A Day in Joplin

This past Saturday my parents, sister, and I went to Joplin for the day. We visited Sandstone Gardens and wondered around their giant store for a while before heading back into Joplin for some lunch and just looking at all the destruction. It is just crazy how much damage wind can do. That place was just clearly wiped out. Weirdly enough we were able to find the 7 houses that Ty Pennington and the crew from Extreme Home Makeover just built last week. It was really neat finding and seeing them, we drove down the street with about 15 other vehicles doing the same thing. I guess that's what you get when you have someone come and build you an almost mortgage free home on a big ole TV show. Here are some pics of a couple of the houses. They were all different houses with a different theme. Some were just really out there... Don't let the pictures fool you though, you walk out onto their porches and there is honestly NOTHING around you. Nothing in front, nothing behind.. it is incredible.

Here's a picture of St John's hospital. It is seriously just crazy up there. There is still metal and all sorts or things wrapped around poles and tons of empty slabs were houses once sat, and lots of houses that are missing half their frame. But at the same time there are already so many places (mainly businesses) that have already rebuilt. It is still going to take years for all of these people to rebuild their lives.