Guardsman helps rescue tornado victims at local Wal-Mart

Missouri National Guard Soldiers with the 294th Engineer Company work search and rescue missions at the Wal-mart in Joplin, Mo., just hours after a deadly tornado passed through. (Ann Keyes/Missouri National Guard)

By Sgt. Jon E. Dougherty
70th Mobile Public Affairs Det.
ngmo.pao@us.army.mil

JOPLIN, Mo. - Some people would call him a hero, but to hear Spc. Jeffrey Price tell it, he was just doing his job.

Price, a heavy equipment operator for the 294th Engineer Co. Missouri Army National Guard, from Carthage, helped rescue dozens of people following Sunday's deadly storm that left over a hundred dead, hundreds more injured and much of this city of about 50,000 people in ruins.

Price, 22, was on duty at his job in the automotive department at a local Wal-Mart SuperCenter Sunday as the deadly tornado that flattened area homes, destroyed businesses and gutted St. John's Mercy Hospital, approached.

In the moments before the twister struck, Price said store employees and more than 100 customers were told to gather towards the rear of the store. As the tornado struck, Price said portions of the building - its roof, some walls and fixtures - were blown away.

"It was like a pop can crinkling, it's the only way I can describe it," he said. "The beams that go across the roof actually started bouncing off the concrete. The next thing I know, the roof is gone, and we're lying there in a pile of rubble.

Seconds later, the store was completely destroyed, but for Price, his job was just beginning.

"We waited about 15 minutes or so after the twister passed before moving because it had started to rain and hail very hard," said the Citizen-Soldier. After that, he said, he and his supervisor - a former Marine - began to look for ways to get victims out.

Price said it didn't take long to find a small opening in the collapsed roof. Being smaller himself, he said it fell to him to make his way through and prepare to help others to safety.

Before he knew it, Price said he had helped 50 to 60 people through the opening, across the damaged roof and down a collapsed wall to safety.

"Men, women, kids...I actually had the pleasure of pulling out a three-to-four-week old infant," Price said. "I felt the baby move - I didn't look at it - but I felt it move, so I just handed him to another person."

At some point during the rescue, Price said his fiancée in their hometown of Sarcoxie had sent him a text message informing him that she and his four-month-old son were okay, which he said took a load off his mind. Two hours after the tornado, he was called up for emergency duty by the 294th.

Though Price was in the right place at the right time to help victims of the city's worst twister in generations, he is reluctant to consider himself a hero.

"I don't know if I'd go that far," he said. "I mean, I was just doing the best I could to get people out."

He said a lot of people "just got out and went on their way, and I don't blame them - it was scary." But, he added, he and his Marine boss felt compelled to help. "We just jumped right up after it happened and started looking for a way out," Price said.

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