Forced to dig to save a loved one. we found a path. we cleared up stuff. we just kind of pulled him out from there at 2:00 in the morning. reporter: throughout this temporary red cross shelter there are similar stories of dramatic rescues, close calls and agonizing losses. we are homeless, jobless, carless. but, believe me, i think that we are so lucky to survive this. and right now we just have to start from scratch. you can help them start from scratch. here is how. log on to cnn.com/impact and check out our special page. it has all the tools you need to make a difference for those people in joplin. well, where do the sick and
Finding faith and hope at a red cross shelter. reporter: blown away. a town, a community torn apart. he lost his hospital, his home and nearly his father. i was just calling him out. i was yelling his name. dad, dad, are you there? reporter: he nearly lost his life. i thought i was going to die, truthfully. reporter: like so many trying to pick up the pieces of their lives in joplin, missouri, dr. zaidi and john ness have been ravaged by this disaster. but they have both found faith and purpose at this makeshift red cross center on a campus of missouri southern university. we have been sleeping in the
Not get out of the way. well, a couple things happened. the storm developed rapidly. even though the warning was out, with 24 minutes worth of notice the storm developed five miles from just west of joplin, just over here. the storm was on the ground as an f-0, small little tornado, but in five miles it became 200 miles per hour and more. just five miles. had this storm, had this spot right here been maybe 15 miles farther to the west so the spotters were out on it saying look out, this is a huge killer tornado, get out of of the way, get out of the way, maybe the immediacy would have been more. people would have been out of their cars. ta they would have been in buildings. a lot of people died in cars. you saw what happened to those cars. those cars were destroyed. it was a giant tornado. sometimes there is just nothing you can do about it. there s not a question. that s joplin, that little word right there.
Sky. i could see some of the hospital had to be gone because i knew there was another floor above us. when i saw that i said, this ain t good. this is not good at all. reporter: but johnson was okay and so was mcdaniel and his family. my grandpa has bruises and cuts on his back. my grandma has glass still embedded in her hair, but we re a lot better off than a lot of people. this is bad. oh, my gosh. this is awful. reporter: a lot of people in joplin were suddenly and severely wounded, but the biggest hospital in town was in ruins. having it destroyed turned the page on disaster plans. reporter: risko, at home on his day off, rushed to the hospital. he arrived to find a building he hardly recognized. the hospital was on fire,
Nina. that is gone. la nina can bring bigger hurricanes because of the shear that it makes or the lack of it in the pacific and the atlantic and also in the gulf. i m worried about the warmer water. we are always worried about the warmer water, but 2004 was a big tornado season. didn t kill a lot of people. we had a huge number of tornadoes. remember of 2004? i do. charlie, gene, francis, ivan. i was on the speech almost the entire summer. i didn t enjoy it because i was watching hurricanes come in one after the other after the other. chad myers, thanks. two cities devastated by tornados. joplin, missouri and tuscaloosa linked by tragedy and charity. up next, the future for both cities.
god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missou missouri, will rebuild, but it will never be the same. hello and welcome to this one-hour cnn special report on the joplin, missouri, tornado and other deadly storms. a twister s fury: in the path of
Life. this is what it looks like now. after everything that s happened, what made you decide to come back? this is home. reporter: like so many hit by this tornado, brown is getting help from volunteers offering food and comfort. brown wants to tell the people of joplin, don t turn down help and don t give up. if you can t go anywhere else, you can always go home. reporter: would it have been easier to say, i m not going home, pack it in and start over somewhere? it definitely would have been a whole lot easier, but i won t let this get me down. reporter: a full month after a deadly tornado and so many still so slow to turn the corner from surviving to recovering. the determination here to rebuild. is palpable. the people here believe that
Spliez nemthe country with the e we can come back. reporter: after tragedy and devastation collins takes solace in the cross at the church across the street and in support he received from his community. i thank god to live in such a place. casey joins us live from joplin. the collins story is inspirational. also inspirational is the amount of volunteers flooding to that city, literally. reporter: that s right, drew. it s incredible. we have seen people from all over the country flocking to joplin to help out. church groups, other volunteers, people doing search and rescue efforts on their own. the city says there are officially 2,500 volunteers registered, but they believe there s at least 3,000, perhaps even more than that, including the folks who have just come here on their own to decide to help out. it s really showing that this city is committed to rebuilding and it s something that needs to
Brothers had they not been able to find me. you know, what it would have been like for them. i m glad they found me. i don t want the to do that to them. caring for the victims of this tornado is made even more difficult after the place joplin has counted on for care, its largest hospital, became part of the rubble field. st. johns hospital found it at the center of the storm. oh, my gosh. look at this. oh, my gosh. oh, my gosh. reporter: what happens if disaster strikes went right through here. reporter: if the worst happens. oh, my gosh. reporter: and the hospital is at the center of the storm. oh, no. it s the hospital. reporter: st. johns hospital,
Injured go when their town s main hospital is blown away by a tornado? we re going to take you inside st. johns hospital in joplin, missouri, next. what s this option? that s new. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke.