Joplin tornado damage map for tourists is a bad idea

Wednesday night during our 5 p.m. newscast we ran a story that deeply bothered me. 

The story was on how tourists are flocking to Joplin to see the destruction.  

As you'll recall, eight months ago a massive EF-5 tornado tore through Joplin, causing 161 deaths and changing the landscape there forever.  

Now the director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau has created a map of the destruction for tourists.

Sadly, I can't make this up. 

Like a Hollywood map of the stars’ homes, this is a map to help bus tours and “looky-loos” to trace the deadly path of the storm. It includes points of interest. Does that include, “Bob died here”?

As you might imagine, there has been a huge backlash from the citizens. 

Those in opposition created a Facebook page called “Joplin Citizens Against Tornado Tours.”  You can go there and read more about this terrible decision to aid gawkers who clog roads and hinder clean up and rebuilding efforts. 

While there, I read a post by Martin Pearlman that read, “Maybe they can for 50-cents more show postmortem trauma pictures of the deceased too?”  

In my career, I've seen too much destruction from tornadoes:  Wichita Falls in 1979,  Moore in 1999, Greensburg, KS, and more recently the Tushka and Picher tornadoes. The scope of Joplin was the worst I have seen.  

When we show up following a tornado, I am always very sensitive to where we shoot and what we say near victims’ families.  There is nothing worse than a callous reporter sticking a mic in someone's face to grab a quick soundbite for the newscast. 

You've got to be respectful and try to put yourself in the victim's shoes. The media show up for a few days, then move on. Most do a good job, but like all professions, there are some jerks in our field as well.

This idea of printing up a map encourages a flood of tourists to trample on ground where lives were lost less than a year ago. Families lost husbands, wives, and children and those wounds are still very fresh. 

Much like the respect you show when you walk into a cemetery, the town is a graveyard and needs to be treated with dignity.

I can't get out of my mind the thought of Billy Bob walking through someone's lot checking his map to see how many people were killed there.

My hope is that the locals who are against this will win the day. They have gone through too much already.  Tourists, perhaps later visiting a memorial place, could learn much, but not now.  It is way too soon.  A map does not help the situation in Joplin. What happened to compassion? I am anxious to hear what you think of this.

I was having a conversation with Joplin native Andy Wallace this afternoon. He agreed but also made some excellent counterpoints on this.  I asked him to post those in the comment section.