It turned so ominous that she hustled her family to the basement before the twister hit, tearing through their home as they cried out. The tornado left Liz Easton’s home and cupcake shop in ruins, but it spared her family.Įaston, 47, said she can’t forget the sinister look of the storm as it descended on her neighborhood. “I’m a spiritual person, and I feel like I get a pat on the back from God every once in a while.” “When I start to feel sorry for myself, I think of that,” he said. He has suffered from depression, but said he presses on knowing it could have been so much worse. He plays catch with his 16-year-old son with his left hand, “but it’s not pretty.” He mows the lawn but does little else requiring exertion. He can fish, but can’t play his beloved golf. He no longer needs a cane but has a perpetual limp. Physically, “I’m a mess, but I’m still here,” he said. Lindquist was publicly honored by the Missouri Legislature, though privately, he struggles. The residents he tried to save didn’t make it. “I do remember the house kind of exploding, and me being jerked in the air,” the 56-year-old said. Then they climbed atop the makeshift protective cover for added weight. Lindquist and a co-worker at the group home known as Community Group Services scrambled as the twister bore down to place mattresses atop three middle-aged men with Down syndrome. He was impaled on a piece of metal, broke every rib in his body and lost most of his teeth. The tornado threw Mark Lindquist more than half a block, burying him a pile of rubble. “Time passes, and you just look for the good in things,” Mark Norton says. Freeman Hospital and its Ozark Center counseling arm has “Will’s Place,” a treatment site for children with mental health or behavioral issues.Īnd there’s now a website, “The Will Wall,” where people can post their gratitude for others who had an impact on them. Joplin now has “Will Norton Miracle Field,” a baseball park for children with special needs. “I go to the cemetery once or twice a week, but it’s not the same as being in his room.”
“It’s a little comfort to go in there, go back in time and remember how it was,” Norton said. Will’s room remains the way he left it, with an open pack of chewing gum, his trademark mismatched socks, his computer and the green screen that helped earn him a YouTube following for his travel chronicles. Norton’s body was found five days later in a pond.įive years later, his father says it’s almost as if his son never left. Here are stories about some of the victims and survivors, and the city’s recovery:Īs his father desperately held his legs, 18-year-old Will Norton was sucked out of his family’s SUV through the sunroof as they drove home from his graduation. The tornado that ripped through the town of about 50,000 people May 22, is being called the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. JOPLIN, MO – MAY 24: Damage is seen one day after a tornado tore through Joplin killing at least 122 people on in Joplin, Missouri.
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