Published: May 13, 2008 08:16 pm            

Residents hurry to secure homes, possessions as more storms loomed

Area north of Racine saw worst of ‘pure destruction’

RACINE, Mo. — Residents of Newton County’s storm-damaged areas scrambled to shelter what remained of their homes and possessions from approaching storms while federal and state damage-assessment teams arrived.

Cleanup and salvage work was particularly brisk along the stretch of Highway 86 north of Racine, an area that was especially hard-hit by Saturday’s tornado. Under gray skies, homeowners, volunteers and utility crews worked to clear toppled trees, repair power lines, stretch tarps over damaged roofs and windows, or salvage possessions from the wreckage of homes in anticipation of more bad weather.

Although most of the 14 storm fatalities in Newton County occurred around the intersection of Highway 43 and Iris Road, the area north of Racine bore the brunt of the storm’s structural havoc, said Gary Roark, emergency management director of Newton County.

“As far as pure destruction, that’s the worst we have got,” he said.

Huge trees along Highway 86 between Holly and Jute roads were toppled, snapped, splintered or blasted apart by the weekend storm. At least a half-dozen homes along the highway had either been flattened or severely damaged.

The work was enough to draw scores of volunteers to the area to cut and clear the downed trees and sift through the rubble, said Phil Weece, youth minister of the Racine Christian Church. Weece and other church members were again on-hand Tuesday to continue the work. Many of the affected families were members of the Racine Christian Church.

“There is a lot of people who need chain saws,” Weece said as he and several others cut away at a massive tree Tuesday afternoon. “The individuals who lived in this area got decimated.”

Weece said a number of those homeowners are trying to cut up the downed trees and limbs into pieces that can then be resold to loggers. The loggers would then load up and carry away the debris.

If nothing else, he said, it would help the people salvage a little bit of money and quickly clear away debris that only reminds people of the storm’s damage.

As Weece and his crew used chain saws to cut up trees, Rick Hall and his family hurried to load up a few chairs, and some pots and pans from the wreckage of their house across the road before the expected bad weather hit.

Part of a kitchen wall was about all that withstood Saturday’s tornado, Hall said, so the family was limited in what it could save. The members loaded what they could salvage into their two vehicles — one they own, one on loan from his wife’s workplace — so the materials could be transported to a friend’s barn for storage.

Still, Hall said the family was fortunate. Although their house and other vehicle were destroyed, the family happened to be out of town during the weekend and escaped the storm.

“We are here,” he said. “That’s the main thing. All this can be replaced.”

Farther south down Highway 86, Jack Gulick hurried to secure windows, the roof and front door to his home in case the bad weather forecast for Tuesday did arrive.

Gulick had already spread a tarp over areas of the roof torn up by hail and wind. As a portable generator labored to keep some of the family’s refrigerated food from spoiling, Gulick worked to secure his front door to its frame.

For Gulick, Tuesday was partly about the growing weight of details that attend recovery. There are the specifics about the damage to the family’s house, vehicles, outbuildings and power lines. There are questions about finding food and showers, about repairs to their water well, about when to go to back to work, and how much work should they do themselves before visits from their insurance agents and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

Then there are questions about how the family of three will be able to chop up and remove all the trees, some of which are massive, from their property.

And Gulick counts himself, his wife and 8-year-old daughter extremely fortunate.

“We have got a big mess, but it could be a lot worse,” he said looking out over his wide front yard, which was covered with debris and contained both his staved-in workshop and damaged truck.

“We were lucky,” he said. “There are people with a lot more need than us.”

As residents like Gulick continued with cleanup on Tuesday, a contingent of federal and state officials consisting of U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Administrator David Paulison and Gov. Matt Blunt visited the remains of a farmstead just north of the intersection of Highway 43 and Iris Road.

Matt Blunt said that damage-assessment teams from both FEMA and SEMA were in Newton County. The damage assessments are the steppingstone to a federal disaster declaration that would, in turn, enable homeowners and businesses to seek aid.

Matt Blunt reiterated that he expected that declaration “in the very near future,” while both Chertoff and Paulison assured “a speedy response” from FEMA.

Roark, the county’s emergency management director, said the damage assessment teams should complete their work within the next few days. Additional teams are expected to arrive today (Wednesday), he said.



Derek Spellman writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.





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By the numbers

If Newton County receives the expected federal disaster declaration from President Bush, it would mark the sixth time it has been so designated in the past 28 months, according to U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt. Past declarations cover weather events that include two ice storms and flooding.