Nevada volunteers join 'Blitz Build' in Joplin

Saturday, October 22, 2011
Home Edition designers Tracy Huston, left, and Michael Moloney, right, wave to the spectators at the building site Friday while filming the show's 200th episode in Joplin. The episode is one of the largest as they are building seven homes in seven days. Michael Pommier/Herald-Tribune.

A Nevada construction company's participation in a reality TV show-sponsored effort to build seven homes in seven days for seven tornado-devastated Joplin families was strenuous but rewarding, one of the company owners said Friday during a break from the high-energy effort.

Wes Ogle of Buildet LLC said he and partner Chris Hendren labored for 19 hours straight from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning with 13 volunteers from the community and their firm.

They returned home exhausted at mid-day Thursday, but were back out there Friday afternoon. "I had a call this morning and they sounded desperate," Ogle said.

"We shouldn't have been working so long and we finally told them we had to leave. We framed in a two-bedroom house for the Eli Gonzales family and got it ready for shingles, siding and windows. We're back today finishing the posts and railings on the front and back porches."

Referring to Ty Pennington, host of the Emmy Award-winning ABC TV Friday night show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Ogle said, "Ty came over and helped us set a wall.

"It's been fun. We have all really enjoyed helping out and we thought it was pretty good for 13 guys to volunteer. The show provides the materials and we provide the labor."

Led by Millstone Custom Homes of Springfield, the task involves some 40 Southwest Missouri companies and is scheduled for completion at noon Wednesday, Oct. 26. Having been moved from Sunday nights, the show airs at 7 p.m. Fridays, but Ogle had not heard when the Joplin episode would be broadcast.

He said the destruction caused by the three-quarter-mile-wide May 22 tornado was so complete through the heart of Joplin, 60 miles south of Nevada in Jasper and Newton counties, that it was not apparent what address the Gonzales home will have or even what street it is on. "All we know is it's House No. 7," said Ogle. "We're five blocks east of Maiden Lane and about eight blocks northeast of St. John's Hospital."

The familiar blue T-shirts are all over the building site where ABC's Emmy award-winning show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is filming in Joplin. Filming began on Wednesday and the seven homes will be revealed to their owners on Oct. 26. See Michael Pommier's column on Page 3. Michael Pommier/Herald-Tribune.

References say 163 people died and that almost 17,000 insurance claims had been filed by mid-July for $2.2 billion in damages.

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