I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011 Read online

  CONTENTS

  HALF TITLE PAGE

  ALSO AVAILABLE

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  WHY I WROTE ABOUT JOPLIN, MISSOURI

  A TIME LINE OF THE JOPLIN TORNADO

  QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT TORNADOES

  STAYING SAFE IN A TORNADO

  FOR FURTHER READING AND LEARNING

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  A monster EF-5 tornado was destroying the city of Joplin, Missouri. And eleven-year-old Dexter James was in its killer grip.

  The tornado had snuck up on the city, hiding behind a wall of storm clouds. Few knew it was coming. And nobody imagined that within minutes, it would kill 158 people and destroy much of the city.

  In the hours before, Joplin had hummed with happy life. Cheers rose up from Little League fields. Gardens bloomed with roses and wild strawberries. Churches echoed with prayers and hymns.

  It was a typical Sunday afternoon.

  Until the day turned dark and the wind began to howl.

  And then the sky exploded like a bomb.

  The tornado was three-quarters of a mile wide, with winds that topped 200 miles per hour. It swept away houses and blasted the wreckage thousands of feet into the sky. It tore apart schools and sent stores crashing down on the people inside. Cars flew through the air. Trucks turned into missiles. Century-old trees were ripped from the ground.

  The tornado sirens wailed.

  People rushed to their basements and huddled in bathtubs as their houses collapsed on top of them. Parents gripped their children as cruel winds tried to tear them away. In minutes, entire neighborhoods lay in ruins.

  Dex was in an SUV when the tornado hit, and now he was trapped.

  The ferocious winds roared and sent tree limbs and rocks smashing against the SUV.

  And then,

  Smash!

  A window shattered. The tornado’s fury blasted into the SUV. Dex was attacked by swirling winds filled with bits of wood and metal and glass. The pain was like being stung by thousands of scorpions, over and over again.

  And then the wind grabbed hold of Dex. It wrapped around him like invisible tentacles, pulling him toward the open window.

  Dex had always wanted to see a tornado for real.

  And now here it was — the evil, swirling darkness.

  Dex was being sucked into the tornado, and he knew there could be no escape.

  Dex pedaled his bike through the quiet streets of his neighborhood, his dog, Zeke, trotting right beside him. He was studying an arrow-shaped cloud in the bright blue sky when squealing shouts echoed from just ahead.

  “Dexter! Dexter! Buy some lemonade!”

  Two identical blond heads bounced up over a rosebush.

  It was the little Tucker twins, Stephanie and Bobbie.

  Dex wasn’t thirsty, but no way could he just ignore the girls. Dex’s parents and Mr. Tucker had all grown up together in Joplin. Before the twins were born, Mrs. Tucker worked at Joplin High School, where Mom and Dad both taught math.

  There were about 50,000 people living in Joplin, and it seemed that at least half of them were practically part of Dex’s family.

  Dex stopped his bike in the Tuckers’ driveway and dug a quarter out of his pocket. Both girls pointed at Zeke and giggled. The dog sat patiently with his tongue hanging almost down to the ground. Dex had to laugh, too. Poor Zekie was probably the ugliest dog in southeastern Missouri. Dad had it right when he said Zeke looked like a cross between a dolphin and a hyena. But who needed good looks when you were the best dog on the planet?

  Dex choked down a Dixie Cup filled with warm, watery lemonade.

  “Delicious,” he said, smacking his lips.

  The little girls beamed, flashing their missing front teeth.

  Just then, Mr. Tucker came through the front door. He was lugging two suitcases, which he dropped next to the car.

  “Good morning, Dex!” he said, striding over.

  “Hey, Mr. Tucker. Going somewhere exciting?”

  Mr. Tucker smiled. “Just down to Arkansas, visiting the cousins. We’ll be back Monday.”

  He gave Zeke a pat on the head. “You and your guard dog can keep the burglars away for us.”

  Dex laughed. The only criminals in this neighborhood were the raccoons that knocked over their garbage cans.

  “So,” Mr. Tucker said, lowering his voice. “Any word from Jeremy?”

  The question punched Dex in the gut.

  Jeremy, Dex’s twenty-year-old brother, was a member of the US Navy SEALs, a special part of the military. He was overseas on a mission, but Dex had no idea where. SEAL missions were top secret. Jeremy could be anywhere in the world where there was a war to fight, terrorists to catch, or hostages to rescue.

  “No news yet,” Dex said, his throat tightening up. Jeremy had warned him that he could be out of touch for weeks during his mission. But still, each day without hearing Jeremy’s voice felt like a year.

  When Jeremy first became a SEAL, all Dex felt was pride. His brother was one of the toughest warriors on the whole planet! How awesome was that? Folks in Joplin said Jeremy was a hero. At school, even Dylan Elliott and his pals were coming up to Dex, dying to know every detail about being a SEAL.

  Dylan and Dex used to be close buddies. But over the years, Dylan had spent more and more time with guys from his baseball team. Dylan and Dex never had a fight, or even exchanged a mean look. But somehow an invisible wall had risen up between them, and Dex had no idea how to break it down.

  And so it was a happy surprise for Dex that suddenly Dylan and his pals wanted to sit with him at lunch. They’d crowd around him, begging to see the picture of Jeremy in his night-vision goggles with his M16 rifle strapped to his chest. They’d ignore their chocolate milk and French toast sticks as Dex told them everything Jeremy could do: parachute into a war zone, scuba dive one hundred feet down into the sea, survive an arctic blizzard or desert sandstorm.

  “Did he ever have to eat a raw lizard?” asked Mike Sturm, who had replaced Dex as Dylan’s best friend.

  “Quiet, Mike,” Dylan snapped. “They don’t eat lizards, do they, Dex?”

  “No,” Dex said. “They can eat some kinds of bugs, though. They’re really high in protein.”

  That sent them all into fits of groaning giggles, and the happy sounds echoed through Dex’s mind all day. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed Dylan, and how good it would feel to be one of the guys.

  But over the past couple of weeks, something strange had happened to Dex. He didn’t want to tell stories about Jeremy. He didn’t want to think about Jeremy. Because it had suddenly dawned on Dex that his brother — his best friend in the world — might not make it home in one piece. Jeremy could get shot, blown up, kidnapped … or worse. Last night, Dex had lain sweating in his bed, actually counting the ways his brother could get hurt.

  Dex couldn’t admit this to the guys; they’d think he was a little coward.

  And he sure didn’t want to talk about it with Mr. Tucker right now. He said a quick good-bye, afraid he was going to start blubbering in front of the twins.

  As Dex rode toward home with Zeke, his brain flashed with nightmare thoughts.

  There was Jeremy, pinned against a mountainside as grenades
exploded all around him.

  There was Jeremy, leaping out of a burning Black Hawk helicopter.

  There was Jeremy, alone and bleeding in some far-off desert.

  Dex pedaled faster, as though his terror was a ferocious beast he could speed away from.

  He flew down the street on his bike.

  He ignored the stop sign.

  He barely heard the horn or the screeching tires.

  And then,

  Bam!

  Dex was flying through the air.

  Crash!

  Dex hit the pavement. It took him a few long seconds to realize what had happened.

  It wasn’t the car that had knocked him down.

  It was Zeke!

  The dog had smacked into the bike, sending Dex tumbling to the street seconds before the car would have hit him.

  Dex sat there in shock until Zeke revived him with an attack of slobbering licks.

  “You saved me,” Dex said, burying his face in Zeke’s smooth gray fur.

  Dex was still catching his breath when a man came rushing toward him. Dex realized that it was the owner of the car that had almost hit him.

  Dex hauled himself to his feet.

  “Are you okay?!” the man asked breathlessly. “I think that dog of yours might have superpowers! Did he actually push you off that bike?”

  “I think he did,” Dex said, staring at the man. There was something familiar about his shiny bald head and friendly brown eyes.

  Wait … no … could it be?

  Dex’s heart started to pound.

  “You’re Doctor Norman Gage,” Dex blurted out. “The storm chaser!”

  “That’s right,” the man said with a surprised laugh.

  Dr. Gage had his own TV show, called Tornado Mysteries. Dad and Dex watched it every week. Jeremy had loved it, too. What was extra cool was that Dad had actually known Dr. Gage in college. Dad always regretted that they’d lost touch.

  “I’m Dex James,” Dex said, trying not to squeak with excitement like one of the Tucker twins. “I think you maybe know my father, David.”

  Dr. Gage studied Dex with a confused look, but then he burst into a big grin.

  “You’re kidding me! You’re Dave James’s son!” he said. “I miss that guy! Your dad is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met!”

  “I love your show,” Dex gushed.

  “Ha!” Dr. Gage said. “And to think I almost ran over my only fan.”

  “No! My dad and brother love your show, too.”

  “That makes my day,” Dr. Gage said, and Dex could see he really meant it.

  Dex looked over at Dr. Gage’s vehicle, which he recognized now from the show. It was a bright red SUV with thick tires and a forest of antennas sprouting from the roof. It looked more like a tank than a regular car.

  “What are you doing here in Joplin?” Dex asked.

  Dex knew that Dr. Gage lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was a good two hours away.

  “There’s a workshop I’m going to this evening,” Dr. Gage said. “But I’m going to stay over and do some storm chasing tomorrow. There’s an interesting storm brewing to the west of here.”

  “You think we’ll get a tornado?” Dex asked.

  They got plenty of storms every spring, violent thunderstorms that turned the sky black and sent down sheets of rain. There were tornado warnings practically every week. But there hadn’t been a big tornado in Joplin in forty years.

  “You never know for sure when a tornado is going to strike,” Dr. Gage said. “But I’ve been tracking this storm all week. From the way things are looking, I think we could get a tornado somewhere north of Galena.”

  Galena was about seven miles from Joplin, just over the Kansas border.

  Dex felt a mix of fear and excitement.

  “I’ve always wanted to see a tornado,” he blurted out.

  Not a big one, of course, and not up close. He understood that tornadoes are one of the most destructive forces in nature. Powerful tornadoes are like mile-wide chain saws, with winds that can get up to 300 miles per hour, strong enough to pulverize buildings, turn a neighborhood into a pile of wood chips, or pick up a tractor trailer and hurl it a hundred yards.

  Tornadoes were terrifying. But they were fascinating, too, like Komodo dragons and black mamba snakes.

  And Dex had always wanted to see one with his own eyes, not just in YouTube videos and on Dr. Gage’s show.

  “Tell you what,” Dr. Gage said. “Why don’t you and your dad come along with me tomorrow? I can’t guarantee we’ll see anything — most times I don’t. But there’s always something new to learn.”

  Dex’s heart leaped up, but then he remembered that both Mom and Dad had to go to the Joplin High School graduation tomorrow. All of the teachers had to be there.

  “My dad won’t be able to come,” Dex said.

  Dr. Gage reached into his pocket and took out a business card, which he handed to Dex.

  “Have my old buddy give me a call. Maybe he’ll let you come and help me out.”

  Dr. Gage gave Zeke a last pat on the head and got into his SUV.

  Dex blinked his eyes hard, sure this was all a dream.

  But no! He had been invited to go storm chasing with Dr. Norman Gage.

  He might actually see a tornado, for real.

  “Sounds way too dangerous,” Mom said, adding a dash of pepper to a bubbling pot of chili. “I don’t like the idea of Dex heading off with some thrill seeker.”

  Dex, Mom, and Dad were in the kitchen, cooking their usual Saturday night chili dinner. Dad had already spoken to Dr. Gage and he was excited for Dex to go on tomorrow’s chase. Now they just had to get Mom to go along with the plan.

  “Deb, Norm is a serious scientist,” Dad said.

  Mom eyed him. “What he does is dangerous, David. Norman Gage isn’t chasing bunnies. He’s chasing tornadoes!”

  “Now there’s a show I’d like to see,” Dad said. “Norman Gage, bunny chaser!”

  That made them all laugh, with Mom’s singsong giggle rising up loudest.

  Good sign, Dex thought. When Mom was really upset, not even Zeke could make her smile. After Jeremy left, it seemed Mom hadn’t cracked a smile for a month.

  Mom stopped laughing. “I’d just feel better if one of us were going along.”

  There was no way she or Dad could miss the graduation ceremony.

  Dad brushed one of Mom’s blond curls off of her forehead. “I trust Norm. He really doesn’t take risks,” Dad said. “And this is an incredible opportunity for Dex.”

  “You should see his car, Mom,” Dex said. “It can go way faster than any tornado.”

  Mom looked at Dad, and then Dex, flicking her dark eyes back and forth. Dex held his breath.

  Finally, Mom gave her I surrender sigh and flashed the smile that Dad swore was the prettiest in Joplin.

  “All right.”

  Victory!

  * * *

  After dinner, Mom put the Scrabble board on the table. She looked at Dex hopefully.

  “Quick game?”

  Scrabble used to be another Saturday night tradition — Mom and Dad versus Dex and Jeremy. The fierce games would stretch for hours over bowls of popcorn and chocolate ice cream. When Dex and Jeremy won, they’d parade around the house like Super Bowl champs, whooping with joy.

  Dex couldn’t tell Mom that with Jeremy gone, Scrabble was just a boring game. He kissed her good night. “I need to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow.”

  He said good night to Dad and headed up to his room.

  He watched a couple episodes of Dr. Gage’s show and then got ready for bed. He pulled back his blankets to make a spot for Zeke. He had to yank hard to undo his sheets, which were tucked in extra tight.

  Jeremy had taught him how to make his bed that way. He had just finished SEAL training in California, the most brutal military training in the world. It was six months of pure misery, Jeremy said, endless days of grueling runs, freezing ocean swims, an
d impossible obstacle courses.

  The worst night for Jeremy was when they had to swim for hours in the freezing Pacific Ocean. The surf was so rough he got thrown against some rocks and cut his leg.

  “They finally pulled me out of the water,” Jeremy had said. “They were afraid my blood would attract the great white sharks that feed in that area.”

  Dex had repeated that story to Dylan and the guys, and they had almost fallen off of their chairs with happiness.

  Dex also showed them Jeremy’s SEAL trident pin, which Jeremy let him bring to school for the day. The pin was a golden eagle clutching an anchor, a gun, and a three-pronged spear. Dex explained that out of the 118 guys who started in Jeremy’s training class, only 23 passed and got their pins.

  The guys crowded around Dex, staring at the pin in awe, as if it was a dinosaur egg about to hatch.

  “What was the best thing Jeremy learned in training?” Dylan had asked.

  Almost without thinking, Dex said, “To make his bed right. It’s the first thing a SEAL learns in training. Anyone who does it wrong gets their bed ripped apart by the instructors.”

  “I don’t get it,” Dylan said, not rudely.

  Dex had said the same thing to Jeremy, and now Dex repeated his brother’s answer almost word for word to the guys.

  “Because you make your bed right, and you’ve started your day doing something right. And if you have a hard day, you can come home to a bed you made, so you can go to sleep and get strong again for the next day.”

  The guys watched for Dylan’s reaction.

  “That makes sense,” he said finally.

  And now Dex climbed into his perfectly made bed and snuggled up with Zeke. He said a silent good night to his brother, and a prayer to keep him safe.

  Tonight, at least, he didn’t lie awake thinking about Jeremy.

  His head was filled with tornadoes dancing in the sky, touching down in his mind and carrying him off to sleep.

  Mom was tutoring one of her students after church, so it was just Dad and Dex waiting on the porch when Dr. Gage zoomed into the driveway. He hopped out of the SUV and came rushing over to Dad. They hugged each other like long-lost brothers. Zeke seemed happy to see Dr. Gage, too.