FOX 14 TV Joplin and Pittsburg News Weather Sports |Payless ShoeSource reopens

Payless ShoeSource reopens

Payless ShoeSource is back in business on 15th and Range Line with a grand opening on Friday.

The store was one of the many Joplin businesses that was destroyed on May 22.

The official ribbon-cutting took place Friday afternoon.

The Payless grand opening has special meaning for two workers who were inside when the tornado destroyed the store.

Kourtney Roper and Amanda Kent, who's still recovering from injuries, went airborne in the tornado.

Friends, coworkers and Amanda's husband, a sheriff's deputy, searched through mounds of shoes looking for the women fearing the worst.

The two say they want to thank an unknown teenager who took them to the hospital in his truck.

"Thank you so much," Kourtney says.  "He was very patient and put up with a lot from us because obviously we were disgusting.  As soon as I stood up I was hit with a wall of gravel.  I was covered in gravel and glass and grime, and we were both soaking wet and we probably  ruined his poor truck, and he went out of his way to help us."