Here are a couple pictures from the tray parade.
Then the students wrapped them up and took them home with them to give to their Moms on Sunday. Below are photos and an article that appeared in Tuesday's edition of the Miami News-Record.
A wooden breakfast tray personalized for Carrie Frazier was recovered Monday from a mountain of tornado debris. Photo by SHELLY SHULTZ
Mother's Day package recovered from site of tornado-damaged home
PICHER - “Happy Mother's Day to me” - that is what Carrie Frazier shouted from the rubble of her in-laws' home. The home was destroyed Saturday by a tornado that devistated the Picher community.Frazier and her children spent Monday sifting through what remained of the family home.
“Look, it's still wrapped,” said Frazier as she held up a pale blue package - a Mother's Day gift from her 12-year-old daughter.Inside the package, Frazier found a homemade breakfast tray personalized with a picture of her daughter, Mariah. “There is some good left in this bad situation,” said Frazier as she kissed her daughter, thanking her for the gift. “Mariah was so worried about this present getting destroyed. Look, it wasn't touched. It isn't even wet.” The Fraziers, who live on the north end of Picher, were at home when they were alerted of the tornado.
“When we realized it was headed toward us, I panicked. We debated whether to stay or go,” Frazier said. “We got in the car and headed toward Kansas. That was a bad mistake.” Frazier said as they fled Picher going north toward Baxter Springs, they heard a broadcast announcement that a tornado was approaching Baxter Springs. “We couldn't turn around. We couldn't keep going toward Baxter. So, we just stopped right where we were,” Frazier said. “The hail was horrible. We were getting pounded sitting on the side of the road. It busted out the back glass.”
Frazier said the storm passed quickly and then everything was clear.“It was like nothing had happened,” Frazier said. Frazier said the family went back to Picher and, as they got closer, they realized their hometown had been hit by the devastating storm.“Our place was fine,” Frazier said. “But, as we got closer to my in-law's house, we got really upset.” Frazier said she didn't know if her husband's family was at home or not. What she did know was that there was little left of the home they had raised children and grandchildren in for the past 27 years.
Few houses remain in the Mineral Heights area, where the elder Fraziers' home once stood. “I finally got a hold of them on the phone,” Frazier said. “They were in Joplin shopping - thank God.”
Once the Fraziers realized their family was safe, they began searching for neighbors. “There were five people in the house right behind my in-laws,” Frazier said. While the neighbor's house is nothing more than a pile of rubble, much like the Frazier home, everyone in the home survived the wreckage.“Just up the road,” said Frazier, pointing to the north, “we heard someone yelling for help.” Frazier and her husband dug through debris and found a 90-year-old woman in her shower where she had taken cover when the sirens sounded. “That was all that was left of the house,” Frazier said. “Everything was gone, but the shower still stood and she was trapped inside it.”
While the devastation is obvious throughout the former mining community, Frazier keeps a positive attitude. “Picher is a really strong community,” Frazier said. “We have been through a lot. Like always, we are just all helping each other get through this.”
Like many of the families in Picher, the Fraziers were part of a federally funded buyout. “We were going to leave anyway,” Frazier said. “Like my father-in-law said - ‘now we have less to pack.'”
Frazier said she and her husband are trying to make room in their house, that was unaffected by the storm, for the family members who are now homeless. “We're all going to be OK,” Frazier said. “And, I got my Mother's Day gift.”
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