The Long and Winding Road Home, May 26, 2011

The Long and Winding Road Home

© Gordon McCall, May 26, 2011

Up at 6 a.m., weather is sunny and humid, as if the danger and damage of last night’s severe storms had never occurred. We meet in the lobby of the Comfort Inn for a quick breakfast at 7 a.m. and are on the highway by 7:30 a.m. We estimate 8 hours home. It turns out to be 12.

Rich and I take turns driving. We make a number of stops along the way for gas, downloading some of our video images at a rest stop from Rich’s computer to mine etc., we stop for food, and to change drivers but we never stay long. We’re definitely on the road home. Often we’re simply lost in our own thoughts for long stretches of time. The trip has had a profound affect on all of us. We’re tired but the consensus is that it was hugely worthwhile and rewarding to us on many levels. We also realize it will take a while for us to digest everything we’ve experienced. It seems that this is the way it should be. .

From Memphis, Tennessee, through a small part of Arkansas, and Missouri – we roll along. The main highways and secondary highways are in amazingly good shape in this part of the south. We’re all impressed.

I think of Joplin, Missouri still in the chaos and tragedy of the massive hurricane that struck this week as we were driving through that same state on the opposite edge from the disaster zone. We all remain stunned by the horror that this weather front has caused. Today, we’ve just heard on the radio, that it has impacted all the way from Buffalo to Memphis. And now its moving its path from Vermont to Nashville. It’s massive and still moving.

11:30 a.m. we cross the Mississippi River from Missouri into Illinois. As we gaze out at the river from the bridge we can see it’s still flooded for miles.

It feels like we know this river a little bit
now – it’s already become a fixture in our field of vision and every time we look at it, we are impressed with its power. The Mighty, emphasis on MIGHTY, Mississippi is very appropriately named just that. As we cross the bridge we see the sky darkening ahead of us. We’re not home yet.

In my musings, as we drive, I worry about what’s to come. Kent and Rich and I discuss this off and on. Peter Thomas in Tunica, Mississippi showed us that even though the water level may drop at Lake Ponchetrain a couple of feet and the river may crest in Vicksburg, the reality is that new rains, which we are now receiving (it’s only the beginning of tornado season) and water still high upriver, may yet wreak more havoc downriver and people may not be ready for it, since they think the worst is over. I hope this scenario never comes true.

(Gord surveying the damage, downtown Vicksburg, Mississippi May 24, 2011)

Today, in order to save time we decide to bypass St. Louis and angle our way through Illinois to Hwy 70 and make our major turn for home at Champagne Urbana, Illinois – territory I’m familiar with because Rick and I and Paul White play hockey in Danville, Illinois right next to Urbana.

11:45 a.m. - 250 miles from Champagne, Illinois, another hour and a quarter from there to Lafayette. We figure we’ll be home by 5:30 p.m.

We’re looking for the hwy 57 cutoff and in the heavy traffic and constant mist and rain we miss it. So we decide to stay on 70 right to Indianapolis and then home on 65 and 52. But no sooner do we decide this than we run into a massive traffic jam. Looks like we’ll lose another hour at least. After crawling along for half an hour we see the Terra Haute cutoff and decide to take Hwy 41 – 40, 231 and home. But it looks like everyone else decided this as well. We end up in a second traffic jam and as we enter Terra Haute, we run into a massive police presence and yellow accident scene investigation tape criss-crossing the intersection. We end up following traffic into a residential area and it’s only then we realize the accident scene is a collapsed building and we begin to see torn up trees, and major damage to other buildings. The traffic is being diverted because, apparently, a tornado has just struck here. How did we not know about this?

We soon discover first-hand that a tornado or flat line winds (an equally dangerous weather system) have ripped though this town and local residents and first responders are on the streets trying to clear debris. It’s a frightening scene. When we check with our families by phone we find out a tornado and/or flat line winds hit Terra Haute last night. We are still in its residual bad rain and gusting winds.

It takes us another half hour to get through the impromptu detour and we are reminded, once again, that this massive weather system is still creating incredible destruction as it moves across the country. One of our overriding thoughts is how lucky we’ve been to escape a direct hit from this system in our travels. We’ve been very close, too close, but unlike so many others who weren’t so lucky, we’ve somehow managed to be in the right place at the right time, instead of the other way around.

Finally at 7:30 p.m. we pull into Lafayette. We let Rich off at Purdue, say heartfelt goodbyes and return the car to Purdue transportation services. Then its home, at last.

It’s been an adventure and a half, as Kent would say. There’s no doubt about that. Also, as Kent would say, the journey has only just begun. Next, it’s film editing time. I hope we have the film complete by the end of the summer.

On a personal note, this journey has reconfirmed my belief that being in the moment, creating, investigating, researching and making direct personal connections to people in life changing situations can be one of the most rewarding gifts that life can give.

As for my first visit to the South and the Mighty Mississippi, it was high impact from beginning to end. I’ll definitely be back.

(Gord, Kent, Dr. Erves, Rich following the Town Hall meeting for the victims of the flood, community auditorium, Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 24, 2011 - Dr. Erves 90 year old mother lost everything she had, including her home, in the flood. She had spent her entire life living on the banks of the Mississippi. Now she gazes at the river every day thinking she'll go home when the waters subside. Unfortunately, she never will.)

A final thought:

For anyone reading this, I urge you, and I think I can speak on behalf of Kent and Rich as well, to give to the Red Cross and The Salvation Army in any situation where you’d like to help people in a crisis like the one we’ve been reporting on. So many people are aware of this but I just thought you might like to know that, once again, we witnessed the incredible direct and immediate physical and psychological assistance that these two particular organizations give to individuals in dire need. And as one victim of the Mississippi flooding told us, even a small amount makes a huge difference.