Rolla students rally to help community after devastating tornado

ROLLA. Mo. (KMIZ)

Cleanup efforts continued Tuesday in Rolla, four days after an EF-2 tornado tore through the city.

When Rolla Public School canceled classes for the week after the devastating storm, some students rallied together to help their community.

When Rolla High School students Hadyn Brooks, Lillian Webb, and J.T. Rogers saw the wreckage Saturday morning after the tornado hit, they knew they wanted to help their community in any way they could.

"We knew a lot of students were affected, and a lot of community members, teachers," Brooks said. "We were like, 'This [situation] needs something, this [situation] needs help.' And we knew that if there wasn't something set in place, that a lot of students would just sit and do whatever they wanted while others didn't have homes, didn't have power."

The group spent Saturday and Sunday clearing debris and assisting those they could in the neighborhood.

"We went out and just found people with trailers and chainsaws and we were going out to places we saw needed help and cleaning up trees and debris," Webb said.

But when the district announced school was called off for week, the three had an idea.

"We were taking a load from the dump back to a house and we were like, 'Hold on, what if we do this tomorrow,'" Webb said.

Webb said she saw there were many people who wanted to help, so she, Brooks and Rogers began to brainstorm.

"It was a thought at one point, and then next thing we knew we were all at Panera [Bread] trying to plan it," Brooks said.

From there, the three drafted an email for their principal to send out to students. The email let them know that if they're looking for a way to help, they could come to the school and be provided an opportunity to do so.

"Our principal sent out an email, schoolwide, and then we all posted on our social media and people just responded," Rogers said.

Teachers, coaches and clubs shared the message as well. The word spread quickly and they say their efforts gained much more traction than they had anticipated.

"We ended up with 200 people yesterday [Monday] who showed up at 10 a.m. and we went out until 4:35ish," Webb said.

People even showed up offering chainsaws and supplies.

"We had 10-to-12 trailers yesterday [Monday] and a dump truck and all of our drivers that came, I would just like to thank them because I know they're wasting their gas money to save other people's," Roger said.

About 75 people showed up to help Tuesday. The three say students, teachers, residents and out-of-town volunteers have shown up to be assigned.

"Community means family," Rogers said. "I've lived here my whole life and I'm so grateful to see how everyone is coming together in a time of need."

The students say if anyone is in need of clean up assistance, they can contact Rolla High School. They said they will also be available outside the school to take people's information down or via social media.

"Any three of us will answer any of our social medias, any of our text messages, and we will add it to our list," Brooks said. "We would be grateful to send a whole group out. Honestly, right now we have a whole bunch of kids who are waiting to be sent out to a location and we're just trying to wait for another one to pop up."

Brooks, Webb and Rogers said as long as people keep showing up, they will continue to stay and help in any way they can.

"We're actually changing things up a little bit tomorrow [Wednesday] and helping the schools as well because they were also incredibly damaged," Webb said. "Mark Twain and Wyman and Truman and the middle school were all super hit hard."