On paper, everyone knew the anniversary was coming.
But Tuscaloosa, Ala., resident Clay Leak said Friday’s one-year anniversary of the April 27, 2011, tornado was a more emotional experience than he and many other people expected.
He thinks the same could be the case May 22 in Joplin.
“I think it had a larger impact than people imagined,” said Leak. “It’s shocking how much it affected people the day of and the night before. It’s having a bigger impact than people thought it would.”
Tuscaloosa’s EF-4 tornado killed 53 people in the city and was part of a larger outbreak of tornadoes throughout the South that left hundreds dead. The Alabama Capitol Building on Friday was decorated with 253 flags to honor those who died in the state last year.
Leak is a team leader with Project Rebound in Tuscaloosa, which provides crisis counseling for tornado victims.
“People have been very emotional, very sentimental about it,” he said Friday, on the day of the anniversary.
There has been a feeling of “ ‘Oh my God’ and you relive that whole day,” Leak said, but the goal should be to focus not just on what happened on April 27 — or May 22 in Joplin’s case — but what also happened in the year that followed.
“The other 364 days we remember the good things,” he said. “The main feeling is that while I remember the destruction I also think about the friends, families and strangers who just showed up (to help).
“You don’t forget the bad stuff ... remember the good stuff,” was his advice.
The city of Tuscaloosa began commemorating the anniversary of its tornado with events last Saturday, culminating in a community service Friday at the University of Alabama in which many of the families of the victims were present.
“It is so important to this community on so many levels,” Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said of the anniversary events.
But he, too, was not prepared for the depth of emotion as the anniversary approached.
“It’s hitting all of us,” he said Friday.
Doug Keys, an elder at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, said they held a ceremony on Thursday night, the eve of the 1-year anniversary. It involved 12 other churches, a community choir and a speech by the mayor. Hundreds of people turned out.
“For those who were here, it was a moving event,” said Keys.
“It was such a horrific event, I think you need to remember,” he said of the anniversary.
But it also is important to recall how the community pulled together, and the support that came in from around the country and even around the world.
“We are looking for a brighter day, but we don’t forget those who lost their lives and those who may still be grieving,” he said. “There is remembrance and reflection, but there is also hope for tomorrow. That’s what people are looking for. We all need that hope. That is what all these events are about.”
Jeff Hamilton, professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, said there are psychological and non-psychological reasons for stopping to remember traumatic events.
“People would not so consistently do these things in the wake of a tragedy if there were not some psychological benefit,” he said.
Non-psychological benefits include using the anniversary as a reminder to check up and see how everyone is doing, and to find out if victims still need help, and then to organize more volunteers and donations if necessary.
Psychologically, anniversary commemorations give people an opportunity to recall the events in a way that allows them to exert some control over an otherwise traumatic experience, Hamilton said, and it also allows them to integrate those memories with more positive events of the past year.
“Instead of being part of a 15-minute or one-hour event, they become integrated into a yearlong event,” he said of the memories.
And that yearlong event not only includes the tornado itself, but also memories of neighbors helping neighbors, the unexpected assistance of strangers, new relationships that were formed after the storm, and more, he said.
And all of that, Hamilton said, helps reduce the impact of the original trauma. The danger of trying to keep memories of the event repressed is that doing so actually can increase the potency and intensity of the emotions.
Coping
Jeff Hamilton, professor of psychology at the University of Alabama, said that while anniversary commemorations are good things, not everyone wants to join, and people need to respect a person’s reasons for not participating “and just respect people’s way of coping.”
May 2011 Joplin tornado
Related Photos
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Community members embrace during a prayer for families and community at the Alberta Community Prayer Vigil remembering the April 27th tornado hosted at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Thursday, April 26, 2012. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Surrounded by Alabama state flags, one for each tornado victim, Rev. D’Linell Finley, right, pastor of the Southlawn Baptist Church is embraced by Dr. Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama State Baptist Convention, just prior to a memorial service for victims of the April 27, 2011 tornado, on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., Friday, April 27, 2012. Remembrances are planned across the state to recall the storms that killed about 250 people and left thousands more without homes. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Discussion
One-year tornado anniversary hits some Alabama residents harder than they imagined
Counselor: ‘People have been very emotional, very sentimental’
- 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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