On May 25th I went up my drive to get my newspaper and noticed something looked odd but in the darkness I couldn’t tell. When daylight broke I noticed one of the large trees in my yard was down. The recent storms across the country have kept most of southwest Missouri hunkered down. I’m sure everyone has heard about the disaster from an F5 tornado in Joplin, MO so a tree down in the front yard seemed pretty trivial.
Later on that day I received an email from Mary Arlington who owns High Plains Camping in Oakley, KS. She sent me a video and pictures of the damage done in Sedalia, MO and asked if was our good friends Norman & Linda Alcorn at Countryside Senior RV Park. The aerial photos didn’t pan down to the park
(I know the area well) but I did recognize TransCentral, a 14 bay diesel engine repair shop that the Alcorn’s own had took a direct hit which is located a few blocks north of their park. I immediately tried to contact them via phone, text message & email but as we all know, communications are severely hampered in a natural disaster. The not knowing made me sick in my gut. Linda is the Co-Director of the Missouri Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds (MOARC) and has served the association for many years.
I loaded up my gear that night and headed to Sedalia before daybreak the next morning. I was about 20 miles south of Sedalia when I got a phone call from Larry Helms who is the MOARC President & ARVC Board Member and he said he had just talked with Linda and they were okay. What a relief! Put this in perspective. Not much earlier, portions of Larry’s park were 15 feet underwater. It just goes to show what the people in this industry are like. No matter what is happening in their world, they still show concern for each other.
When I got to Countryside Senior RV Park I found Norman. He said he got all the guests in his basement and other than some minor debris, the park was fine. Norman looked at me and said,” I can’t believe you drove all the way from Branson to check on us.” I said, “Norman, if it had happened to me, you would have done the same.” He smiled and said, “Yes I would.”
I then made the short drive over to TransCentral where I talked with Linda. She gave me the tour and recounted in vivid detail what happened. She was trying to get the employees behind a retaining wall and a panicked lady came in off the street wanting to know where to go. One of the staff grabbed the lady and jumped in one of their service vans in the shop. Linda just about waited too late herself and got into the restroom with several others as the tornado hit. Linda walked me through the aftermath of broken glass, twisted metal, uprooted trees, turned over tanker and unbelievably, no one was hurt. The mobile home court beside them looked like a bomb had gone off.
They were now just waiting on the insurance adjusters and seeing that there was nothing I could do I gave them both a hug thankful they were okay & headed back home. Norman & Linda’s fast thinking & actions saved lives. On the long drive home I got to thinking how thankful I am to be in an industry where people really care about each other. We are a big family.
