ktravula – a travelogue!

Sandy and the Frankeinstorm

I’ve never been in a hurricane. I have been in a tornado once, and the experience was better imagined than experienced. Yet the difference between a hurricane and a tornado would seem to appear like one between an elephant and a little puppy.

The images I’ve seen so far from the East Coast of the United States at the moment are heartbreaking: cars floating on floods, winds pushing people and properties around. When all is said and done, there would be millions of dollars in damages, and several efforts needed to repair. Homes would be lost, some people would be dead or wounded. And then the process of rebuilding will begin again.

I was in Joplin, Missouri, in June 2011 – another site of a horrible devastation. It was a tornado at that time, but the heartbreaking sights did not leave any space for such distinction. Homes, lives, and property were lost.

My thoughts and prayers are with the denizens of these affected areas. It is in times like these that the value of life and community is strongly cherished, along with agencies of government saddled with the responsibility of doing all necessary to get people back on their feet.

Stay safe, people. You’re in our thoughts.

Touchdown, Joplin

Pictures of some of the most heartbreaking of the sites. These are the mild ones. The worst ones featured wrecked, torpedoed cars and total levellings of several huge buildings, and homes.

The pictures were taken around Range Line Road where most of the damage took place over a large expanse of land area.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but none of these appropriately captures just how bad it is.

Giving a Hand

Sleepy-eyed after a long day, here are a few shots of the day’s work. The site is a private house/ranch, one of the ones that were ravaged by the storm down to the ground. The owner – present to meet with us – is a man of about seventy-five years old.

The task was to demolish what could be demolished, separate planks of wood from roofing sheets that have been crumbled into a pile, and make the compound at least more navigable until the fire department comes around to burn what could be burnt.

Through the hot morning until the eventually cool evening, we moved sheets, broke wood, threw debris, heaved crowbars at dead joints and leveled the initially formidable pile of debris onto the ground. Two torn shirts, one dead pair of gloves, a dirty pair of pants and ten hurting toes later, here I am. We’ve done what we came here for although there is plenty, plenty more to do elsewhere around the town. The work would not end in one day, or even in a year. But for today, one house is set for re-building, almost.

Storm Chaser in Joplin

We arrived in Joplin, a town at the southernmost part of Missouri a few miles from the state line, a few hours ago. Here it was where over 200 people were declared dead or lost from the EF-5 tornado of a few weeks ago. I’m in company of two friends, and we have come to join the volunteer efforts of a non-profit organization ServiceInternational.org along with several other volunteers from around the country.

The ride from school to this place took four hours and thirty-five minutes, and it took us virtually through the state itself, covering about 300 miles. We will be here till Sunday helping move debris, giving a hand to US Marine Corps helping with reconstruction, and generally being of help to the numerous folks on the ground helping to get this community back on its feet. It promises to be a satisfying, and learning experience.

I’ll try to post pictures as often as I can, but won’t promise. I will however tweet short observations through my phone as much as I can, so follow me on twitter.Tomorrow will be a long day in the field.

Riding the Storm

There was a huge tornado in this area four weeks ago, and I was in it. It was a most frightening experience. I was returning home from campus, and it ended with my car being spun 360 degrees and tossed off the road along with the meal of fries I had just bought at McDonald’s. (It gives a new meaning to “taking the car for a spin”, doesn’t it?) Luckily I wasn’t hurt, and neither was the car. But by the time I read the news and saw what it had done to the airport in St. Louis that same night, I knew how much luckier I had been. It moved planes and cars, broke glasses and knocked down electric systems. Since then I’d sworn never to ignore tornado alerts.

The biggest storms I’ve ever experienced in Nigeria usually happened at night. There have been tornadoes but they are rare and spaced out so I’d never actually been in one. They’re deadly nevertheless. Imagine walking in the rain at night and have the wind throw an aluminum roof straight at your jugular or at your car while you drove. Just a few years ago, father went to bed in a large house of two storeys and woke up with an open roof. The whole roofing frame had been moved a few miles down the street. My grandfather’s house once suffered the same fate many years later.

The houses in America are built differently, it seems, and thus suffer a seemingly greater damage. Then there is the powerful wind running at such speed that can wreck anything in its way. Two days ago, another big stormed roamed this parts and killed about 117 people from Missouri to Minnesota. Pictures from Joplin MO looked like a war zone. When people say “be thankful for little blessings”, I guess they mean that one should be grateful for not being in a place like this when the storm comes. It is a frightening, and often devastating experience.

UPDATE: President Obama has promised to visit the town on Sunday.

...or browse articles by tags