Governor Tours Tornado Ravaged Areas of Bootheel

Rows of houses turned into rubble … large trees with trunks a man can hardly wrap his arms around, snapped in half and strewn about like toothpicks … and hundreds of roofs torn off – replaced by multi-colored tarps until a more permanent solution can be found. That’s what Governor Matt Blunt saw as he got his first look at the devastation in the Bootheel towns of Caruthersville and Braggadocia. State Senator Rob Mayer represents this area. Mayer, and many people in the region, would like to get FEMA trailers to serve as temporary housing. Governor Blunt says the state is working on that, but admits the effort is being slowed by the federal bureaucracy.