Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/205815
Reconstruction least five other storms of equal intensity struck the South and Midwest that year. However, the Joplin tornado touched down on the west edge of a city of 50,000 people and moved slowly through it, completely dismantling businesses, ripping apart poorer and more affluent residential neighborhoods alike, and littering about 100 miles of streets. "You look at the six square miles of devastation and 161 fatalities and you feel there should have been 2,000 fatalities," said David Hertzberg. He was director of Public Works when the storm hit but now directs recovery as community development project manager. "We lost our Wal-Mart, our Home Depot, a Lowe's, a sports store, our high school, our hospital, two fire stations, and several thousand homes." Not in his litany of losses is the Fabick Caterpillar dealership. Cleaning Up Doug Fabick lives in St. Louis and flew in to view the storm damage the day after it hit – then raced home to pull his travel-trailer to Joplin. He set it up on the south edge of town and lived in it for three weeks as he and his employees scrambled to re-establish the stricken business. "Some people asked what we were going to do. I said, 'We're going to clean this up and help our customers recover and get to work.'" The Cat dealership's inventory on that fateful Sunday included D6 dozers and 16G motor graders, model 246 skid steers and a line of 336 excavators. All the machines were damaged by the 200-mph winds that bumped them around, shattered glass, and left most of them inoperable. A bus was wrapped around a roller. Some $1.1 million in parts were damaged and had to be tossed into the dumpster. The dealership's parts shuttle truck was found a half mile away in a front yard, and was carried back to the property Auger near playground: Thousands of trees still are being planted in right-of-ways and parks in Joplin, some using this cityowned Case skid steer-auger. Violent winds virtually destroyed entire apartment complexes, including this one (top and bottom photos). Instead of a total of 161 fatalities, "you feel there should have been 2,000," says Joplin city official David Hertzberg. on a forklift. Eight Fabick service vehicles and pickups were destroyed – a small part of the 9,000 vehicles claimed by the storm. Also pummeled by the wind was a Cat 330 excavator belonging to Columbus, Kan., contractor Crossland Construction. The machine was being serviced at Fabick's. The day after the tornado, it was retrieved by the contractor, fired up and driven clanking away – without any glass in its windows – to help with emergency work nearby at the collapsed Wal-Mart store. Within two days, Fabick had parts arriving from the company branch in nearby Springfield. About 100 pieces of heavy equipment ultimately were trucked to Joplin from other Cat dealers for renting out during the clean-up. In addition, Caterpillar executives in Peoria, Ill., short-shipped other dealers so they could focus on resupplying Fabick. "It was amazing how the Cat world pulled together to support the local dealer," Fabick said. After Fabick cleared its site, a temporary metal-framed, vinyl-walled structure was erected as a parts and service (continued on next page) November 2013 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 33