Text Messages Save Joplin Woman, Son
Editor’s Note: The following report shares news of how texting was a life-saving tool during the recent tornado in Joplin, Missouri. This information is the latest evidence supporting Safe America continuing drive to move forward in conducting a national educational campaign around the message ‘Text First. Talk Second. ™’ Watch Safe America’s website for further information on plans in August to roll out this program… along with a patented ‘safety app’ being developed for Safe America by the Caerus Institute that will assist a person in sending multiple text messages simultaneously and being developed now for release on the Verizon Network (and the Android platform for Motorola Droid smartphones). To learn more about this free app, contact Bill Soule at (770)-973-7233.
POSTED: 10:53 am EDT May 23, 2011
UPDATED: 6:43 pm EDT May 23, 2011
WETHERSFIELD, Conn. -- A Wethersfield father spent the night next to his phone, waiting to hear from his daughter and grandson as a devastating tornado tore through Joplin, Mo., late Sunday evening left dozens dead and injured.
Steve Marsh had his eyes glued to television footage of what's left of Joplin since a tornado struck Sunday, thinking that his daughter Heather had to have been hit.
"She called her mother, who told her to get in the bathtub. That's what saved her. The neighbors got them out. She was texting everybody she knew to come and get her," Marsh said.
Marsh's daughter's one-story home collapsed around her, but the 32-year-old and her 6-year-old son Hayden were pulled out of the rubble. They were bruised and scratched, but alive.
Without a basement, getting in that bathtub anchored Heather and Hayden to the ground, and the sink actually blocked part of the roof from falling directly on them. Stepping outside of her home, Heather said the scope of devastation around her was shocking.
"When the first wall hit my back I was like, OK, we can do this. Then it just started piling more and more, and I actually for the first time in my life thought, that was it, this is how we were gonna die," Heather said from Joplin.
"It's like somebody took the biggest lawnmower you've ever seen in your life and just mowed down neighborhoods," she said.
Heather and everyone in her flattened neighborhood are left with just the clothes on their backs.
Steve Marsh, who lives about 1,500 miles away, said he feels helpless. He's working on finding a way to Missouri.
"I'm just grateful that my daughter and my grandson's alive," Marsh said.
Safe America’s Len Pagano, Mary Lou Pagano and Risa Mendelson were a big hit at the National Foundation of Women Legislators Annual Conference in Des Moines on August 12-14. The response we received was phenomenal with over 60 women from 32 states partnering with Safe America to lead safety initiatives in their communties.
