A Day In May

This month marks the sixth anniversary of the largest natural disaster visited on the American landscape in the new Century. At 5:34 on Sunday, 22 May 2011, an EF5 tornado's 200-mph winds cut a mile-wide swath through Joplin (Missouri's fourth largest metro), killing 158 and injuring more than a thousand. In its aftermath, only Zimmer Radio's in-house radar and engineering foresight linked the market with the outside world. Three TV stations and other radio companies were decommissioned by the tornado. The following is a verbatim e-mail between two members of Zimmer's highly respected engineering team 48 hours after the storm.

From: David Obergoenner to Morgan Grammar Date: 24 May 2011 Subject: Joplin 11:39 PM

Thanks, Morgan. As of this afternoon we still had two staff members missing. Many of our people, including the air staff, lost their homes, cars, everything. But there they were, all day today, on the air, helping other hurting folks via radio. We have such a great staff! Much of our broadcast day was taking calls from people trying to find friends and family ... and helping folks find food and shelter. Some of the calls tore my heart out. So many good people in that town...

We've brought in a couple of RVs for staff members to use who don't have homes anymore ... or theirs' are too badly damaged to safely return to. All of our stations were on simulcast wall to wall; with weather coverage from an hour before the storm hit Joplin. We knew it was going to be a bad one. Six of our seven signals stayed on the air without missing a beat through the storm. Zimmer stations are about the only thing left on radio or TV.

Our five-kw AM took a direct lightening hit as the storm blew through and was off the air until about 4a when Mel got it fixed. The BE AM-6a was still fine. The generators at all the sites saved our butts again. The tornado just missed our 1,000-foot Joplin Super Tower (with three of our FMs on it) and just missed our studio complex by a couple of blocks. The winds at our studios were so strong it tore out several trees near our parking lot. Several of our staff's cars were parked there and it really tore them up too.

I have no idea how our STL tower survived that ... I guess that ERI tower I insisted on is pretty tough. We still haven't been able to get to our old location, which also has a 400-foot tower. Mel says he saw the tower but not sure if the building is still standing. Our TV tenant has been off the air since the storm hit, as has most of the TV here. That's about where we are this evening. Joplin will not be back to normal for a VERY long time.

Zimmer had previously installed actual radar on launching their News -Talk KZRG. OM Chad Elliot had fortuitously worked out a text warning system with some Kansas Sheriff's departments to the west. Elliot came immediately to his facility on learning a massive multiple-vortex storm was making up over Kansas and headed for Joplin. He alerted local emergency departments and a large local high school with commencement ceremonies that afternoon! The damage was beyond description, including the 10-story St. Johns Medical Complex, actually deformed over a foot on its foundation; only part of the $2.8 billion in damages.

In the weeks that followed, Zimmer radio was appropriately hailed as a savior for so many who -- thanks to the advanced warning -- were able to take shelter. The company was visited by countless agencies, including the NAB and many broadcasters, who simply wanted to know "how they accomplished it."

The answer was, of course, foresight, and an investment in "overbuilt" facilities, including their in-house radar. As for Zimmer's human assets, it's fair to say they were priceless.