Robb Mariani has seen a lot of things in his life, encompassing a mixed bag of joy and heartache. Nothing, however, prepared him for what he witnessed while hosting the Season Two premiere (July 14 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.) of the SPEED original series American Trucker.

On May 22, a vicious, three-quarter-mile wide, multiple-vortex tornado decimated the southern Missouri town of Joplin.With wind speeds eclipsing 200 mph, this F5 (the most powerful tornado measurement on the Fujita Scale) monster killed an estimated 150 people and skewered a six-mile long path that literally obliterated a populated part of town. The storm was so devastating it’s been categorized as the seventh single-deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

Tragedy is also an opportunity to help, and truck driver Ken Vosejpka was one of those people who heeded the early call. A retired United States Marine of 25 years, he and his USA Truck colleagues were among the first outside supply teams on the scene in the aftermath of the devastation. For the past decade, responding to natural disasters has become a part of the company’s charitable culture.

In this special episode, Mariani and the American Trucker production crew rode along with Vosejpka as he and his big rig full of donated goods and supplies headed into a town full of need. While news reports seem stunning enough, actually meeting the destruction head on was something entirely different.

“Not all of Joplin was leveled,” said Mariani, as anticipation grew upon entering the city limits. “When we came in via the (prescribed) route, it looked seemingly normal when we first got in. There were some clues though. Once we were on the interstate approaching it, you would see a roof or some debris in a field that wasn’t yet collected. You started to think, ‘Oh my… and that’s a ways out.’

“But you began to ask if it was going to be that bad,” Mariani added. “Then, all of a sudden, you turned down towards that street and it was like somebody flipped a switch and hit the destruct button. You can’t believe it unless you are there. It really is devastating – beyond words. 

“What you see on the news, in that five-minute bit on your local station or newspaper, doesn’t come remotely close to the impact of what actually went on in the strike zone. We were all left speechless, crew and all, and we were dumbfounded at the amount of devastation. It literally looked like you took that path of ground and stuck it in a meat grinder. There was nothing left.”

While Vosejpka and his team were delivering what was needed from their rigs, another truck was utilized in a much more unfortunate way.

“We found the one piece of evidence that helped them determine this was an F5 tornado,” Mariani said. “There was a medium-duty Freightliner truck that came from the hospital, and (it was) wrapped around an elm tree, (where) the headlights literally touched the taillights. To see it, it looked like a wet pasta noodle. But this is something that’s so big, that commands respect on the interstate, and to see it just picked up and thrown into a tree. It looked like something that Hollywood CGI people would have constructed.”

The journey toward Joplin begins at USA Truck headquarters in Van Buren, Ark. Throughout the show, Mariani meets volunteers, including some kind-hearted truckers there to help. The audience will meet Wayne, a trucker from Tulsa who helped families search for missing items buried by the storm, and visit the on-site temporary hospital that was stocked by the numerous trailers of supplies the big rigs brought in.

“It really put a perspective on how fragile we all are,” Mariani reflected. “No matter where you live, whether you are susceptible to hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes, you just can’t take things for granted. I know that a lot of the drivers didn’t take anything for granted. But driving supplies in with them was a moving experience.”

The new season of American Trucker can be seen Thursdays nights at 10 p.m. ET only on SPEED. For more information on host RobbMariani, log onto www.robbmariani.com. 

For more on American Trucker, log onto American Trucker to view full episodes from Season One, photo galleries, video clips, social media and the latest from the SPEED original series.