Joplin tornado tragedy personal for police chaplain

Telling people that their loved ones will never return is a difficult job under any circumstances, but it is even harder this time for police chaplain Bob Heath since tornado-ravaged Joplin is his home town. Heath's story is told in an article in today's New York Times:

But as Mr. Heath waits here to inform yet another family that a son or daughter, mother or father, cousin or aunt is indeed among the more than a hundred bodies that authorities have been painstakingly identifying since Sunday’s tornado, his own eyes well up again and again. Unlike the chaplains who have flown and driven to Joplin to help after the nation’s deadliest tornado in 60 years, Mr. Heath lives here.


“In Gulfport, I drove down streets that I had no idea what they looked like before, and I didn’t know the people at all — I had no relationship with them,” said Mr. Heath, who wears a police radio on his belt and a vest with “CHAPLAIN” spelled out across the back.

“Here, I know what the town used to be,” he said. “And I don’t know necessarily the people I’ve dealt with so far, although I know some of them, but still, it’s part of my community, almost kind of like family. This is our town.”