I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011

by Lauren Tarshis

  By the time Dex was in his seat, the hail had stopped.

  Dr. Gage opened the glove compartment and took out a first aid kit. He fished out an ice pack, gave it a good smack, and laid it gently on the painful lump on Dex’s scalp.

  “You sure you’re all right?” Dr. Gage said, his brow crinkled up with worry.

  “I’m fine,” Dex said, and luckily he was. He just hoped that Mom wouldn’t find out.

  “I am so sorry, Dex. I never should have put us in the middle of that field. From the radar, I actually thought the storm was going to lose power. I should have known better.”

  “I think your car is in worse shape than me,” Dex said. A hailstone had turned the windshield into a spiderweb of cracks.

  Dr. Gage laughed. “I’ve had it replaced twice this year already.”

  They sat for a few minutes until the rain stopped.

  “It always surprises me,” Dr. Gage said. “Nature can be so violent one minute, and so peaceful the next. And we humans have no control at all.”

  Dr. Gage opened his door and stepped outside.

  A few seconds later he came back holding a huge hailstone, perfectly round and glistening.

  He presented it to Dex as though it was a priceless diamond. “A souvenir.”

  It was very light and smooth. Dex brought it up to his nose and sniffed it. It smelled musty, and he caught a whiff of something strangely familiar.

  Dr. Gage seemed to read his mind. “Mint, right?”

  “That’s it!” Dex said.

  “I wish I could tell you why. We can put it in my little freezer until we get home.”

  Dex had already decided he’d bring it to school tomorrow. He’d pack it in a small cooler and show it to the guys at lunch. Dylan would freak!

  Dr. Gage turned his attention to the weather radar map. He pointed at two red blotches pulsing across the screen.

  “Look at these,” he said with surprise. “There are two new storms heading this way. Both are supercells.”

  His face darkened.

  “It’s going to get dangerous around here when all of these storms come together. Jimmy and Sara love this kind of weather. But I think it’s too risky to be out chasing. I can’t tell where these storms are heading, and how strong they’re going to get.”

  He looked at Dex apologetically.

  “I think we should head back to Joplin, call it a day.”

  “That’s fine,” Dex said, trying not to sound too relieved.

  That lightning had spooked him, and that hailstone had almost cracked open his skull.

  He’d seen enough bad weather for one day.

  * * *

  Dex relaxed on the ride back to Joplin as Dr. Gage told him funny stories about himself and Dad in college. But as they got closer to Dex’s neighborhood, Dr. Gage got quiet. He kept one eye on the radar map, and kept glancing warily into the rearview mirror. Was someone following them? Was Dr. Gage going to get a speeding ticket?

  Dex turned around, expecting to see flashing police lights.

  There were no cars behind them.

  But there was something strange in the sky, an enormous gray cloud moving very quickly toward them.

  A shiver of fear jangled Dex’s spine.

  “Is that a supercell?”

  “Could be,” Dr. Gage said. “There’s so much happening on the radar right now. It’s hard to know. It’s pretty far back. Let’s see if we can take a better look.”

  He made a quick U-turn so that now they were driving slowly in the opposite direction, toward the cloud. It was very dark, but with a hazy blur in the center. It stretched out across the horizon as far as Dex could see.

  Dr. Gage stared through the cracked windshield, scanning the sky like a SEAL searching for enemy shooters.

  And then a flash of lightning flared inside the cloud, lighting it up from the inside like an X-ray.

  “Oh, my Lord,” Dr. Gage whispered.

  In that split second of brightness, they had both seen what was hidden inside the storm cloud.

  It was a tornado.

  An enormous, churning tornado, the biggest Dex had ever imagined.

  It was on a path to destroy Joplin.

  Dr. Gage turned the SUV around again, and they raced away from the tornado.

  He punched 911 into his phone.

  A woman’s voice came over the speaker.

  “Nine-one-one emergency.”

  “This is Dr. Norman Gage. I’m a storm chaser. There is a massive tornado on the ground in southwest Joplin. It could be a mile wide. And it is rain-wrapped and almost impossible to see. People need to be warned right away!”

  Dex’s heart pounded. Had he heard right? Could a tornado really be one mile wide?

  If the tornado kept going in the same direction, it would wipe out some of the most crowded parts of the city — Dex’s school, the St. John’s hospital complex, Dex’s church, all the stores and supermarkets and fast-food restaurants that lined South Range Line Road …

  And Dex’s neighborhood.

  The wind shook the windows of the SUV. The air was filled with leaves, branches, and black roof shingles.

  “This is a huge tornado and very strong,” Dr. Gage warned. “Please get the sirens going!”

  He hung up with the 911 operator and handed the phone to Dex.

  “Call your parents,” he said. “Tell them both to take cover and to spread the word.”

  Dex glanced at the time; it was almost 5:40. Were they home from the graduation yet?

  With shaking hands, Dex called home.

  All he got was a fast busy signal. Same thing when he tried to call Mom’s cell, and then Dad’s.

  Was cell service cut off?

  Just then a piercing shriek rang out through the air — finally, the tornado sirens.

  Yeeowwwyeeeowwwyeeeoww!

  But was it too late?

  And would people pay attention?

  Would Mom and Dad know to run to the basement? Would Zeke go with them? His dog hated it down there.

  How many people in Joplin knew what was coming?

  It was now pouring rain, and the gray cloud was completely invisible.

  A massive tornado was about to hit Joplin, and nobody could see it.

  Dr. Gage’s terrifying words came back to Dex.

  Black walls of death.

  The wind was getting stronger, gusting in howling breaths.

  Trees swayed back and forth.

  A huge limb broke off and flew across the street.

  Dex noticed a new color on the radar map — pink.

  “Dr. Gage,” he said softly. “What are those pink dots?”

  They were scattered across the red blobs like sprinkles.

  Dr. Gage glanced at the screen, his face grim.

  “Debris,” he answered finally.

  Debris. It took Dex a few seconds to get it. Those pink dots were pieces of houses and buildings and cars that had been sucked thousands of feet into the sky.

  Dex’s eyes flooded with tears.

  Joplin! His city was being torn to pieces.

  Dr. Gage picked up the handset of his ham radio, which would work even when cell service was out.

  “Jimmy, Sara, you there?”

  There was a loud crackle, and then Sara’s voice.

  “Norm, where are you? We’re heading into Joplin. I wish you could see this! It’s massive! We’re following it in.”

  “Stay back!” he said. “It’s right behind us, on Twentieth Street!”

  Dex gasped as he watched a telephone pole break in half and slam onto the road in front of them. The wires erupted into a spray of sparks.

  Dr. Gage dropped the handset and hit the brakes.

  “Norm!” Sara called. “Norm!”

  The car skidded on the rain-slick road. It whipped around in a circle, around and around, like a sickening carnival ride.

  They were heading right for a huge oak tree, and Dex braced himself for a terrible crash. The car swerved at t
he last minute, and they missed the tree. Instead, they plowed into a chain-link fence, breaking through the metal mesh and finally lurching to a stop.

  They sat there for a moment, too stunned to speak.

  They were in front of Peter’s Garage, where Dad took his car to be fixed.

  A chunk of the roof tore away and smacked into the car.

  A stop sign shot past them like an arrow.

  The wind was really howling now, branches and roof shingles swirling in the air.

  Dr. Gage jammed the SUV into reverse and tried to back up.

  But the car was tangled inside the broken fence.

  The sky darkened; the winds howled with fury.

  Rocks and branches pounded their windows.

  Jimmy’s panicked voice crackled on the radio. “Norm! Norm!”

  But Dr. Gage was busy trying to free them from the fence.

  The wheels spun. The engine whined.

  “Come on, come on …” Dr. Gage worked desperately to free the car.

  At last the car began to move.

  He’d done it!

  But no. It wasn’t Dr. Gage who was moving the car.

  It was the wind.

  It rocked the car back and forth, up and down.

  Suddenly Dex’s ears started to pop.

  And there was a noise like nothing Dex had ever heard, like thousands of Black Hawk helicopters had exploded from the sky, their engines roaring, their blades whirring.

  The tornado.

  It had come for them.

  All at once, the world shattered.

  The rest of the roof flew off of the garage, blew up into thousands of pieces, and was sucked up into the sky. A storm of wood and metal and leaves churned all around them. A lawn mower dropped out of the sky.

  They were in the middle of the tornado now, caught in the evil, swirling darkness. Dex’s ears popped over and over from the pressure. His eyes felt as if they would burst from his skull.

  He watched in horror as the tornado’s chain-saw winds pulverized the garage. The cars parked in front bounced across the lot. A horrible stench filled the air — a mix of rotting earth and gas. It burned Dex’s nose and throat and made it hard to take a breath.

  But the worst part was the noise. The tornado’s whirring roar rose up, mixing with the thud, crash, smash of debris pummeling their car.

  They had to get away from here!

  Dex remembered all of the tornado drills at school, rules that had been hammered into him since kindergarten.

  Stay inside!

  Get away from windows!

  Rush to a basement and or an inside room!

  Cover your head!

  Dex knew how dangerous it was to be in a car, even an SUV built for storm chasing. A tornado could yank a freight train off its tracks and suck it into the sky. Even a tank was no match for a strong tornado.

  But where else could they go? Even if there was an underground bomb shelter right in the parking lot, they couldn’t get to it. Stepping outside now would be crazy. They might as well run through a spray of machine-gun fire and grenades.

  And then,

  Smash!

  The window next to Dex shattered, shooting glass across his face.

  Whoosh!

  The tornado wind blasted into the car, hot air packed with dirt and rocks and wood and glass. It swirled around Dex, biting into his flesh. Dirt shot into his eyes and up his nose.

  The wind kept getting stronger, until it seemed that there was an enormous animal in the car with them, an invisible beast with strangling tentacles. It wrapped itself around Dex and pulled him out of his seat, toward the window. His seat belt strained, pressing against his neck like a noose, cutting into his skin. And then it snapped, and Dex went flying toward the open window.

  Dr. Gage gripped Dex’s arm so hard that Dex was afraid it would be torn off. He pulled Dex back, refusing to let him fall into the tornado’s hungry jaws.

  With a mighty jerk, Dr. Gage managed to break the grip of the wind and throw Dex to the floor.

  “Stay down!” Dr. Gage shouted.

  Dex wedged himself under the dashboard, curling into a tight ball.

  Roooarrrr!

  The tornado bellowed like a beast whose bloody kill had been snatched away.

  And now it wanted revenge.

  With a furious gust, the wind grabbed the car and flipped it onto its side.

  Dex tumbled from his hiding place and smacked against Dr. Gage.

  The car flipped again so now they were upside down, and again and again. Each flip threw Dex across the car, slamming his head against the ceiling, bashing his body against the doors, tossing him so he couldn’t tell if he was up or down.

  The tornado seemed to be toying with the car, like a killer cat playing a game with a dying mouse.

  But now the game was over, and the real terror would begin.

  The tornado sucked the car off the ground. The metal screeched and groaned. One of the back doors flew off.

  This is it, Dex thought. The car was going to get sucked into the sky. He and Dr. Gage would be crushed, or blown thousands of feet into the clouds.

  He called out for Mom, for Dad, for Jeremy, but the tornado swallowed his cries.

  Dex squeezed his eyes shut and prayed.

  There was an explosion, a blinding light, and then nothing.

  Dex felt that he was floating gently, drifting through the air like a feather.

  It was very dark and quiet.

  The tornado must have carried him high into the clouds.

  But then Dex started to spin, faster, faster, faster.

  And now he felt like he was falling.

  He reached out, grasping frantically, as though he could grab hold of a star, or a cloud.

  Dex’s eyes flew open.

  And he realized that the spinning was only in his mind.

  He was in Dr. Gage’s SUV, crumpled across the backseat. The windows were gone. The airbags had opened. There was a huge hole in the roof.

  Carefully he moved his arms and legs. He put his hand on his chest, feeling his pounding heart.

  Was he actually alive?

  He felt like he’d been in a blender, his body beaten to a pulp.

  But somehow no part of him had been crushed or broken or torn open.

  The tornado had moved on. Dex could hear it in the distance, its roar faded to a distant moan.

  He sat up, wincing in pain as he spat out mouthfuls of dirt and grit.

  He wiped away the layer of mud and snot and blood that covered his face. And slowly the world around him came into focus.

  It was no world he recognized. It was as if he had crash-landed on a distant planet. Instead of grass, the ground was covered with glass and pulverized wood and metal. Instead of mountains, there were hills of tangled debris. The trees looked like skeletons, stripped of their leaves and branches and even their bark.

  He was still in the parking lot of Peter’s Garage. The car hadn’t flown so far after all.

  It made no sense that he hadn’t been killed.

  But nothing made sense.

  The garage building was now a heap of crushed concrete. Smashed cars were scattered all around. One had been wrapped around a tree. Downed electrical wires hissed like fiery snakes. A tricycle hung from the branch of a naked tree.

  Slowly the fog lifted from Dex’s mind, and he realized what else was wrong: Dr. Gage wasn’t in the car.

  “Dr. Gage!” Dex cried out.

  He looked all around, his blood turning to ice when he spotted him.

  Dr. Gage was sprawled on the ground just a few yards away.

  He wasn’t moving.

  Dex’s stomach lurched, and a numb feeling spread through him.

  He climbed out of the SUV through a shattered window. Part of the chain-link fence was attached to the bottom of the car. That’s what had saved them from being sucked into the sky, Dex realized. The fence had anchored them to the ground.

  Dex staggered over to Dr.
Gage and fell to his knees. Dr. Gage’s brown skin had turned ashy gray. With shaking fingers, Dex felt his cheek, which was cold and clammy.

  But his chest was moving.

  “Dr. Gage,” Dex choked.

  To his relief, Dr. Gage’s eyes fluttered open.

  He stared at Dex with reddened eyes.

  “Dex,” he rasped. “You made it. You made it.”

  “We both did.”

  But then Dr. Gage shut his eyes again.

  “Dr. Gage! Dr. Gage.”

  He didn’t answer.

  Dex could see he was badly hurt. There was a pool of blood spreading under his right leg.

  What should he do? Who could help them?

  Dex’s mind whirled, as though the tornado winds were spinning his thoughts.

  All he knew was that he was alone.

  His city was gone.

  And Dr. Gage was dying.

  If he were a tough SEAL, Dex would carry Dr. Gage on his back and march through the wreckage all the way to St. John’s hospital.

  But Dex was not a battle-toughened SEAL.

  He was an eleven-year-old kid who couldn’t even hit a baseball.

  He had no team of warriors by his side. He barely even had any friends.

  Dex sat down on the cold, wet ground and closed his eyes. He wanted to curl up and disappear. But his mind drifted to the stories Jeremy had told him about SEAL training. He could practically feel his big brother’s hand on his shoulder, smell his breath, hear his voice speaking quietly in the darkness.

  “They barely let you sleep. You’re running for miles every day, swimming in that freezing ocean until your body is numb. It’s constant pain. Every minute I wanted to quit.”

  “Why do they make it so hard?” Dex had asked.

  “Because the whole point is to show you that you are stronger than you ever imagined. As a SEAL, there will be times when you are terrified, lost, bleeding. But you can’t just quit. The guys on your team are depending on you. Your country is counting on you. And so no matter how you feel, you need to find the strength to complete your mission.”

  Dex still hadn’t really understood.

  But now, sitting in this wrecked parking lot, it started to dawn on him.

  No, Dex wasn’t a SEAL. He had no golden trident pin, no M16 rifle, no soldiers lined up all around him.