would read his name in a list of confirmed dead.”
The Globe also uncovered these interesting nuggets of information:
— Joplin also had been struck by fatal tornadoes in 1883, 1902, 1971, 1973, and 1996. The description of the twister’s damage from the 1903 report proved eerily similar to what occurred a little more than a century later.
— The powerful F5 tornado was the product of two storm systems that merged near the Kansas state line. A scientist with the National Storms Laboratory said when two storms merge into one, its power usually dissipates. Instead, the merged Joplin storm became stronger.
— The tornado was so powerful, it moved the nine-story St. John’s Regional Medical Center building four inches off its foundation.
One of the most sobering sections is “Faces of the Storm” — more than 20 pages of photographs and/or biographies of the people who died. Victims range in age from 14 months to 94 years.
A second reason, I suspect, this book was made published is it serves as a sort of communion and remembrance for the survivors and their families. Years from now, they’ll flip through “32 Minutes in May” and think: “I can’t believe I survived this. I can’t believe the community survived this.”
And the community is indeed surviving. Several of the book’s final chapters strike an optimistic note. More than 85,000 volunteers pitched in after the storm. Hundreds of building permits were issued in June alone. About 370 of the 500 businesses damaged by the tornado have reopened. And the town’s public school opened on schedule in August, albeit in another building that wasn’t in the tornado’s path.
During the citywide memorial service after the storm, the media gave much of its attention to speeches by Gov. Jay Nixon and President Obama. However, some of the most inspiring words came from the Rev. Aaron Brown of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. “32 Minutes in May” reprinted his entire speech, “Death Does Not Get the Last Word.” Exhorting God’s name, Brown said:
“His mission for us is to get busy living. Get busy serving. Get busy rebuilding our city … Get busy loving more deeply than you ever have.
“For those of you who have lost loved ones, get busy living out their legacy. They have lost their lives, but none of them would want you to stop living yours because they’re gone. Get busy living.”
Recommended. Especially because portions of the book’s sales go to a good cause.