Baghdad can wait, our town needs us, say US reservists

National Guardsmen bound for Iraq returned instead to their tornado-flattened town to help clean up splintered homes and businesses and check on their loved ones after twisters killed at least 40 people in three US states.

One person was still listed as missing yesterday in the south-western Missouri town of Pierce City.

The death toll reached 18 in Missouri with the discovery of a child’s body outside Pierce City, and rose to 15 in Tennessee after a man was found dead in a field near Jackson. The storms on Sunday night were also blamed for at least seven deaths in Kansas.

Severe weather returned to Kansas and Missouri yesterday afternoon, as the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for 30 counties. There were several reports of tornadoes and some minor damage but no injuries from the new batch of storms.

In Pierce City, wind whipped dust from the rubble as big raindrops splashed on Bill Shepherd and his relatives, who were lashing blue plastic over furniture they were moving on a flatbed trailer.

“Oh man. Oh man. Not this again,” Shepherd shouted. “I swear, this weather has put the coffin nail in this little town, and nature just won’t let us go in peace.”

In Cole County, everyone was evacuated to the building’s basement.

Members of the Missouri National Guard’s 203rd Engineering Battalion had been at the Army’s Fort Leonard Wood, about 75 miles from Pierce City, working on paperwork for their deployment to Iraq, when their phones started ringing with calls about the tornado.

One of the Pierce City buildings destroyed on Sunday night was the National Guard Armoury, where many of the soldiers had trained and where some residents sought shelter during the storm. A large part of the building collapsed, killing one person.

On Tuesday, many of the unit’s soldiers were taking personal leave to help in their home town, said Capt Gerald Green, a company commander. They are still expected to leave for Iraq in a few weeks to help repair war damage.

“To be honest, Baghdad looks better than Pierce City,” Green said.