On Wednesday morning, residents of Joplin are as uncertain about the fate of their loved ones as officials are about just how many people are dead after the 8th deadliest tornado in U.S. history ripped through this Missouri town. In the media, the record of the missing and dead in this town of roughly 50,000 has been shifting by the hour. In a Tuesday morning press conference, Joplin fire chief Mitch Randles announced that 116 had been killed, to which a reporter rebutted that the Associated Press was reporting 117, based on a source in Gov. Jay Nixon’s office. “That’s not from us,” Randles curtly replied.
By the afternoon, the New York Times had quoted Capt. Robert Daus of the Maryland Heights Fire District as saying that 1,500 people were missing. While the article noted that the alarmingly high number could be a reflection of a breakdown of communication systems, the figure spread quickly — online and in Joplin. “I heard they can’t find 1,500 people,” said Roxi Mills, a resident of Joplin, early on Tuesday evening. Having driven through the wreckage herself, Mills thought that number might even be low.
By the end of the day, the City of Joplin had posted a message on its Facebook page, clarifying the reports of the 1,500 who were still, at that point, missing. “This does NOT mean they are injured or deceased, just that that loved ones are not aware of their whereabouts,” the post stated. But the message didn’t sooth everyone. “Is there any way anyone in Joplin could list the people who are still missing?” a commenter logged on as Chris Taylor wrote. “It might help many who still have no idea if a friend or relative is missing.” .
Many displaced Joplin residents are shacking up with friends or relatives. Mills, 30, whose apartment was destroyed in the tornado, says she brought her children to her grandmother’s one-bedroom residence. Seven people slept there Tuesday night. Stories like hers are common. Perry Elkins, a public affairs representative at a Red Cross shelter in town, says that on Monday night, only 143 people stayed in the shelter, though it has the capacity for 1,000. “People stayed in their vehicles, in their neighbor’s houses,” Elkins says. Mills echoes the sentiment: “It’s a small town. Everybody knows everybody.”
See photos from the tornadoes in the South.
Mark Rohr, Joplin’s City Manager, went over the grim numbers late Tuesday night with yet another reporter in a tired, almost robotic tone. He said the fatalities had risen to 123 as of 7 p.m., and that some 750 people had sustained injuries. Rescuers had almost completed their third sweep through the rubble with cadaver-sniffing dogs. On Tuesday, they discovered two survivors, bringing the total found alive in the wreckage to nine. The estimated 1,500 missing, Rohr said, was calculated from people who had called in from the region and around the country to report those they had not been able to contact. “We’re not sure in every instance what [the] circumstances are, and that’s what we’re trying to pinpoint,”
Rohr says. Still, he is realistic that the number of fatalities is likely to rise. “It needs to be said that I’m certain there’s a percentage of those of [1,500] people we lost. We certainly hope that’s a low percentage.”
For many residents of Joplin — a town that Rohr says has a longstanding reputation for being friendly — the future simply is not imaginable. Mills and her grandmother can’t locate a relative, Dixie Kenny. Kenny, 73, lived alone on the east side of the town — and in the path of the tornado. But they are holding onto hope. “You would think that if she’s okay, she’d be letting us know,” says Bonnie, Mills’ 71-year-old grandmother, who works as a volunteer for the city. “But we found out tonight that one of my granddaughter’s friends couldn’t find one of his good friends. And he had been taken to a hospital in Kansas because a tree limb hit him and he was hurt really bad. They took him in a helicopter to Chanute, Kansas. There’s a hospital up there. Maybe she’s somewhere like that, you know, we don’t know. Maybe she didn’t have any identification on her. Maybe.”
See TIME’s Pictures of the Week.
