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For those of you that are in and around Kansas City, you know how close the recent tornado in Joplin, MO was to home. The complete devastation to our south is still unbelievable and difficult to comprehend. Joplin is located a little over an hour due south of RRC’s office in Overland Park, KS, and Sunday’s tornado has had each one of us thanking our lucky stars for our family, friends and health; our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those in Joplin, their families and friends.
Dr. Rod Lyles founded RRC over 20 years ago. He recently retired and enjoys frequent trips on his motorcycle. Last Sunday, he found himself pulled off the road, just north of Joplin, so he could wait out what he thought was going to be a “bad storm” before resuming his trip to Texas. What follows is his heartbreaking account, just hours after the tornado hit, in his own words. (note: Dr. Lyles’s text hasn’t been edited, the stream-of-consciousness writing only lends to the sense of disbelief and urgency of the situation. The photos are courtesy of Dr. Lyles, as well.)
“I was riding south to Texas yesterday afternoon on highway 69 & stopped 1 hour north of Joplin to wait out “a storm” crossing the highway 20 miles ahead. It turned out to be a STORM !!
Radio broadcast: “Walmart & Home Depot are gone”, so I decided to ride in behind the tornado to see if I could perhaps be of some help at either hospital.
Riding in: 1st note small tree branches in street, then large ones, then a lot of power lines down across streets. My motorcycle made it easy to get through (between) hung up traffic. But trees & power lines somewhat of a challenge for 2 wheels. Found a nice guy and his gal on an ATV in all the mess to lead me to ……. “St. John’s Hospital”
All windows blown out or sucked out of St. John’s and they were …. “closed”. They were moving patients to Freeman Hospital (intact), 2 blocks south.
Everyone, everybody – medical & non-medical, moved quietly, methodically … Then & later at Freeman Hospital. Even in Freeman ER, except for the injured, there was never a sense of panic, desperation, etc … Medical Professionals, even though in what could be an overwhelming situation did their thing. Walking wounded, families, friends …. very quiet & appeared “dazed”. The more severely injured, and there were a lot ….. were understandably not just “dazed”.
Found the “multiple lacerations” room and spent the next 4 hours suturing (still in my Harley-Davidson rain suit).
Wave after wave. Most were caught in their cars. Of course there were lots of horrific family stories … “Don’t know where rest of injured family is, no ride, no house, no nothing”. Over & over …..
One gentleman with face and hand lacerations: 2 blocks from house – Wife and mother in law in front seat. He gets out, they are trapped. Walks to his house, grabs crow bar, comes back, pries doors open & guy in truck takes them to triage at Walgreens. Wife OK, mother in law probably not …. Says he looked into car and sees a can of tuna, a Teddy bear, and wood shingles .. None of which were his. Steps back, and a shivering puppy is at his feet (which also went to Walgreens).
Don’t know how a town, hospital, or people could “prepare” for a disaster like this.
Left ER around 1 am. Out the door and nurse says “you may need this” to get back to St. John’s parking lot … a flash light. Had not thought of such …. City power was out and Freeman’s generators were creating the only light in the entire area. Indeed it was dark & slow… Getting back.
So now back at this “parking lot” again. Hard to describe:
Dark, quiet, totally quiet, except usual distant constant sirens. Nobody was around. But all the “previous” vehicles were there exactly as you saw them in daylight. Let’s see, how to describe ? … How about like a “dark, eery graveyard”? Sorry, not a great writer, but that was it.
Exactly 4 lights were visible to me in this previous “parking lot” right next to a previously busy 10-story hospital.
1) My flashlight.
2) The interior(dome) light was on, in 2 … cars that were severely damaged
3) One car still sitting upright had 1 …. Headlight on.
Hope and a prayer for ALL
Rod Lyles, MD”