Former Chattanoogan Reggie Thomas says his current hometown, Joplin, Mo., looks like the pictures of bombed-out Europe during World War II.
The onetime Hickory Valley Christian Church pastor and his wife weren’t injured when the massive tornado swept through the southwest Missouri town Sunday and killed at least 125 people, but their home was damaged and members of the church they attend are missing.
“We’re very thankful we’re alive, that God spared us,” said Thomas, 82, the founder of White Fields Overseas Evangelism. “Hundreds of houses were wiped off the face of the map.”
He said their home is six blocks west of St. John’s Regional Medical Center, which suffered a direct hit from the twister.
“We’re in the heart of the residential damage,” said Thomas, who served Hickory Valley Christian from 1977 to 1987. “It [apparently] began to dip down right at our house.”