Big Nickel, destroyed by tornado, moves operations to Neosho

The Big Nickel, one of the businesses destroyed by Sunday's tornado, will move its base of operations to Neosho, according to the Neosho Daily News. Both publications are owned by GateHouse Media:

Sunday’s storm demolished the paper’s office at 2916 E. 20th in Joplin. According to Chuck Elliott, publisher, all 28 employees are safe and sound.


“Some did have family members that were affected and some of those may have been injured,” Elliott said. “To my knowledge, no one had fatalities in their family.”

Meanwhile, none of the workers were at the office on that fateful Sunday evening. Two were thinking about working that day, but one stayed home to take care of laundry first, while the other saw storm warnings on television and decided to wait until the danger passed.

It’s a good thing.

“One of my employees texted me and said the Big Nickel was gone,” Elliott said. “I called her and said ‘Do you mean damaged or gone?’ and she said “Gone.”