pandr
06-04-2011, 02:07 PM
'You can’t believe it’s Joplin'
By Kent Babb - The Kansas City Star
Thursday, Jun. 02, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. – Jamie McMurray stepped carefully around the perimeter of what was left of a familiar house – not much more than a pile of lumber and brick. But if the NASCAR driver and Joplin native looked at it just right, he could still see it: the home he was raised in, where he once buried his dog, where he lived when he learned to race.
“My goodness,” he said after climbing out of an SUV, taking in another example of the damage an EF-5 tornado caused when it ripped through the city on May 22. “It’s just so hard to understand what you’re looking at.
“You can’t believe it’s Joplin.”
With time before Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, McMurray, 34, spent much of Thursday taking in a close-up view of his destroyed hometown. He spoke with displaced residents, die-hard fans and people who just wanted to think about something besides the monumental cleanup ahead. His family moved from Joplin years ago, but McMurray is still introduced at races as a Joplin native and considers the city his home.
He walked to the house’s rear, not far from the tree that used to remind him where he once buried his 15-year-old dog. The tree was uprooted, and leaning against a wall was a wood door. This was the entrance to his bedroom. So many years later, there remained a schoolboy scrawling about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, the rebellious words of a 1994 graduate of Joplin High and the teachers he’d be leaving behind. Some things, including memories and black ink, span the decades and stand up to a storm.
“I was young,” McMurray said with a smile.
The smile faded when he noticed one of the home’s current residents. That door has meaning to Donna Tinker, too. When the tornado touched down near her home at 4471 E. 25th Street, she and her husband, Tom, crouched in the hallway and used that door as a shield as much of their home was destroyed.
“I was down on my knees,” Tinker told McMurray. “I really thought we were going to die.”
McMurray nodded and told her that he never would’ve thought about the hallway being a safe haven. When he was growing up here, McMurray’s mother hurried her children into the bathroom when tornado sirens sounded, Jamie and his sister crouching in the bathtub and their mother covering them with a mattress.
Those storms passed, and McMurray resumed his life as a youngster determined to race. When he was 8 years old, his father took him to the Four State Raceway and put him behind the wheel of a go-cart, his first race and the birth of a career. Now, he has six career victories in stock-car racing’s highest division and a life that many of Joplin’s residents can usually connect with only through television.
On Thursday, a man named George Steckstor was walking along 25th Street, heading back toward his destroyed home, when he noticed McMurray standing there. Steckstor spends most of his days clearing rubble and trying to make sense of what happened 12 days ago.
“You don’t understand what I’ve lost,” he said, adding that his family was uninjured by the tornado.
This past Sunday, he said, he was at a hotel whose restaurant was showing the Coca-Cola 600 on television. He saw McMurray’s car, the words “JOPLIN, MO.” and “HOPE” painted on the rear of his orange Chevrolet.
McMurray said he didn’t think his car would again carry the message this weekend. Steckstor, 56, said he cheered and jumped when his favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., closed in on victory, before he ran out of gas and Kevin Harvick took the checkered flag. By then, Steckstor says, he realized something: For a while, he had forgotten about what the tornado had taken.
Thursday, he said, was similar. He walked toward McMurray, asking for the 34-year-old driver’s autograph on a faith-based handout, and when the driver signed it in black ink, Steckstor walked away pumping his fist and smiling.
“It’s a relief for me,” he said. “Just a relief.”
McMurray stood and talked to the man, and what seemed effortless to the driver was invigorating for those who met McMurray. During a stop at Convoy of Hope, a massive drive-through supply station stocked with everything from flashlights to gloves, McMurray smiled as he met Linda Harbaugh-Mahurin, 51, whose home and office were destroyed. She said it helped to meet McMurray, who spoke with Harbaugh-Mahurin for several minutes and ended the meeting with a hug.
“Wow,” she said. “I’m shaking. I’ll be shaking for a week.”
McMurray also visited the destroyed St. John’s hospital, reconnecting briefly with an old high-school classmate who was working security Thursday, and rode past Joplin High, which took a direct hit from the tornado nearly two weeks ago. He said it was difficult to process the magnitude of the storm’s damage.
“Until you see it,” he said, “you can’t believe it.”
McMurray says a goal is for NASCAR to raise money and sponsor charity events to help Joplin’s residents.
“Even beyond what we’re doing today,” he says, “it’ll be about rebuilding Joplin over the next few years.
“The town is one thing, but the connection with the people is something else. … I still have a major connection to Joplin. It will always be my hometown.”
C/P Thats Racin
By Kent Babb - The Kansas City Star
Thursday, Jun. 02, 2011
JOPLIN, Mo. – Jamie McMurray stepped carefully around the perimeter of what was left of a familiar house – not much more than a pile of lumber and brick. But if the NASCAR driver and Joplin native looked at it just right, he could still see it: the home he was raised in, where he once buried his dog, where he lived when he learned to race.
“My goodness,” he said after climbing out of an SUV, taking in another example of the damage an EF-5 tornado caused when it ripped through the city on May 22. “It’s just so hard to understand what you’re looking at.
“You can’t believe it’s Joplin.”
With time before Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway, McMurray, 34, spent much of Thursday taking in a close-up view of his destroyed hometown. He spoke with displaced residents, die-hard fans and people who just wanted to think about something besides the monumental cleanup ahead. His family moved from Joplin years ago, but McMurray is still introduced at races as a Joplin native and considers the city his home.
He walked to the house’s rear, not far from the tree that used to remind him where he once buried his 15-year-old dog. The tree was uprooted, and leaning against a wall was a wood door. This was the entrance to his bedroom. So many years later, there remained a schoolboy scrawling about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, the rebellious words of a 1994 graduate of Joplin High and the teachers he’d be leaving behind. Some things, including memories and black ink, span the decades and stand up to a storm.
“I was young,” McMurray said with a smile.
The smile faded when he noticed one of the home’s current residents. That door has meaning to Donna Tinker, too. When the tornado touched down near her home at 4471 E. 25th Street, she and her husband, Tom, crouched in the hallway and used that door as a shield as much of their home was destroyed.
“I was down on my knees,” Tinker told McMurray. “I really thought we were going to die.”
McMurray nodded and told her that he never would’ve thought about the hallway being a safe haven. When he was growing up here, McMurray’s mother hurried her children into the bathroom when tornado sirens sounded, Jamie and his sister crouching in the bathtub and their mother covering them with a mattress.
Those storms passed, and McMurray resumed his life as a youngster determined to race. When he was 8 years old, his father took him to the Four State Raceway and put him behind the wheel of a go-cart, his first race and the birth of a career. Now, he has six career victories in stock-car racing’s highest division and a life that many of Joplin’s residents can usually connect with only through television.
On Thursday, a man named George Steckstor was walking along 25th Street, heading back toward his destroyed home, when he noticed McMurray standing there. Steckstor spends most of his days clearing rubble and trying to make sense of what happened 12 days ago.
“You don’t understand what I’ve lost,” he said, adding that his family was uninjured by the tornado.
This past Sunday, he said, he was at a hotel whose restaurant was showing the Coca-Cola 600 on television. He saw McMurray’s car, the words “JOPLIN, MO.” and “HOPE” painted on the rear of his orange Chevrolet.
McMurray said he didn’t think his car would again carry the message this weekend. Steckstor, 56, said he cheered and jumped when his favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., closed in on victory, before he ran out of gas and Kevin Harvick took the checkered flag. By then, Steckstor says, he realized something: For a while, he had forgotten about what the tornado had taken.
Thursday, he said, was similar. He walked toward McMurray, asking for the 34-year-old driver’s autograph on a faith-based handout, and when the driver signed it in black ink, Steckstor walked away pumping his fist and smiling.
“It’s a relief for me,” he said. “Just a relief.”
McMurray stood and talked to the man, and what seemed effortless to the driver was invigorating for those who met McMurray. During a stop at Convoy of Hope, a massive drive-through supply station stocked with everything from flashlights to gloves, McMurray smiled as he met Linda Harbaugh-Mahurin, 51, whose home and office were destroyed. She said it helped to meet McMurray, who spoke with Harbaugh-Mahurin for several minutes and ended the meeting with a hug.
“Wow,” she said. “I’m shaking. I’ll be shaking for a week.”
McMurray also visited the destroyed St. John’s hospital, reconnecting briefly with an old high-school classmate who was working security Thursday, and rode past Joplin High, which took a direct hit from the tornado nearly two weeks ago. He said it was difficult to process the magnitude of the storm’s damage.
“Until you see it,” he said, “you can’t believe it.”
McMurray says a goal is for NASCAR to raise money and sponsor charity events to help Joplin’s residents.
“Even beyond what we’re doing today,” he says, “it’ll be about rebuilding Joplin over the next few years.
“The town is one thing, but the connection with the people is something else. … I still have a major connection to Joplin. It will always be my hometown.”
C/P Thats Racin