Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories.
The May twenty second, twenty eleven Joplin tornado remains one
of the costliest tornadoes in American history. Despite this, the
disaster brought out the best and many people wanting to
help in any way they could. One of those people
was Thad Beeler, who found a unique way to lend
(00:30):
a hand to his fellow neighbor by founding the National
Disaster Photo Rescue Organization, a group which seeks to reunite
people with their lost photographs after disasters like Joplin.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Take It Away, Thad Well, I am Thad Beeler.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I live in Cartha's, Missouri, and am from Joplin, Missouri
and grew up there. I have multiple generations of family
that have grown up in Joplin. I spent a great
deal of time in the church. I grew up in
the church, loved the church. I have spent time as
a pastor and ministered to people there of all generations.
(01:08):
It's been a wonderful part of my life and it's
what brought us here today to talk about the photo
work we've done. It was a Sunday night, it was
six o'clock and we had Bible study at the church
(01:29):
in Carthage, and my parents live in Joplin. I knew
the weather was getting bad, and I was on the
phone with my dad and he was describing how the
clouds in the atmosphere looked, and I looked outside and
began to see some of it in Carthage, which was
(01:49):
a kind of a green look to the clouds and
to the sky, and come to find out that was
ground being churned up. While I was talking to my dad,
(02:10):
I lost connection with him on his cell phone, and
I tried several times to get a hold of him.
And I was concerned, but not terribly concerned, because tornado
sirens are something.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That we're very used to here.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
We don't necessarily react in a frantic manner, but we
are always elevated during that time. And when I turned
on the weather channel, I see Mike Bettis standing in
front of what was left of the Saint John's Hospital
in Joplain, and we begin to see insulation things dropping
(02:49):
out of the sky all over Carthage. For most people,
they would be concerned because of what they were seeing.
What maybe most would know is that my parents were
directly west of the hospital about a mile, which means
that the tornado had passed over their house before it
got to the hospital. So as I talked to my wife,
(03:12):
I said, you know, I'm going to come home here shortly,
and I said, we're going to have to go to Joplin, because.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I really didn't know. Finally I got down there and
it was dark.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
By then, and it was like driving into a tunnel
without lights. I got to the end of the lights
of the street lights, and the lights of my truck
(03:46):
just didn't seem to penetrate the darkness. I could see
trees everywhere, cars turned upside down, power lines down everywhere.
There was a smell of gas, and there were fires,
and every single landmark from road sign to mailbox was gone.
(04:07):
People are crawling out of their homes. There were people
up and down the roads, wandering around as if they
just didn't know where they were. People were lost. They
were in their neighborhood, but they were lost. But I
got to them and they were fine. What was a
(04:29):
God's great miracle in their life was they didn't have
a basement in their home. They're on a single story
house and the neighborhood is loaded with trees. Well it
just so happened that the big, huge oak trees that
surrounded their home all fell on the roof of their house.
(04:52):
And if you've ever seen how tornado works, it finds
its weakest point of these structures, and that's how it
blows the roof off. Well, it kept the roof from
blowing off except for a couple of areas of home.
So when I see them, of course they're ecstatic to
see me.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I'm glad that they're okay.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I'm thankful that everything's fine, and I'm going, by the
grace of God, you're still here. Because the neighbor's house,
all that was left was the center stairwell. So I
spent time trying to assess their needs. They weren't hurt,
they were unharmed. We settled them down, got them a
place to be, and then I come back the next day.
(05:36):
And wow, when you come back the next day, you
thought you didn't know it in the dark, you really
don't know it. In the day, there's a toaster in
the kitchen with half a two before driven through it.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But what was.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Amazing, and that hit me, not knowing what I know today,
was I walked down the hallway of my parents' house,
and the same things that were on the wall and
had always.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Been on the wall when we grew up, were still there.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
And that was the pictures, our photographs, our family photos,
our family photos were there and sitting there, untouched, had
not been moved, weren't turncock eyed, not even touched. And
down the hallway I went into a bedroom which was
(06:34):
at the far end, and I looked out the window
and it hit me right then, My folks have their
pictures and the neighbor doesn't even have a house.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So the question comes is where did it all go?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And listening to the voice of Fadbealer, Joplin torn to
shreds on May twenty second by a monstrous tornado. One
hundred and sixty seven people lost their lives more property
damage than anyone would care to witness when we come back.
More of Fadbeler's story Joplin's story here on Our American Story.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Folks.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
If you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation a monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to Our American Stories dot com now and go
(07:50):
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com. And
we return to our American Stories and the story of
(08:12):
the National Disaster Photo Rescue Organization, as told by its
founder That Buehler. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
It is hard to know what is important in life
until you no longer have it. Our memories are cotted
snapshots all over our home, and we realize that without
those snapshots, we are losing part of our memory. And
I am sitting there walking through that from one hundred
feet with the neighbors of my parents gone, Oh my gosh.
(08:46):
All of those memories, all of those snapshots. They no
longer have them, and we still do. You feel blessed,
but all at the same time you weep for them,
because even though you have the joy of knowing you
still have it and you still have your family, there
are people who lost their lives and then to think
(09:08):
on top of that, maybe they were safe and maybe
they were okay, but now they can build their house,
but they no longer have that great wedding picture that's
setting over the mantle, or their children's pictures of when
they were born, you know, in Mama cradling them, or
memories at church baptisms.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
None of that.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
We grieve that because there's nothing that takes the place
of that picture. The people may be standing beside you,
but the moment in time that those folks were together
in that moment is gone.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
As communities come together, and some communities come together better
or quicker than others. In the Joplin disaster, people came
from everywhere, and they came quickly, and they wanted to help.
Local communities wanted to help and just do something to
make a difference. The people at the church wanted to
do something. They were most of them older, weren't able
(10:14):
to get out and pick up pieces of wood and debris,
but they could do something to try to help their neighbors.
And that's when we had a gentleman come by the
church and said, I found a photograph in my yard,
and he said, what am I supposed to do with it?
And that's when, truly when the idea of the National
(10:38):
Disaster Photo Rescue was born. We started asking questions and
we saw on Facebook, good and tending people from everywhere
trying to connect these pictures that they were finding in
their neighborhoods, in their backyards, in their farm fields, out
in the street. They were picking them up as they
(10:59):
were trying to help people. They were posting them on
Facebook hoping that someone would see them so they could
get them back. I sent a email, a blanket email
off to the American Red Cross.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
I basically said it prayer before I said it, and
I said, God, if this is supposed to go somewhere,
or this means something, then bear fruit from it. And
so three days later I got a call from a
gentleman's name was Michael, and Michael said, I heard that
you were interested in trying to return photographs and he says,
(11:37):
I've been looking for people that want to do the
same thing, and he says, I will help you if
you want.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
To do this.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So with his help with learning to do press releases
and the right equipment and how we were supposed to scan.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I don't know how he knew all these things.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And I will tell you if you're a faith believer
at all. Michael walked with me from about June of
twenty eleven through Christmas Day of.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Two thousand and thirteen.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
That was the last correspondence I heard from him, and
several times after that I wanted to go back and
tell him thank you and that I appreciated all the
work and everything he had done, but he had disappeared.
I went back to the American Red Cross and I said,
I'm trying to find Michael, and they looked and searched
(12:37):
through everything, and long story short, Michael doesn't exist.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
With the American Red Cross.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I've done everything I can to find him. So all
of this has been put together with the help of
so many people and faith believing people, people in the
community that just want to help. Our first picture photograph
(13:05):
that we gave back was the first of September of
twenty eleven, and it was such a big homecoming for
these folks to get the picture back because they lost
their brother. Well, our local TV station blessed their hearts
were so helpful and they would put three or five
(13:27):
images that we selected every day on an afternoon and
evening broadcast. One photograph in particular was actually it was
a picture of pictures, and if you have one of
those long mirrors that goes on the back of your
bedroom door, someone had taken this green frame, removed the mirror,
(13:51):
and placed photographs. There had to be one hundred pictures
on that frame. The next day, I receive a phone
call from a lady who says, I think you may
have my pictures. She says, I saw it on the
evening broadcast and I have to come and pick them up.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Will you be there where I could pick him up tomorrow?
And I said yes.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I didn't know specifically what she was referring to because
she was so anxious to just come and pick it up.
The next day, she walks in and introduces herself, and
she says, the photograph I'm looking for actually is many
photographs and it's in a green frame. I said, ma'am,
we have your pictures, and she broke down. She could
(14:42):
not hold it. And what I didn't understand more than
just about the photographs and the fact that we had it,
was it was the only picture of her grandfather that
was remaining was a little picture in the center of
that frame with him and a half and a vest.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Her life was on and in that frame.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
And she says, I got my life back. I don't
know how else to describe a situation where you give
somebody something back and they say I got my life
back because she did. And it was a blessing to
me to know that I can make such a difference
(15:30):
over one frame in somebody's life. It changes you when
you hear stories like this. It changes you as a person.
First of all, you're so grateful and thankful to be
there for them. You're thankful for your own life, and
(15:52):
you realize just how important these little, seemingly unimportant pieces
of paper put people's lives together. By the way, we
are still giving away pictures to this day, ten years later,
we're still giving them back.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
In total.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
In Joplin, we've reunited right at eighteen thousand and four
hundred photographs with over a thousand families. But for us,
it's never been asking for something in return, only.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Being willing to give to others.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So many times as a pastor, we tell our congregations
that we need to be neighborly to those around us.
Sometimes we find it easier to give money to someone
who's going to a foreign land to spread the word
of God than it is to be across the street
from someone who's our neighbor to ask them if you
(16:52):
need God. This is a ministry that completely takes away
that veil.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We're not there trying to get money because we don't
ask for anything.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
We're not asking for their time, We're not asking for
anything except for them to have something that is so
special back what Jesus did on the Cross was to
give his life and ask for nothing and return. When
we give something and ask for nothing in return, I
(17:27):
don't know a more christ like thing. It is exactly
what we're supposed to be in the shadow of the Cross.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And a great job by Monty on that production and
a special thanks to Thad Bieler. And to find out
more about the National Disaster Photo Rescue, go to National
Disaster Photo Rescue dot org. Thad Beeler's story here on
our American Story