The Rogersville Review

WAKEENEY, KANSAS - They're not in Kansas anymore, and if Joyce Wolf has her way she and husband Jerry won't be - ever again. After being in the direct path of last Thursday's tornadoes that ripped through the Plains, this former Bulls Gap couple is happy to be back in Hawkins County and lucky to be alive.

"I'm pretty sure in 'The Wizard of Oz' Dorothy came back with more fanfare than a tow truck," Joyce said candidly, trying to maintain a sense of humor.

The Wolfs arrived in a U-Haul at their daughter's Rogersville home earlier this week with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a water logged pile of memories salvaged from their RV camper.

Both of them are bruised - Joyce on her arms, Jerry on his face. Both are visibly shaken.

"He remembers everything and I'm glad I don't remember most of it," Joyce said looking at her husband.

Last year the couple sold their Bulls Gap house and hit the road as full-time RVers, working from campground to campground to experience retirement at its best. They didn't expect to be caught up in the center of a twister and live to tell about it.

"He was blown out the side of the camper," Joyce said. "I was knocked unconscious and inside the RV when he says it rolled in the air and came back down."

After it dumped the Wolfs from their home it reportedly did two more rolls.

"When I woke to realize what happened I found Jerry outside under the couch and had to lift it off him," she said. "I've tried to make light of the situation and joke about it, but mentally we're kind of wiped out."

Though as her determined spirit shows, the couple plans to start life again soon. They're eager to rest then get back on the road with their dog, who answers to the name "Toto" nowadays.

"We're going to rebuild," Joyce said. "We're in our 60s, but we're going to do it and not let anything like a tornado keep us down. I'm just not going back to Kansas," she laughed. "The Tennessee Tornado coaster at Dollywood would be a piece of cake for either of us now."

"When you watch TV and see things like Hurricane Katrina you say, 'That's bad,' but when you experience a disaster first-hand - when you are part of it - there's no describing it," she said.

While there was no scarecrow, tin man, or lion, Joyce said the kind-hearted strangers who helped them get back home made all the difference.

"The kindness of strangers has helped more than anything," she said. "Helping with the little things you can't fix on your own like bringing us a sandwich or asking if we needed anything meant so much."

The Wolf's said they were offered shelter following the storm, but with all their personal effects scattered on the ground around them they spent the night at their camper to protect what was left.

"Jerry and I just sat and talked most of the night," Joyce said. "We sat back and realized just how lucky we were to be alive."

But the Wolf's weather experience wasn't quite finished. The next day at a restaurant in Ellis, Kansas the shell shocked couple sat down for a meal in a roadside diner.

"No sooner had we sat down to eat when tornado sirens started to go off," Joyce said. "I felt like we were bringing the tornado with us."

"We drove up the road through Ellis and realized we had just missed another one," Jerry added. "There were 18-wheelers turned over on the side of the highway."

While she said recent Tennessee thunderstorms have shaken her spirit a little, Joyce said home is still where her heart is.

"We're glad to be back home in Tennessee where we have such good friends," Joyce said. "All the documents and many of the personal things we've lost can be replaced, but we have our lives, our family and all our good friends to be thankful for."

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