The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

22 Miracles in May: Stories from the Joplin Tornado

Related Photos

  • After surviving the tornado strike inside the IHOP restaurant on Range Line, Ellen Nichols, a neurosurgeon at Freeman Health System, flagged a ride with a passer-by in order to get to the hospital's emergency room to help treat those wounded in the tornado. Globe/Roger Nomer

    Ellen Nichols.jpg

  • Kurtis Cox, a trauma surgeon at Freeman Health System, worked through the night treating the many injured by the tornado. He had to cut his car out of his garage, which was blocked by a fallen tree before he could make his way to Freeman West. His home on W. 32nd Street lost its roof. Submitted photo

    072011 Kurtis Cox.jpg

Discussion

July 29, 2011

Ellen Nichols & Kurtis Cox: Healing hands

By Emily Younker Globe Staff Writer

JOPLIN, Mo. — The sense of duty Ellen Nichols and Kurtis Cox felt after the tornado swept through Joplin was overwhelming. It was enough to make them leave their families after the storm passed and spend a hectic night assisting in triage efforts at Freeman Hospital West.

Their stories are similar; each begins at Missouri Southern State University, where their children had participated in Joplin High School’s graduation ceremony.

Nichols’ family had met at the IHOP restaurant on Range Line Road on Sunday evening in three separate vehicles to celebrate the graduation of her daughter, Amanda White. Nichols heard tornado sirens as she got out of the car.

Shortly afterward, her husband went outside to look at the sky and saw debris in the air. He ran back in and ordered his family to get to the back of the restaurant. Nichols found herself in the kitchen, piled with several others underneath some stainless steel tables.

“I remember the wind, hearing the glass breaking and the walls coming in,” she said. “The wind was white; I think that it was just debris in the air. I was thinking that it took a long time for it to go by.”

She said the restaurant’s windows blew in and the ceiling fell; though her family was frightened, everyone emerged unhurt. The IHOP had been demolished, as were their vehicles.

Looking around her at the devastation, Nichols, a neurosurgeon, said she felt the need to get to the hospital. She flagged a ride with a passerby, leaving behind her family — including her three children and her 89-year-old mother — at the destroyed IHOP.

“I knew that they were going to be OK,” she said of her family. “I left them in my brother’s care, and I felt comfortable doing that because I knew there were really going to be people out there that needed medical assistance.”

Cox and his family, meanwhile, had decided against taking extra photos of his graduate, son Zach, at the university because the sky looked menacing. They went straight to their house in the Sunset Ridge neighborhood at 32nd Street and Schifferdecker Avenue.

“I just took a look and something just didn’t look right,” Cox said of the sky. “I could tell that there was something going on. I started hearing that sound (like a train) and feeling the pressure change.”

He yelled at his wife and stepson to get into the basement. The tornado hit at about the time Cox himself hit the basement stairs, he said.

“It seemed like it took forever for it to pass, and we could hear glass breaking and things hitting the house,” he said. “When it was over, our basement was pretty much intact. ...Obviously when we got upstairs, it was a big shock.”

The Coxes’ house lost its roof. Zach, they later found out, was safe. He had been driving west on 20th Street when he saw the tornado coming, and he turned north to drive out of its path.

Cox, a trauma surgeon, knew he had to get to the hospital. He cut his car out of the garage, which was blocked by a fallen tree, and he and his wife and stepson made the slow journey to Freeman Hospital West. Leaving them in the car, Cox entered the emergency entrance.

“I really couldn’t believe my eyes at what I saw,” he said. “The entire waiting area was just packed wall to wall with people. There were people standing, sitting, laying, injured people, so I basically turned around and told my wife I’m going to have to stay.”

Both surgeons remained at the hospital all night, treating near-amputations, head wounds and organ ruptures. But they said their response was nothing miraculous or even unusual among employees at Freeman Health System.

“I’m not the only person who was personally affected by this who showed up,” Cox said. “There were so many people who ended up coming that night to work and to see patients and to do their share.”

Said Nichols: “I think every physician that knew about the situation knew there was going to be an incredible need for medical resources.”

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22 Miracles in May: Stories from the Joplin Tornado
  • Reporter's notebook video with Emily Younker: Survivors’ tales nothing short of miraculous

    Joplin is full of stories.
    Many remember where they were when an EF-5 tornado hit Joplin on May 22. Many think of the dizzying aftermath of that night and of the realization that this storm was more powerful than anything ever seen before.

    July 30, 2011

  • r071911stephensmatt.jpg Matt Stephens: Joplin man learning to walk again

    Matt Stephens is the proud recipient of a new prosthetic limb.
    “I make the joke that having a fake leg gives me more character and gives me a story to tell,” he said.

    July 28, 2011 2 Photos

  • r072111monroeashley.jpg Ashley Monroe: ‘How did I survive this?’

    Ashley Monroe rode out the worst of the tornado in her car — and walked away virtually unscathed.
    Monroe left St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where she works in housekeeping, at about 5 p.m. and headed to her house, at 32nd Street and Schifferdecker Avenue.

    July 29, 2011 1 Photo

  • Terry Burns: Reliving it every day

    Terry Burns, a surgical technician at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, was in the middle of a hip surgery on the second floor of the hospital when an announcement came over the sound system: The building was under “condition gray” and emergency procedures to evacuate were required.

    July 29, 2011

  • r071511goebelsteve.jpg Steve Goebel: ‘It dang near killed me’

    Steve Goebel was home on Sunshine Drive in Duquesne when he heard the sound of tornado sirens. Just a minute later, he heard hailstones hitting his house and the sound of a window breaking.
    “I knew I was in trouble,” he said.

    July 29, 2011 1 Photo

  • Daniel Fluharty: Pizza Hut survivor

    Even before he reached the Pizza Hut on Range Line Road to work his Sunday night shift, Daniel Fluharty heard the sirens. The tornado had already formed and was barreling down on Joplin.

    July 29, 2011

  • Pete Anastosopolos: A family reunion

    On May 22, Pete Anastosopolos had left his rented home at 26th Street and Empire Avenue and was doing laundry at his manager’s mother’s Webb City home. He kept an eye on the weather, as his 12-year-old daughter, Zoe, and her mother drove back to Joplin from Springfield.

    July 29, 2011

  • 072011lillardmason.jpg Mason Lillard & Lage Grigsby: Cousins beat all odds

    Cousins Mason Lillard, 10, and Lage Grigsby, 14, were with their grandparents, Rodney and Sharon Lillard, of Carthage, at the Home Depot when the tornado hit. Rodney Lillard was inside the store while the others waited for him in the car.

    July 29, 2011 2 Photos

  • Ellen Nichols.jpg Ellen Nichols & Kurtis Cox: Healing hands

    The sense of duty Ellen Nichols and Kurtis Cox felt after the tornado swept through Joplin was overwhelming. It was enough to make them leave their families after the storm passed and spend a hectic night assisting in triage efforts at Freeman Hospital West.

    July 29, 2011 2 Photos

  • Shari Anderson: ‘It was amazing that we didn’t die’

    Another graduation party was scheduled to take place in the International House of Pancakes on Sunday night for Teresa Anderson, said her mother, Shari Anderson.

    July 29, 2011