Wed, Nov 25 2009
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Family thankful for opportunity to start over “I just don’t really see much reason to be unhappy about it at this point,” he said. “The Lord saw fit to let us all live through this. There’s nothing here you can’t replace. It’s the people that matter. All the rest of it is just junk.”
No one was injured in the Lants’ businesses. They both closed at 5 p.m. Saturday, a mere 30 minutes before the storm flattened the structure. Lant realizes how fortunate his family and employees are. He had always told his employees that in the event of a storm, they should go to the feed store’s large, walk-in refrigerator. All that was left of that metal box Saturday night was a mangled door lying on a pile of boards. “I’ve seen tornado damage before, but nothing like this,” he said. The Lants’ home three miles from the stores sustained only minor hail damage. But Lant has to admit that things won’t be the same after the twister. The Ozarks oddity that was the all-in-one bridal shop and country feed store will not return. He said he plans to rebuild the feed store at that location and hopes to open by Sept. 1. But Jane Lant will not reopen her bridal store. That part is over, he said. “It was a big joke for a while,” Bill Lant said. “It was like you know you’re in the Ozarks when you can get a bridal gown and hog feed without ever leaving the building.” Jane Lant is considering continuing the dried-flower part of her business with a smaller shop that she would open later. But right now, Lant said, his wife is more excited about spending some more time with her six grandchildren. Destruction Bill Lant said some of the bridal shop’s 800 in-stock wedding and prom gowns have been found as far as 100 miles away from the shop. A piece of the feed store’s sign was found in a yard in Sarcoxie. Three truck trailers filled with supplies for the feed store were thrown from the parking lot to an adjacent field. Another trailer full of antique car parts that Lant uses to restore old Fords in his spare time also was destroyed. According to a woman who weathered the storm by cowering in her car in front of the Lants’ building, the businesses were flattened in less than 10 seconds. “I always thought a tornado would drag on for a while, but she said she saw it coming, ducked in time for her windows to blow out, then looked up to see it was gone,” Bill Lant said. “In five to seven seconds, it was all over.” Lant said almost all of the bridal shop’s merchandise and much of the feed store’s was ruined. He did recover 10 to 15 tons of feed from the wreckage. Jane Lant is still looking for her order book with all her information on brides-to-be and their dress orders, and she is encouraging women who ordered dresses to contact her or stop by what’s left of the business to trade contact information. Outpouring of help One of Lants’ sons, Craig, flew in from Alaska a week ago. He was supposed to be on vacation. As he hauled away the wooden frame of his parents’ businesses, he laughed about how his vacation was turning out. 
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