This was posted by Mike on another site around lunch. He has been a LEO for some time and has seen a lot of things. This kind of puts things in perspective and why we are doing what we are doing: "It was a long night and tonight will be even longer. Need to get some sleep but just can't seem to close the peepers to get there. Seeing things like this on television doesn't prepare one for being there. There are no words and it's tough to leave me speechless. We lost a lot of people yesterday. One thing i will say though is thanks to people from places i have never even heard of from MO, OK, AR, KS there were a lot of lives saved. Heavy equipment, food, water, doctors, surgeons, nurses, paramedics, volunteers, leo's poured into it. As a matter of fact there were so many people volunteering that we could not keep a coordinated search effort goin easily. With very few exceptions i would say that last night was the most emotional night of my life. The look in childrens faces when you finally get to them under debris and they grab onto you for life. I didn't understand that phrase of grabbing and holding on for dear life until yesterday, now i do. People just looking numb like as their loved ones are being pulled from houses. Complete shock i guess is the best words my simple mind can think of. I have never seen anything on a scale like this and pray i never do again. It is truely devastating.
I would also like to thank those keeping my wife and kids in their prayers last night. We got home right as it started from "HomeofToto" City. As I was unloading you could hear it. Turned the radio on and started getting dressed for work. Didn't get my pants on before the dispatch came from joplin. Got the children to a friends house safe and i went to work as well as my wife who was out working at one of the make shift triage centers. Phone towers were down and communication was bad. Thank you to all my friends concerned and checking on me and the family. We once again were blessed beyond what we deserve through all of this."
My heart goes out to all the folks down there.
-------------------- Thought for the day; “It’s impossible to think outside of the box when all you do is think about getting inside of the box.”