On Sunday, Smith's home in Joplin took a hit from a deadly and devastating tornado. "It went right over the area where my childhood home is," she says. "We have some friends who live about two blocks from there whose house was destroyed. Just from what I'm being told, I'm pretty sure my house is gone."
Smith lives in Toledo but grew up in Joplin, where a single funnel killed more than 100 people and damaged 2,000 buildings. Her grade school and high school are both in shambles, along with the lives of many friends and relatives.
Smith learned on Facebook that the tornado took the life of a high school classmate. She says, "I guess her last Facebook post was something like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this,' and then they discovered that she and her husband both died in the storm."
Other people she knows are still unaccounted for, but Smith says her family members are alive. Those in her hometown are now pulling together and pitching in to recover from a storm that left much of town virtually wiped out.
Smith says the City of Joplin is closed off to everyone except emergency personnel right now, but she says, if she was allowed in, she would be down there in an instant helping those close to her in spirit.
