Unions help towns affected by tornado rampage

[RyanPsych]

Unions organized to come to people's aid as tornadoes struck Texas and Oklahoma this week, and Alabama before that.North Texas saw a wave of storm-related destruction on Tuesday, including reports of hail, damaging winds, and at least one tornado spotted in Denton, with 70 mile per hour wind gusts. There was also devastating damage in Saginaw. Mark Fox, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, remarked, "This is one of the biggest storm systems to hit the area since 2007."

In Oklahoma, the aggressive storm system turned homes into splintered wreckage and vehicles into twisted shells. "My husband and I were driving around yesterday and went past a house and there was a vehicle in the pond in the front yard," Valerie Thomerson, Mayor of Piedmont, Okla., told the Huffington Post. "The only way I could tell it was a vehicle was I could see four wheels above the water. It was a crushed ball." But worst of all, over in Joplin, Mo., the carnage was greater and more widespread, with the tornado of Sunday evening causing the highest death toll from a single tornado in more than 50 years, according to ABC News. WeatherOnline reported that the disaster left 123 people dead.

The station reported that Joplin resident Lauren Miller wiped tears from her eyes as she picked through the wreckage of her grandmother's home, retrieving family photos. Miller's grandmother hid in the cellar while the house above collapsed, and survived. But Miller's other grandmother, out for a Sunday evening dinner, was not so fortunate. "It's not easy," Miller told WeatherOnline. "I don't think the worst has come yet. This is all adrenaline and coping." Elsewhere in Joplin, reported The Joplin Globe, 19-year-old Tyler Hall had been forced to take shelter in a back room at Home Depot, where he was working, when the tornado struck. A concrete wall collapsed onto Hall and four other workers who were huddled together there. He and his co-workers crawled out from beneath it as the tornado passed.

Mark Woolbright, vice president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, 2nd District, and Missouri State Council of Fire Fighters President Tony Kelley were on the scene on May 23, helping wherever and however they could. "The situation in Joplin is still chaotic," Woolbright said on the union website. "But we do know at least four of our members have lost their homes and some fire stations may have suffered significant damage."

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