Kansas City Tornadoes

[Elspode]

I just got off the phone with my friend who berths his sailboat at the marina in Stockton, MO. Apparently, the marina was spared, but he doesn't know 100% because he drove the 2.5 hours down there yesterday only to be turned away at the city limits by the highway patrol.

As I mentioned before, I have been camping at Stockton Lake for nearly 20 years, and I cannot tell you how broken hearted I am at the devastation I've just seen in the pictures and videos online (surprisingly, not much coverage here...it was overshadowed by our own disaster, understandably so). This town is filled with the most friendly, warm people you can imagine. They have all the tourist amenities without losing the small town flavor. For all the beauty there, Stockton Lake is one of the most underutilized lakes in the whole state; that's why I like it there so much. I have spent many a 4th of July watching the Stockton fireworks show, and many a happy hour browsing through the five and dime and other mom and pop establishments, most of which are now utterly destroyed.

Stockton was (is, damn it) a beautiful little town, its last major reconstruction dating back to the Civil War when it was largely destroyed. Its classic town square, surrounding the intersections of Missouri Highways 32 and 39 was a wonderfully restored and preserved example of Midwestern stonework. One of the buildings was once a movie theater which boasted of being the only cave air-conditioned theater in the world (Stockton sits atop a cave, the entrance of which pours forth icy cold water just a couple hundred feet downhill from the square into a wonderful city park). The guy I work with once crawled back into that cave almost a half mile in that very same frigid water.

The Stockton Square is a total ruin now, the buildings mere piles of rubble being finished off by heavy equipment for safety's sake. I weep for Stockton and its residents, both those who died and those who must somehow carry on and rebuild.

http://www.missouri.edu/~jrfbbc/joplin/14-Stockton.jpg

The link above will take you to a picture of what it looked like before Sunday afternoon. This isn't the best picture possible, just the best I could find.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_articl...?storyid=40216

This link will take you to a video report from a Springfield, MO TV station.

Sorry to be so maudlin, but I'm very, very sad right now.