The minute she heard about the tornado in Joplin, Mo., Brenda Frankey started packing her bag to head up there to help.

“This is my third (disaster) - I’ve been at 9-11 and at the hurricane in Virginia,” said Frankey, a Pea Ridge police officer.

From 1990 through 1998 Frankey served as a combat medic in the U.S. Army; she trained in Egypt and Panama.

The morning of May 23, the day after an F5 tornado struck Joplin, Frankey and Little Flock police officer Mindy Fowler drove to Joplin to help. They left about 6 a.m. and returned after midnight.

Attired in police-emblazoned T-shirts and tactical pants, the two officers initially helped other law enforcement personnel direct traffic but they soon transitioned to search and rescue.

Frankey said communication was difficult because cell phone service was intermittent or nonexistent. The two women were joined by a couple of firefighters already in Joplin. As they pushed through downed trees and tried to dig through the rubble, they fought back the feeling of helplessness, Frankey said.

Fowler agreed: “It was heartbreaking. I’m glad I went but it was frustrating. No matter how much you did, it was so huge that it felt like it wasn’t enough.”

Fowler had seen the Oklahoma City tornado destruction a couple of weeks after the 1999 event, but this was much more personal working the search and rescue, she said.

“We didn’t know where we were. There were no street signs. House numbers were not there or only partial. There were pieces of roofs or walls that we couldn’t lift,” she said.

They searched a street that had not been searched the night before - there were no Xs on the sides of the buildings. During the search, emergency personnel paint an X on the wall indicating that the building had been searched. If a body was found, the X was accompanied by a number indicating the number of bodies inside to be recovered.

A week later - her arms and legs still showing scratches from crawling over and through tree branches and splintered lumber - Frankey related that the rain continued throughout the day May 23 and there were three lightning strikes very close to where they were working, causing the emergency workers toduck for cover.

“There was water running down my leg,” she said. Other volunteers offered food, but there was no where to seek cover from the rain or to find restroom facilities.

“It was still so fresh and chaotic,” Frankey said. When they found an animal alive, they put it in a kennel in plain view to be picked up by rescue personnel.

“It was total destruction. I don’t see how anyone survived,” she said.

At one home, she saw a tub stuffed with pillows and blankets, then a crib full of broken glass. “Probably 75 percent of what I saw, there was nothing there,” Frankey said of the devastation. “The whole day, I kind of felt helpless.”

One observation was that where there were people, she realized that the people knew their neighbors and knew their whereabouts.

“That said a lot to me,” Frankey said, noting that she has lived in places where people don’t know their neighbors.

“These people not only knew their neighbors, but knew where they were. That’s pretty impressive.”

Frankey was also impressed with the camaraderie of the emergency personnel. She said that under other circumstances, there may be a friendly rivalry between law enforcement, firefighters and medical personnel, but there was no competition or division that day in Joplin.

“We were all on the same mission,” she said. “Everyone came together. ... Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a tragedy to forget about age, race, profession, social status.”

“I’d do it again.” she said. “I was glad to help.”

News, Pages 1 on 06/01/2011