Sun, Jul 20 2008
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Published May 14, 2008 07:23 pm - Rockie Peterson's family has lots of friends and they have shown up to help them rebuild. Family counts blessings, friends after tornado ravages community By Derek Spellman THE JOPLIN GLOBE (JOPLIN, Mo.) RACINE, Mo. — They have found solace in numbers, even though the Peterson family could just as easily have found despair, if they chose to count only what they lost last weekend.
They lost one loved one - Rockie Peterson, 64, the family patriarch and one of 14 lives claimed in Newton County by Saturday’s tornado. They lost two barns and maybe a house. They lost two Boer goats that they raise for a living. They lost several small goat shelters. They have lost time spent cleaning up property. But Lori Peterson, Rockie Peterson’s daughter-in-law and business partner, says you can also find strength in the numbers, if you count what you still have. The growing family still has each other, Lori Peterson said. The tornado that killed Rockie Peterson also could have killed the three people who were with him. The Petersons still have the rest of their nearly 200 Boer goats. They still have a grain bin. They have 26 days until the American Boer Goat Association’s National Show in Tulsa, which the family has vowed to attend. And they have lots of friends - who showed up this week to help them rebuild. Just after he heard what happened to the Peterson family, Bill Ryals and his wife left their own Boer goat farm in Tylertown, Miss., and began the nearly 620-mile journey to Southwest Missouri. Ryals got to know the Peterson family through the Boer goat industry and national shows. When the Ryals’ farm took a battering from Hurricane Katrina several years ago, the Petersons were among those who helped them clean up, he said. “I love them,” he said of the family. “They are good people, and they needed help. They still need help.” Ryals said that while the damage wrought by Katrina was wider in scope than Saturday’s tornado, the individual pockets of devastation in Southwest Missouri were worse. “It was, I think, a lot worse,” he said. Ryals said he and his wife were among “a bunch of people” from several states, including Texas and Oklahoma, who came to help the Petersons rebuild. One friend brought a tractor to help push away debris, while others brought supplies that included food, portable generators and chainsaws. “They are special people,” Ryals said of the Peterson family. Ryals described Rockie Peterson, the head of the family, as an affable man who was always willing to help someone else. 
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