MU Tigers football team responds to recovery effort in Joplin

A tractor-trailer truck that normally carries gear for the Missouri Tigers football team has carried supplies to tornado-ravaged Joplin.

Missourinet Sports Director Bill Pollock has traveled to Joplin to cover the Tigers’ response to the disaster in southwest Missouri. Pollock says the reality of the destruction stands in stark contrast with what he expected to view.

“It wasn’t even close,” Pollock tells us in an interview. “I pulled in and what’s really odd about it is, the tornado cuts a very distinct path and you could look in one direction and see restaurants, buildings; you wouldn’t think that anything was wrong. You can turn around 180 degrees and it’s like a bomb went off.”

Pollock says the destruction is so widespread and complete that it’s hard to describe.

MU Tigers football team unloads supplies in Joplin

“There are no words to describe it,” Pollock says. “I kept driving, saying, ‘Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God.”

The Tigers are among several groups volunteering to help with recovery efforts in Joplin.

AUDIO: Brent Martin interviews Bill Pollock in Joplin [7 min MP3]