Maya Angelou celebrates her 82th birthday at her home in Winston Salem, North Carolina, in May, 2010. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Maya Angelou says something good arises from catastrophe as humans forget their biases For a while, she says, neighbors help neighb...

Those of us fortunate enough not to be in the direct path of the storm waited in the center of our darkened city, praying that loved ones somehow managed to remain safe in what reporters were describing as a scene from a war zone.

A deadly tornado has torn through the city of Joplin, in the south-western state of Missouri, killing dozens of people and flattening hundreds of homes and buildings