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As a devastating EF5 tornado ripped through Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2011, Mary Plummer stood at the back door of her mobile home in Wentworth, Mo., with her eyes to the sky. The tiny town about 20 miles southeast of Joplin was also directly in the path of the deadly storm.
“We could hear the roar of the storm for what seemed like an hour,” Mary says.
As she watched, the tornado dropped back down from the sky as an EF2. Mary says her husband, Chris, hollered at her to get away from the door.
“I threw her on the floor, jumped on top of her, put blankets over us and prayed to God,” Chris remembers.
The Plummers rode out the storm in their mobile home while glass, shingles, wood and other debris flew through the air. The winds moved the mobile home 3 feet off its support, shattered windows and drove debris through walls.
“It was one of the scariest moments of my life,” Mary says. “I hope I never have to go through something like that again.”
But what the Plummers endured in the weeks and months after the tornado proved to be nearly as challenging as weathering the storm itself. The storm left them with electricity in only half of their home, no hot water and 3-foot holes in the floor. Their only bedroom had no electricity and was uninhabitable during the brutally hot and humid summer months, forcing the couple to move their mattress to the living room, where they would sleep for the next four months.
“We just figured we’d be stuck like this, and we felt so useless,” Chris says.
Then, in September, Convoy of Hope took notice of the Plummers’ situation.
On one of the first crisp autumn mornings of the season, Chris and Mary slowly made their way out of their dilapidated mobile home, past an American flag popping in the wind, to their new reality.
Standing behind the damaged home they had lived in for seven years now sits a newer, larger mobile home where the couple will get a new lease on life. Convoy of Hope helped the Plummers purchase the home and provided support to hook up electricity and plumbing.
Cindi VandenEinde, field services coordinator for disaster response for Convoy of Hope, began working on the project in September. “Convoy of Hope is helping people that have fallen through the cracks and are unable to get assistance through other agencies or organizations,” says Cindi. “We’re here to help Chris and Mary in whatever ways are needed. Today is an awesome and exciting day for them because they are going to sleep in their new home for the first time.”
As Cindi and a handful of Convoy of Hope volunteers move about the Plummers’ new home, cleaning and completing the move-in, Chris and Mary sit in their new living room, amazed at the outpouring of support from Convoy of Hope.
“We didn’t think we were going to get help,” Chris says softly, glancing at his wife. “It was like a miracle when Convoy of Hope came in. They’ve gone way beyond what we could have imagined. They helped us move, washed our clothes and even bought us a new mattress.”
Mary’s eyes light up. “I just can’t believe there are people out there like this,” she says, smiling. “It’s just unbelievable.”
Help Convoy of Hope continue to come along side families like this one.
