Brandi Hill burst into tears Tuesday night when Gov. Jay Nixon announced that she will get a new home this summer as part of the 2012 Governor’s Joplin Habitat Challenge.
Nixon called Hill and her children onto the stage at the Joplin Holiday Inn Convention Center when he made the announcement in a room filled with Missouri University supporters who gathered for a Tiger Caravan visit to highlight MU sports.
They gave Hill a standing ovation, along with the families of Pamela Davis and Ashli Robinson, who also will get new homes to be built by Habitat for Humanity volunteers who will work alongside representatives of sports teams including the MU Tigers. The homes will be among 35 to be built in Joplin as part of the governor’s challenge.
Hill’s home near 26th Street and Sergeant Avenue was demolished in the May 22 tornado. She and son Lucas, 2, and daughter Brylee, 1, all were hospitalized with injuries, and they now are living with family.
Hill said she couldn’t hold back the tears when she learned she would get a new home.
“I’m so excited and happy,” she said. “We’ve had our application in since February.”
Robinson said she, her daughter Jadyn, 12, and son Garren, 6, are living in a Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home. She said that in addition to losing her home, she lost a cousin, Keith Robinson, who was a worker at Greenbriar Nursing Home, which also was demolished in the tornado.
Robinson said she is glad to have the FEMA housing but eager to be able to replace that with a home. She said bad weather is very upsetting to her son, “and in a trailer, you can hear everything.”
Davis said she and her husband also are living in a FEMA mobile home along with adopted grandchildren Kameray, Deondre and Rashawn. Before the tornado, their home was at 2001 Texas Ave.
The three women said they were surprised by the announcement. They said went to the convention center because Habitat officials told them there would be a meeting as part of the application steps.
Nixon told the MU supporters that the Tigers are in the lead in signing up volunteers who will work on the building project. The 35 homes will be divided into seven neighborhoods, with one of seven Missouri athletic franchises to sponsor each of the neighborhoods. Players, coaches, alumni and staff members from each organization will serve alongside volunteers and professional builders in helping with the construction.
In addition to MU, sports organizations committed to the project are the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Blues and NASCAR.
Nixon said his administration has allocated $3.6 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds that will be used to buy the land and materials for the project, and to hire construction supervisors to lead the volunteer teams.
Nixon said the project will be “another step” in Joplin’s building back, and that he continues “to marvel at the strength of the community.”
He said he is encouraged that the school year has gone well for students, and that sales tax receipts and employment have remained strong.
Volunteers
MORE THAN 2,000 VOLUNTEERS have signed up for the challenge, and others may register to volunteer with the tam of their choice or to contribute in the name of their favorite team at www.mo.gov
May 2011 Joplin tornado
Governor announces construction of 35 new Joplin homes at Tiger Caravan
- May 2011 Joplin tornado
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Joplin insurance agent seeks donations for Moore, Okla.
After losing an office building and her home in the tornado on May 22, 2011, Loretta Bailey is familiar with the destruction that a tornado brings. The 400 households that her insurance agency helped through the aftermath of the tornado also know that loss. \
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SLIDESHOW: One year later, One day of unity, updated
Photos from a day of events commemorating the May 22, 2011 tornado anniversary
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Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore
It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.
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Federal, state leaders salute Joplin’s recovery
A deadly May twister may have punched a hole in Joplin and Duquesne two years ago, but the resolve to repair it will help other communities stand strong when they face similar disasters. That was the message of state and national diginitaries to a crowd of about 2,500 who observed the second anniversary of Joplin’s devastating May 22, 2011, storm during a ceremony Wednesday in Cunningham Park.
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Banner from Joplin to be sent to Moore residents
A giant vinyl banner adorned with heartfelt messages from Joplin tornado survivors to the residents of Moore, Okla., became a centerpiece of Wednesday’s observance of the two-year anniversary of the May 22, 2011, tornado.
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Rick Rescorla award named for hero of Vietnam War, 9-11 terror attacks
The Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience is named for a 62-year-old vice president of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. who directed an evacuation of the company’s 2,700-person workforce in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011.
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Community gearing up for two-year anniversary ceremony this afternoon
With the playground full of children, it could be any other day at Joplin’s Cunningham Park, but the white tents popping up and neat rows of white chairs lined up nearby indicate something more is happening today.
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Farmers Insurance teams up with Rebuild Joplin
Farmers Insurance announced Tuesday that the company will team up with Rebuild Joplin for an initiative to help the community complete its recovery efforts. The company already has placed one of its executives in Joplin, and it is pledging additional funds and volunteer hours by company workers to go toward the city’s recovery.
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Joplin man continues struggle to recover two years after tornado
As the Joplin tornado passed overhead, sweeping the house at 2430 S. Pennsylvania Ave. away in its wake, there was a moment of calm. Delbert Mcguirk was on his back in the basement, where he had sought shelter along with his wife, daughter and two grandchildren. In that moment of relative quiet, he stared up into the eye of the tornado.
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Storms cause damage throughout the Four States
Four-State Area residents hunkered down twice Monday to ride out tornadoes and powerful spring storms, then went to work cleaning up. The worst damage from Monday night’s storm was being reported in Ottawa County, Okla., near Wyandotte. That followed a report of an EF-1 tornado early Monday morning near Carthage.
- More May 2011 Joplin tornado Headlines
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