yet amid this widespread destruction cnn s casey wian found people already starting to rebuild. reporter: it s difficult to find signs of hope amid so much death and destruction, but one man is already starting to rebuild his wife s business. this is america and we re going to rebuild it. reporter: four days after a historic tornado demolished much of joplin, missouri why don t you cut them and put them underneath. reporter: contractor darren collins started construction on the first new building to emerge from the rubble. at some point we re going to have to start scratching our heads and staring at the rubble and roll up our sleeves and get things back to some north of normalcy. reporter: he s rebuilding his wife s beauty salon which he built once before 17 years ago. on tuesday collins discussed the idea with shocked city officials. wednesday they gave him the okay to start, and thursday construction began.
and we re going to rebuild it. reporter: four days after an historic tornado demolished much of joplin, missouri why don t you cut them and put them underneath? reporter: contractor darren collins started construction on the first new building to emerge from the rubble. at some point we have to stop scratching our heads and staring at the rubble and get things back to normalcy. reporter: he s rebuilding his wife s beauty salon. reporter: he s rebuilding his wife s beauty salon. on tuesday collins discussed the idea with shocked officials. wednesday they gave him the oak to start and thursday the construction began. we have had an enormous outpouring of generosity and help to get prepared to get to this point. the city s been great. the city allowed us a permit in record time. reporter: there is no electricity in joplin. the substation across the street remains in ruins, so a generator powers the tools. time to roll up our sleeves and move on with our lives.
this is america. and we re going to rebuild it. reporter: four days after an historic tornado demolished much of joplin, missouri why don t you cut them and put them underneath? reporter: contractor darren collins started construction on the first new building to emerge from the rubble. at some point we have to stop scratching our heads and staring at the rubble and get things back to normalcy. reporter: he s rebuilding his wife s beauty salon. he built once before 17 years ago. on tuesday collins discussed the idea with shocked officials. wednesday they gave him the ok to start and thursday the construction began. we have had an enormous outpouring of generosity and help to get prepared to get to this point. the city s been great. the city allowed us a permit in record time. reporter: there is no electricity in joplin. the substation across the street remains in ruins, so a generator powers the tools.
business to the area, but i believe everyone around here will surprise everyone in the country with the rate that we can come back. reporter: after so much tragedy and so much devastation. collins takes solace in the cross that remains standing in the rubble of st. mary s church across the street and in the support he s received from his community. i thank god to live in such a place. all of those pictures were shot thursday afternoon, the day he began construction. we went by the site again today and shot new pictures of just how far he s come. it s already got a roof on that structure. he hopes to be back in business in 45 days. thanks. we want to show you these images from our ireporters on the ground. brian smith shot these in the days following the severe tornado. he wrote it was very surreal, almost as if a bomb had exploded and destroyed everything. neighbors looking out for each other and some had taken shelter with each other from monday s
collins takes solace in the cross that remains standing in the rubble of st. mary s church across the street and in the support he s received from his community. i thank god to live in such a place. all of those pictures were shot thursday afternoon, the day he began construction. we went by the site again today and shot new pictures of just how far he s come. it s already got a roof on that structure. he hopes to be back in business in 45 days. thanks. we want to show you these images from our ireporters on the ground. brian smith shot these in the days following the severe tornado. he wrote it was very surreal, almost as if a bomb had exploded and destroyed everything. neighbors looking out for each other and some had taken shelter with each other from monday s storms in what was left of their homes. residents, he said, seemed confused and eager for any information that i had. in atlanta today a routine flight turned scary for people