The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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January 29, 2012

MedFlight director recalls May 22 tornado that left ‘hollow’ St. John’s hospital

By Josh Letner Globe Staff Writer

JOPLIN, Mo. — Rod Pace wasn’t supposed to be on duty May 22.

Because of a death in the family, the manager of Mercy MedFlight went to work that Sunday afternoon at St. John’s Regional Medical Center to finish payroll before heading to Idaho for a funeral.

Pace said that when he finished the payroll, he was surprised that it was raining.

“It was strange because it wasn’t supposed to be raining on this side of town,” he recalled.

Pace decided to delay his motorcycle ride home and instead elected to wait out the storm with co-workers. They watched as the storm quickly intensified.

“We stood at the back doors on the south side of the hospital and watched the wall of water come, and we watched all the trees around 32nd and McClelland start swinging,” he said.

Pace said the hospital already had declared a “condition gray,” and staff members were hurrying to move patients to secure locations. He and his flight crew had just returned to their quarters when the tornado struck. After it passed, he looked into the hospital courtyard and was shocked by what he saw.

“It certainly didn’t look like the courtyard we’d been used to seeing for the last 15 years,” he said. “There were tons of rubble inside and out. We actually had rocks, debris, trees and external debris that came through the wall of windows and penetrated into the crew room.”

The nine-story hospital had taken a direct hit from the EF-5 tornado and was knocked out of action. At least a half-dozen people who were there were killed. The image of the hospital has become one of the symbols of the tornado’s destructive power.

On Sunday, as the hospital staff gathered to say goodbye to St. John’s Regional Medical Center and to break ground for a new hospital, Pace remembered one piece of equipment that he said cannot be replaced: the Eurocopter BK 117 helicopter that he and his crew flew for more than a decade.

“Eurocopter does not make that model of aircraft anymore, and they haven’t for over a decade,” Pace said. “When we put that aircraft into operation in December of ’98, that was our step-up to a cabin-class aircraft, and we were the only ones ever to fly a cabin-class aircraft in this area. It was special in a lot of ways, and it is irreplaceable. It was a big deal to a lot of people, just like this facility. It was a part of it. It was all part of it.”

Eight months after the tornado, Pace said he is ready for the hospital to move to its new home, which is projected to open in 2015.

“It is time for us to move on,” he said. “It has been hard, especially since the winter has set in. There’s nothing on the trees. That hollow building has been much more noticeable on the landscape. It is the final symbol that we are moving ahead and we are going to rebuild. It’ll be a good step for all of us.”

Pace said he hopes the new location will allow his crew to have a smaller impact on surrounding neighborhoods.

“I think it gives us an opportunity to fly a little more neighborly,” he said. “With the I-44 corridor and all the white noise that comes from the traffic there, and our location on the north side of the facility, I think we’ll come and go in a less disruptive way. We’ll kind of blend in to what is already there with the traffic.”

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