Tagged: joplin tornado

If you’re in the Ozarks, it’s hard not to compare the images and stories out of Moore, Oklahoma to those from the May, 2011 Joplin tornado that killed 161 people.  Jeff Nene, the spokesman for Convoy of Hope, says the similarities are distinct from a relief perspective, too, including a wide path of destruction through residential areas.

“We learned in Joplin the value of mobile distribution,” Nene said.

Mobile distribution is just like it sounds:  taking food, supplies, and services out to remote sites.

Officials of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce have presented the first installment of a special fund for the town of Moore, Okla., following last week’s EF5 tornado that devastated the city.

The Joplin Globe reports the $20,000-dollars in donations delivered Saturday are intended to help the Moore Chamber of Commerce start its own business recovery fund.

  Two years to the day that an EF-5 tornado ripped through Joplin, killing 161 people, the city was greeted with near perfect weather, as thousands came out Wednesday to honor the lives of those lost, and reflect upon the continuing recovery effort.

The federal government is giving the city of Joplin a deal on two fire engines it loaned the city after the 2011 tornado.

Housing re-opened for third year medical students practicing rural medicine in Joplin Monday. The housing is part of the MU School of Medicine rural track pipeline program, which trains students to practice medicine in small, rural communities.

The Joplin arm of the program shut down in 2011, after a tornado destroyed the old living quarters.

Kathleen Quinn is the director of the rural track pipeline program at MU and she says the program helps create more doctors in rural areas, where care could be in short supply.

Missouri senators have endorsed a plan that could provide $15 million to Joplin to rebuild street curbs and gutters that were damaged as a result of the 2011 tornado.

The bill given initial approval Wednesday would fund disaster recovery projects by redirecting money from other areas of state government. Among the entities that would lose money are the state insurance department and an agency that helps finance health and educational facilities.