Tornado victims in Stockton given temporary housing

STOCKTON, Mo. -- The night the tornado roared through, Jane Wykoff was standing in her kitchen and dove for cover. She survived. Her house didn't.

On Friday, Wykoff became the first person displaced by Missouri's deadly May 4 tornadoes to move into government-backed free temporary housing: a 30-foot-by-8-foot travel trailer.

"It's actually pretty comfortable, and it will do until I can move a mobile home onto my son's land," Wykoff said.

Gov. Bob Holden handed Wykoff the keys to the trailer.

"These travel trailers are provided only after all housing options have been exhausted," Holden said in a brief ceremony on the sunwashed steps of the Cedar County Courthouse -- among the few structures mostly undamaged by the twister in this community of about 1,900 residents.

The State Emergency Management Agency said Friday that 4,775 Missourians had contacted a toll-free number to seek assistance with tornado recovery, including many seeking temporary shelter. In Cedar County, 535 people have called the number established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA spokesman Gene Romano said a couple of other Ozarks families are lined up to use travel trailers, and the number is expected to grow. There is no charge for use of the rigs, which remain on wheels and may be used for housing for up to 18 months.

Holden had twice surveyed damage from the air over Stockton, where three people died in the tornado. Friday marked the governor's first tour on the ground. He was joined by first lady Lori Hauser Holden, who gasped at block after block of devastated houses and crumbling storefronts.

"I have never seen anything like this," said the first lady, who grew up south of Stockton in Aurora.

'My heavens'

With Mayor Ralph Steele at the wheel, the Holdens drove past flattened houses and collapsed strips of stores where commerce once thrived in this family vacation getaway next to Stockton Lake.

"Oh my heavens," Mrs. Holden said as Steele named business after business that sat on lots now jammed with debris. The van passed a tree with a life preserver hanging from a branch 30 feet from the ground, then paused at Hammons Black Walnuts, a major employer hit hard by the storm.

The mayor pointed out a central pile of debris easily a quarter-mile in diameter. "We call that Mount Stockton," he said.

They passed the Church of God, which had a hopeful sign in the front yard: "We Should Be Gone But God Still Works Miracles."

Steele said the community usually hosts more than 20,000 visitors during the long Memorial Day weekend, but now the sales tax base is gone and many tourists are expected to stay away because of the disaster cleanup.

The governor handed Steele a $47,000 check to cover immediate city bills, part of a federal-state disaster grant.

Holden just wrapped up a contentious legislative session last Friday and is calling lawmakers back for a special session to reconsider parts of the budget he vetoed.

But the Democratic governor praised two Republican legislators who were in town Friday, Rep. Ronnie Miller of Stockton and Sen. Delbert Scott of Lowry City, pledging to work closely with them on tornado recovery.

"The state of Missouri is in it for the long haul," Holden said. "And we will work with you however we can."