Julio Leon: The devastation makes you want to cry

Former Missouri Southern State University President Dr. Julio Leon, now the interim president at the University of Colorado-Pueblo, was in Joplin when the tornado ripped its way through the community Sunday:

"It's like somebody just dropped a bomb on the city. You have block after block after block of houses that are just mounds and mounds of trash and debris," a shocked Leon said Monday afternoon in a telephone interview from his home. "The devastation makes you want to cry. It's very, very sad."

Although he and his wife, Vivian, are living in Pueblo, they still have a home in Joplin. Leon went there Friday to check on his home and visit friends. He said he and his wife were preparing to go to dinner with friends Sunday night when tornado sirens sounded.


"A few minutes later, I decided to call the friends and tell them that we were not going," he said. "It was a good thing because they and us would've been driving through the area where the tornado hit at that time."