I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011

Recalling the lessons he learned in a first aid class his mother made him take the previous summer, Dex finds Dr. Gage’s first aid kit intact in the glove compartment and presses gauze to the wound on his leg until the bleeding stops. Dex vows to hold onto Dr. Gage as he had held on to Dex when the tornado threatened to suck him out of the car. Jimmy and Sara arrive, relieved to have found them. They fashion a stretcher from a door they find in the wreckage and carry Dr. Gage to their pickup truck. They want Dex to come to the hospital with them, but he wants to return to his neighborhood, no more than half a mile away, and find his parents. Jimmy warns him of the destruction, but he does not want to wait. They hug goodbye, and Dex heads “into the ruins, to discover what was left” (74).

Everywhere he looks, Dex sees destruction. His once “peaceful, bustling city” is in ruins. Pieces of people’s lives—toys, photos, dishes, sofas, pages from children’s books—are scattered about. Some houses are completely gone; others are in pieces. The Tuckers’ house is destroyed, and he remembers with relief that “the Tuckers were safe in Arkansas” (76). He breaks into a run and finds that his house is now “a mountain of rubble” (77). His mother’s car is upside down, and his father’s is gone. Terrified that his parents are trapped in the basement buried under the rubble, he begins digging through the debris, calling his parents and Zeke through his sobs. He feels “something warm and slobbery” touch his neck. Zeke has found him. He hears his parents’ voices calling him, and the three rush into each other’s arms with Zeke, weeping.

Dex and his family have moved into an apartment temporarily. Everything he experienced has haunted his dreams. In the immediate aftermath, “Joplin had been cut off from the world,” streets closed and power out, but the worst were the 158 deaths (83). Dex and his family try not to think about what could have happened. His parents had been driving home when the tornado hit. They had pulled off the road and sought shelter in a restaurant’s basement. If they had been home, they would have been buried in the wreckage that collapsed into the basement. They do not know how Zeke survived, but Dr. Gage, who is recovering in Oklahoma, credits the dog’s “superpowers” (84). Dex and his parents have plans to visit him in a few weeks. Dex plans to bring the hailstone that he and his father recovered from the SUV’s wreckage. Perhaps it will contain information that will “help Dr. Gage unravel the mysteries of tornadoes” (85).

Dex sifts through the boxes of personal possessions they had recovered from their home’s wreckage “with the help of volunteers” from within and beyond Joplin who came “to help pick up the pieces” (86). Dylan and his family have helped, and the boys have recovered some of the bond they had lost. Dex finds what he was looking for: Jeremy’s SEAL pin. Three days after the storm, Jeremy got a call through to Dex. At first, neither brother could speak, both in tears. When they could finally speak, Jeremy revealed that he would be returning home for a visit soon. Then he sent his pin, including a note in which he wrote, “You earned this” (88). Dex reflects that what makes people “strong and brave” is “what was inside” them (88). What he most loves about Joplin is the unbreakable faith and strength of its people. Thinking about his upcoming plans to help the Tuckers “move into their temporary house” and volunteer with his friends at a shelter their church organized, Dex realizes his mission is just getting started (89).