I live about an hour outside of Joplin and used to visit there frequently to shop or visit my eye doctor. I've been back a couple of times since the 22 May tornado and the community is still struggling. It will literally take them a decade to return the south side of town to any semblance of community.
Some updates on the challenges the people of Joplin are facing as well as security camera video that was released today by the Joplin school district.
The biggest challenge has been housing. Those who were homeowners need temporary housing until they can rebuild; those who were renters (particularly those who didn't have a lot of resources to begin with) are taking a huge hit with incredible, obscene price gouging in the rental market.
This story in the Joplin Globe is a wonderful story of a Kansas couple who bought a house for a storm victim and her family. While it's a great story, it highlights the struggle for people looking for rentals: units that pre-storm were renting for $300 are now asking $1,500 a month. Unfortunately, not everyone has been so fortunate as to find a benefactor willing to buy them a house. The situation has been particularly cruel for renters who also lost their jobs because the business they worked for was destroyed.
Homeowners have also been fighting with that bastion of corporate responsibility, Bank of America.
Tornado survivor Julie Hunt, 34, said she didn’t believe anyone at Bank of America cared until she became so desperate that she “just begged” for help via email from Brian Moynihan, the company’s CEO and president.
...They got a settlement from their homeowners insurance company, Travelers, in three days, Julie Hunt said. One insurance check — for the contents of the house — was made out to her. The other — for the house itself, including paying off what remained of the mortgage — was made out to both Hunt and Bank of America.
After several frustrating weeks of trying to get that check processed by Bank of America, Hunt said: “Surviving the tornado was the easy part.”
The Joplin Globe has been doing an incredible job of updating readers on the recovery; you can bookmark their site from the above link or like them on facebook.
This is the footage released from the Joplin School District today. I believe that most of it was from the security cameras from Joplin High School, which was completely destroyed by the tornado.
Please keep these folks in your thoughts. As Julie Hunt said above, for those who survived the tornado was the easy part. What has followed has been anything but.
UPDATE: New link - thanks, Swedish Jewfish!