Saturday marks the 10-year anniversary of the Joplin tornado, which tore a six-mile-long and up to a mile-wide path of devastation through the southwest Missouri city. One hundred fifty-eight people lost their lives directly due to the EF5 tornado on May 22, 2011. The city will commemorate the anniversary with an observance Saturday, including a…
6th Anniversary of deadly Joplin, Missouri tornado
Joplin, Miss. (WTVY) — May 22nd marks the sixth anniversary of the deadly tornado that swept through the community of Joplin, Missouri. The 2011 tornado was rated an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with estimated winds over 200 miles per hour. It’s estimated that about 25% of the city was destroyed. The St. John’s…
Tornado-stricken Joplin now thrives, but emotional scars linger
HARI SREENIVASAN: Storms, hurricanes and natural disasters clearly test the fortitude of any area, as we’re seeing this weekend with Hermine, and just recently with the rains and flooding in Louisiana. We tend to focus on the immediate aftermath and relief, but the devastation can last for years. We have the story of how one…
Joplin tornado spawns research among engineers, scientists
OPLIN, Missouri — Tornado research has surged since a massive twister destroyed much of Joplin and killed 161 people. Engineers, meteorologists and social scientists have published almost 800 peer-reviewed studies about tornadoes over the past five years, The Joplin Globe reports. David Roueche, a doctoral student in wind engineering at the University of Florida, said…
National Weather Service still learning from Joplin Tornado
Five years after an EF-5 tornado devastated Joplin the National Weather Service is still learning from that storm. The storm that spawned that tornado, which left a damage path up to a mile wide through Joplin and killed 161 people, seemed much less dangerous early on, Meteorologist Andy Boxell recalls. “We knew that we had…
After tornado, school storm shelters were must-haves
In the wake of the May 2011 tornado, providing a safe refuge for students — every last one of them — became a top priority for school officials in Joplin. Every Joplin school was rebuilt, renovated or retrofitted to include tornado “safe rooms” or shelters in the years that followed. “It was a sense of…
The gathering storm: Tracing the trail of Joplin’s killer tornado
Highlights: The savage storm was born in a monster low-pressure system that formed 4,000 miles away Forecasters at Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. knew deadly storms were likely May 22, but where? This story was originally published Dec. 11, 2011 On a steamy Sunday afternoon in May, Andy Foster grew more and more uneasy.…
“Heavenly Father!” “I love you all!” “I love everyone!” “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” “I love all of you!”
On May 22, a three-quarter-mile-wide tornado carved a six-mile-long path through Joplin, Missouri, killing 160. Unable to escape, two dozen strangers sought shelter in a gas station’s walk-in cooler while the funnel ripped apart every building, car, and living thing around. This is their story. Ruben As he rushes from the rear to the front…