JOPLIN, Mo. —
Some of them feature the silhouette of a lighthouse at sunset. Others show a blue morning glory flower. All of them contain the same message: “Peace and hope.”
Thousands of these postcards are on their way to Joplin residents from Donald Verger, a New England photographer and artist who said he wanted to help the community after narrowly escaping the May 22 tornado himself.
“I hope this tiny thing I’m doing provides some tiny bit of peace to them,” he said.
On May 22, Verger, who lives in Maine, was part of a three-vehicle caravan made up of storm chasers, weather experts and photographers. It was not an unusual situation for Verger to be in; he had joined such groups before to track the types of storms that create beautiful and haunting pictures.
“I’ve always been drawn to the sky in my photographs. The storms in New England are not like the Midwest storms,” he said. “So I went out and joined a storm-chasing group because I wanted to see those amazing skies and structures and clouds.”
That evening, Verger and his group were following a supercell and had just entered Joplin, unaware of what was developing behind them. They stopped to refill the vans’ gas tanks at a station in town.
Then the tornado sirens sounded. The storm chasers were unable to take shelter in the gas station — the experience is a blur, and Verger can’t remember exactly where he was — so they attempted to flee the tornado in their vans.
Verger, who videotaped the escape, said he remembers looking out the window of the van and seeing the EF-5 tornado on their heels.
“It was so traumatic and so terrifying to have the tornado bearing down on us and to think that we were all going to perish,” he said. “It was out of a very horrible dream, which I’m sure is what people in Joplin experienced.”
Even after Verger returned home, he remained concerned about Joplin. The images he saw — the destruction, the rubble, the city on fire in the immediate aftermath — weren’t easy to erase from his mind.
Thus was born his Joplin Art Project, a collection of 15 of his own images that he has turned into postcards. The images are meant to soothe and calm, he said, and each image is accompanied by a short message plus the name of Joplin.
Several thousand postcards have already been mailed to Joplin, and a total of 25,000 are expected to wind up in residents’ hands in the near future, Verger said. He said he hopes to have them distributed among Joplin schoolchildren in August; at St. John’s Regional Medical Center; and through the Greater Ozarks Regional Chapter of the American Red Cross.
He has also sent several thousand postcards to the gas station that was his last stop in town and the beginning of his flight from the tornado.
Verger said he doesn’t know exactly what the effect of his project will be, but he hopes it will be a step in the healing process for Joplin.
“I do know that there is kind of a gentle power in art and there is a healing power in people caring,” he said. “I suspect that by offering something to a young person in Joplin or a grandmother in Joplin, people know that there are people in the world thinking about them.”
May 2011 Joplin tornado
New England photographer offers postcards, peace to Joplin
- May 2011 Joplin tornado
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Mother, daughter receives keys to Habitat home
Last year was a difficult one for Lorri Hensley. Her ex-husband died shortly after the May 22 tornado ravaged Joplin, and then the trials of the summer made her feel more overwhelmed.
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City to take applications for soil cleanups
Applications will be available starting Tuesday for eligible tornado survivors to seek help with the replacement of the soil in yards found to be contaminated with lead or cadmium.
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Weather radios on way to Joplin
Joplin’s weather radios are on order and should be available in a few days. The city will announce the steps that residents will need to take to obtain the radios once they arrive.
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School district remodels administration building
The Joplin School District’s new administration building, 3901 E. 32nd St., was recently remodeled to the tune of about $422,000. The building, which formerly housed the Missouri Department of Transportation, became the district’s administration building following the May 22 tornado.
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Details announced for Joplin Memorial Run
The Joplin Memorial Run will be held Saturday, May 19, race organizers have announced. They are expecting 4,000 runners. There will be a half-marathon, 5K and one-mile children’s run.
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Branson tornado stirs Joplin emotions
A Joplin tornado survivor loaded up with supplies Wednesday morning, ready to help in Branson or some other storm-damaged towns, but there were no takers for her efforts yet.
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Lafayette House gets $100,000 donation from Leggett & Platt
Leggett & Platt Inc. has donated $100,000 to Joplin’s Lafayette House as the shelter deals with increased demands after the May 22 tornado. The company based in Carthage has pledged $1 million toward helping Joplin recover from the tornado.
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Organization, donors to construct ‘green’ project
A faith-based organization that was among the first to bring help to Joplin residents after the May 22 tornado is back at work, leading a project to build “green” homes for some storm survivors with donations in a public-private collaboration that might set the future direction of green building after disasters.
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Local woman adds soap making to duties as tornado volunteer
Maggie Steele estimates that Joplin tornado victims have washed as many as 21,000 loads of laundry using soap she makes in the kitchen of her Webb City home.
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Board unveils plans for combined middle, elementary schools
She’ll be in middle school by the time the building is finished, and fourth-grader Zoe Angelopoulos thinks plans for the new combined East Middle School and two elementary schools are awesome. She said she’s going to tell all her friends about them.
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