Until this past spring, Pierce City, Mo. (pop. 1,385), was known for its hospitality—there was an annual "Howdy Neighbor" festival and free coffee at the grocery store—and its Victorian business district. "Architecture classes used to come draw the old buildings," recalls pharmacist Doug Thompson, 56. Then, in an instant, everything disappeared: At 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, May 4, a tornado ripped through Pierce City, claiming one life, 81 homes—and the prized downtown, destroying the city hall and all but three of 45 businesses.

"It took about 10 second...everything went black," says Greg Bunn, 48, pastor of the First Baptist Church, who took cover in the basement. When he emerged, Bunn had a feeling he wasn't in Missouri anymore: "It looked like our own little Baghdad. Huge trees were sucked out of the ground like toothpicks. Brick buildings that had been there since the 1880s just crumbled."

The old railroad town's spirit, however, was unbroken. In fact, it has soared to new heights: In, a heartening display of solidarity, two Pierce City merchants, along with Bunn's church board, are giving their land away—not selling it or renting it, but handing it over, no strings attached—so neighbors can rebuild on it. "I have seen many remarkably selfless acts, but the land-gifting in Pierce City is extraordinary," says Brad Gair of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who is overseeing a recovery plan for the town—as he did for New York City after 9/11.

What happened in Pierce City was a kind of altruistic chain reaction set in motion when Mike Flummerfelt, owner of Town and Country Supermarket, went looking for a larger lot to rebuild on. When the tornado struck, Flummerfelt, 55, had been in a Springfield hospital, recovering from a fall. He wept when he learned he and wife Carolyn had lost the store they'd owned for 16 years. "They came in with a loader, scooped it up and put it in a Dumpster," he says. Flummerfelt knew the Baptist church had put its land up for sale for $225,000 before the tornado because it planned to build a new facility outside town. So, expecting an insurance settlement, he approached Bunn to make a bid. He was in for a surprise. "We knew we needed a grocery again, so we decided to just let them have the property," says pastor Bunn. "We weren't interested in making money."

The Flummerfelts were flummoxed. "To hear someone's just going to give you their land?" says Carolyn. "People don't do this kind of thing nowadays." But that is precisely what she and her husband did when Doug Thompson inquired about buying their old property for a new drugstore. "I told him I'd be willing to pay, but he said no," says the pharmacist, tearing up. "I said, 'Well, that's awful good of you, Mike.' " Says Flummerfelt: "It just seemed the reasonable thing to do."

Absolutely, thought Mayor Mark Peters. And since the town required a bigger plot for a new city hall he asked Thompson about buying his land. The response? "I said, 'I'm not going to take anything for it,' " Thompson says.

It could take a year for Pierce City to be viable. Much of downtown remains rubble, and the sewer needs repair. But there's no shortage of heart. "Years ago, we had a Chamber of Commerce sign near the city pool. It said, 'Pierce City: The Friendliest Town in Southwest Missouri,' " says Mayor Peters. And now? "I think we might need to dig out that old sign."

Richard Jerome
Kate Klise in Pierce City

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Trading Spaces
This was Pierce City on May 5. The subsequent demolition flattened downtown. Now a land swap may revive it.

THE CHURCH The First Baptist Church, which gave this plot to the grocery, will move to a site north of town, where a new church was planned before the tornado.

THE DRUGSTORE The Thompsons, who will move to the old grocery lot, donated this site for the new city hall.

THE GROCERY STORE The Flummerfelts, who gave their land to the Thompsons, will move to the church site.

THE CITY HALL Pierce City's seat of power will move from this site to the old drugstore lot. Plans for this site are still undetermined.