JOPLIN, Mo. —
Amy Jump watched intently Tuesday as two movers carried her new coffee table from the furniture truck through the sliding glass doors and into her new home at 2424 S. Joplin Ave.
“We’re not going to have room for all of this stuff,” she declared as the movers set the wood table down in the living room. A three-piece leather sofa sectional and two end tables already crowded the room.
Jump, 33, considered it a good problem. The home of Jump, her husband and three children was destroyed last May 22. The family purchased furniture in September in anticipation of moving back in by Thanksgiving, but moving day was delayed after she ran into contractor problems. The Jumps turned to Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri for help.
“You might be able to make it all fit,” encouraged Norma Hernandez, the disaster case manager from Catholic Charities. She has been working with the Jump family since January to get the house built. “Just wait until all of the furniture is in. Then, we will see what we can do.”
Hernandez is one of nine disaster case managers working for Catholic Charities in Joplin and helping families navigate the web of federal, state and local assistance. The organization received a grant Tuesday for $42,374.50 from the Joplin Recovery Fund to hire a 10th case manager to help storm victims. The grant covers the case manager’s salary and benefits for one year.
“The case manager piece is so important because you need to make sure that there isn’t a duplication of services,” said Michelle Ducre, director of Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri. “They also look at the whole family and the whole person, and connect them with the services and resources that they need.”
Jump said having a disaster case manager from Catholic Charities to help get the construction of her home back on track was critical. The last major hurdle is getting utilities connected. The family hopes to be settled into its new house by the time Joplin marks the one-year anniversary of the tornado on May 22.
“I’ll just be so glad when we get to move in and don’t have to do anything,” Jump said.
Lafayette House
The Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, which administers the $3.625 million given to the Joplin Recovery Fund, awarded a second grant Tuesday, for $100,000 to Lafayette House. The money will be used to hire a care coordinator and a family therapist to assist women at the shelter.
“After the tornado, we were not sure how we were going to make it through the summer,” said Louise Secker, director of community services for Lafayette House. “But thanks to the generosity of these gifts, the sky has opened up. It’s truly amazing.”
Lafayette House earlier received a $100,000 grant from Leggett & Platt Inc. to purchase furniture and flooring. The two grants were badly needed, Secker said. There has been an estimated 40 percent increase in the number of women arriving at the shelter since the tornado, and those women are staying longer and have greater needs, she said.
Lafayette House typically would provide shelter to 30 women and their children at a time, Secker said. Most stay an average of 18 days. In the first three months after the tornado, the shelter housed an average of 60 women at a time. While the number of women seeking refuge has returned to the pre-tornado average, those women stay an average of 25 days now, she said. Most women also need additional counseling to overcome the emotional stress created by the tornado.
“The tornado took the place that they would go to for safety,” Secker said. “They used to go to mom’s house, but now mom’s house is gone. Maybe their next option was to go to a sister’s house, but now the sister’s house is gone.”
678 gifts
THE JOPLIN RECOVERY FUND has received 678 gifts, ranging from $5 to $1.5 million, said Louise Knauer, spokeswoman for the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the parent organization for the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri. As of Tuesday, 30 grants totaling $2.43 million have been awarded from the $3.625 million the fund has collected, she said.
May 2011 Joplin tornado
Related Photos
-
Volunteers Bobbie Dodson (left) and Joan Breece from Lafayette-Orinda (Calif.) Presbyterian Church put the elbow grease into cleanup Tuesday at the new home of the Amy Jump family in Joplin. Dodson and Breece were volunteering through the tornado-recovery efforts of Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri at the home on South Joplin Avenue. GLOBE | T. ROB BROWN
-
Norma Hernandez, Catholic Charities case manager, on Tuesday goes over details with tornado victim Amy Jump about her new home. GLOBE | T. ROB BROWN
Discussion
Joplin Recovery Fund gives grants to Lafayette House, Catholic Charities
- May 2011 Joplin tornado
-
-
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.
-
SLIDESHOW: One year later, One day of unity, updated
Photos from a day of events commemorating the May 22, 2011 tornado anniversary
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Two plead guilty to post-tornado wire theft
Two defendants pleaded guilty Monday to stealing copper wire from utility poles in the wake of the May 22, 2011, tornado that struck Joplin. Timothy M. Silveria, 45, of Joplin, and Nycoa K. Kracht, 32, of Laurel, Ind., entered open pleas of guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to felony counts of theft from a public utility.
-
FACES OF RECOVERY: 176,869 volunteers help put Joplin together again
They initially came in droves, pouring into Joplin by the thousands during the months following the May 2011 tornado to clear debris, clean up damaged homes and businesses and distribute donations of food, water, clothing and other necessities.
-
Therapy dogs
Any question that Louie was bred to put people as ease is put to rest when the golden retriever trots over to where a visitor sits and puts his head on their knee, the dog’s eyes filled with a gentle affection.
- More May 2011 Joplin tornado Headlines
-
