Mon, Jul 07 2008
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Published May 14, 2008 10:44 pm - RACINE, Mo. — They have found solace in numbers, even though the Peterson family members could just as easily have found despair in the numbers, if they chose to count only what they lost over the weekend. Family counts blessings, friends in wake of loss By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com RACINE, Mo. — They have found solace in numbers, even though the Peterson family members could just as easily have found despair in the numbers, if they chose to count only what they lost over the weekend. They lost one loved one: Rockie Peterson, 64, the family patriarch and one of 14 lives claimed by Saturday’s tornado in Newton County. They lost two barns and maybe a house. They lost two of the Boer goats that they raise for a living. They lost several small goat shelters. They have lost time spent cleaning up property that still resembles a war zone in some ways. But Lori Peterson, Rockie Peterson’s daughter-in-law and business partner, said you can also find strength in the numbers — if you count what you still have. The family members still have one another, she said. The tornado that killed Rockie Peterson could have easily killed the other three people who were with him at the time. The Petersons still have the rest of their nearly 200 Boer goats. They still have a grain bin. They have 26 days until the American Boer Goat Association’s National Show in Tulsa, Okla., which the family has vowed to attend. And they have lots of friends — who have shown up in force to help them rebuild this week. “You definitely have to count your blessings,” Lori Peterson said Wednesday as she walked among the remnants of the family farmstead. “If you focus on what you have lost, you’ll get swallowed up.” Cleanup and recovery The land is scarred but slowly healing. As a portable generator hums outside Lori Peterson’s home, coils of smoke twist upward from a pile of debris the family is burning. Wess Peterson and his brother are busy gathering downed limbs and brush, and feeding them to the flames. Three operations are contained in the Peterson farmsteads near Falcon and Iris roads, northeast of Racine. Two of the three operations deal in the breeding and sale of goats. The third deals in equipment, such as pens, for goats and small stock. The needs of the herd have been one source of help to the family, said Jan Smith, a family friend who drove down from Elkland to help. 
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