JOPLIN, Mo. — As I sit down to write this, I am totally exhausted and heavy of heart, but I feel the need to tell the world what I witnessed and became a part of this week. Shortly after 5 p.m. on May 22, I pulled to the curb at my Freeman Health System office, which is located about 150 feet south of the ambulance bay at Freeman West Hospital.

As I was getting out of my car, the weather sirens began to sound. The air was still and eerie. You could sense that this was different. I went to the tunnel between the Ball Sports Medicine Building and the Freeman Tower. By 5:50 p.m., it was clear that we had a problem.

I began walking through the hospital to see if we were still operational. The two large Cummins diesel generators had kicked on, so we had power. I found that we had significant water coming into the hall leading to Freeman Hearts and that two maintenance people were there dealing with it.

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