North Texans Reach Out For Family In Wake Of Joplin Tornado
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Phone calls went nowhere. Facebook messages went unanswered.
It was a sleepless night and nervous day for Dwayne Johnson, a Fort Worth man who left Joplin, Missouri just six months ago, and couldn't reach the aunt he shared a home with.
"All you get is people saying they haven't seen anyone, or hear from anyone or anything of that nature."
The devastation from the tornado outbreak in the Midwest reached into North Texas Monday as area residents searched for information from the damage zone.
Springtown's Kaneitha Goff learned her in-laws were okay within a couple hours of the storm.
"We were extremely nervous," she said. "Up until the point I heard from my father-in-law we were very nervous."
Then her niece sent her cell-phone pictures of her old house, now in ruins.
She later learned her uncle had to leave the apartment building he lived in near the St. John's Regional Medical Center.
"We put on Facebook that we'd like to hear from family and some of them said that they were okay and some let us know and then I started getting text message this morning," she said.
With most phone calls to Missouri resulting in nothing but busy signals, Johnson too turned to Facebook and email to get news. He used to work in the emergency room at the medical center, and his aunt lived just a block away.
"It's gone. If I would have been there…" he said, holding back tears. "I'd probably be gone too. The house is gone."
Late in the day, a police contact called with news that his old house was indeed gone. His aunt though, had been spotted alive, in an emergency shelter.
