Two Missouri CWA Members Dead in Catastrophic Joplin Tornado

AT&T Mobility Store Demolished as Workers Try to Huddle in Bathroom

Two CWA members were killed in the May 22 tornado that tore Joplin, Mo., in half, leaving nothing but a broad swath of rubble where homes, businesses, big box retailers, a high school and seven-story hospital had stood just minutes earlier.

Sharyl Nelsen

Sharyl Nelsen, 34, of Local 6312 was killed as the tornado slammed into the AT&T Mobility store where she, four other CWA-represented coworkers and a family of six desperate for shelter were crammed inside a small bathroom. (See story below.)

Gina Bloxham

Regina "Gina" Bloxham, 55, a Local 6313 member who had worked at AT&T Mobility's Joplin call center since it opened in 2007, was killed when the tornado destroyed her house. Her mother was critically injured and remains hospitalized.

Nelsen's four coworkers, at the store when the tornado struck, were badly bruised, battered and shaken, but are recovering, said Local 6312 President Jim Billedo. He is working with AT&T to ensure that his members get all the medical care, counseling and other help they need. For now, AT&T is paying their salaries, but it's not clear how long that will continue.

Billedo's local is based in Springfield; Local 6313 represents a call center and AT&T technicians in Joplin. Of about 550 members, more than 40 lost their homes and 20 of them, mostly renters, have no insurance. "They're wiped out, they've lost everything," Local President Kevin Kollmeyer said.

An outpouring of goodwill is helping meet the community's immediate needs, but the CWA officers are concerned about what will happen when news coverage subsides. Kollmeyer's local is accepting donations to a relief fund for members in need. But, working with CWA District 6 and headquarters, he's also created an "Adopt a Family" program.

The idea is for locals around the country to work directly with a CWA family that's lost everything, and help them get back on their feet. "This way, two months down the road, when the need is still there but no one is talking about Joplin anymore, our members will still have their CWA brothers and sisters helping them," Kollmeyer said.

To participate or ask questions, call Kollmeyer at (417) 623-2541 or email him at cwalocal6313@att.net. Donations may be mailed to: CWA Local 6313 Disaster Relief Fund, P.O. Box 4053, Joplin, Mo., 64803.

Still in Shock

The Joplin, Mo., AT&T Mobility store after the May 22 tornado. Five CWA Local 6312 members were inside; CWA member Sharyl Nelsen was killed.

Joplin-area CWA members remain stunned by the extent of death and devastation. The death toll stands at 134 and more than 1,150 are badly injured. The AT&T Mobility store was among 300 businesses and 8,000 structures demolished. Hundreds of cars flew into the air and landed blocks away looking like they’d been through a wrecking-yard crusher.

The devastation is so vast that Kollmeyer said there's a limit to what AT&T technicians can do. "They're trying to restore services to all the businesses and customers that they can, but Joplin was sliced in half," he said. "From 15th Street to 26th, for about three-quarters of a mile wide, it's just leveled. There's nothing to replace, no homes to give service back to."

Kollmeyer's mother lost her home; remarkably the only room still standing when the wind stopped was the home's bathroom where his stepfather had run to safety.

The duplex where Local 6313 member Katie Thrasher lived with her two small dogs was also destroyed. Thrasher worked at the AT&T Mobility store until 5 p.m., stopped at home, then went out to a restaurant the tornado spared.

The tornado demolished Katie Thrasher's duplex. Her two dogs were home and survived, despite being stuck under rubble.

Below: Tornado survivors Katie Thrasher and Logan Pickett, both Local 6312 members who worked at the now-destroyed AT&T Mobility store in Joplin.

She called her neighbor and heard the shocking news, "Everything is gone." Just a few minutes earlier she hadn't been particularly alarmed by the tornado warnings. "They cry wolf all the time," she said, "and it either misses us or hits one little area."

"I got in my car and flew down to my house, seeing dead bodies lying all over the road, two bodies in front of my house," Thrasher said. "I've had a little bit of medical experience, so I went down the street and tried to help people. One guy had a stick coming out of his head. Another man was bleeding from the head."

She quickly found one of her dogs under the rubble and a neighbor found the other two days later. Both are OK. She is managing, too, and is grateful for her renter's insurance.

Remembering the Victims

Thrasher and Sharyl Nelsen had been close friends for years, long before Nelsen came to work with her at the AT&T Mobility store in 2010.

"They say that good people go first, and that's so true," Thrasher said. "She was the best person you would ever meet. Her arms were open to anyone and everybody. She didn't judge people, didn't have anything bad to say about people. I'll always remember her laugh, she was just hilarious."

In the moments before the tornado destroyed the store, Nelsen was on her cell phone with her family: her husband, Chad, daughter, Maddie, 14, and her son, Aaron, 10.

"She was just a great person, so nice to talk to," said Billedo, her local president. "She spoke Spanish and English and was very confident in her job. She was very well liked."

Coworker Logan Pickett, who went through training with Nelsen, said she was "one of my best friends at work" and recalled how they shared a love of all sorts of music.

Gina Bloxham, mother of three and grandmother of two, was a business customer service specialist for AT&T. As the tornado sped toward her home, she was inside a bedroom closet with her 88-year-old mother and on the phone with her daughter, Jennifer Bybee.

"She said, 'I have to get the cat' and I told her to forget the cat, but she got the cat anyway and got back in the closet. It was starting to get really loud. I told her I loved her, and said I'll call her back in just a few minutes," Bybee said.

Bybee and her husband live about 60 miles away and were getting ready to move her mother nearby so that she could be closer to her two small granddaughters, whom she always told "I love to infinity and beyond."

Minutes after the tornado, Bybee heard TV newscasters describing buildings that were near her mother's home. Unable to reach her, Bybee and her husband rushed to Joplin. At first, she wasn't even sure she was in the right neighborhood.

"It was just mass destruction, the best description I've heard is Ground Zero," Bybee said. "My sister was screaming on the phone that she couldn't find my mom and my granny."

Her mother had died instantly after being struck in the head. Her grandmother suffered multiple injuries and is on a ventilator.

Bloxham "was always full of laughter, so much fun, she was just that ultimate heart of hospitality and loved everyone unconditionally," her daughter said.

Bloxham's boss, Shane Laubach, described her similarly, calling her "an outstanding person who always had her customers laughing, always had a smile on her face."