Hoosier

I guess you can never fully anticipate an EF5 making a direct hit on a heavily populated area but I think we knew the tornado risk was nonzero even though most of the attention wasn't on that area. I think SPC had a 5% chance there but I'd have to double check that. It was a very bad sign when they were already reporting like 25 deaths right after it happened.

Here's the storm data entry for the tornado: EVENT NARRATIVE: National Weather Service survey teams rated the tornado that tracked across the southwest through east central portion of Joplin, Missouri, as an EF5 tornado. Maximum winds were estimated to have exceeded 200 miles per hour. The tornado had a maximum width of one mile and an overall path length of nearly 21.6 miles, nearly nine miles of which occurred in Jasper County. The tornado killed 159 directly, three indirectly, and injured over 1150 people. Sadly, on May 24 a police officer who was volunteering from another department, was struck by lightning while serving in the response efforts and later died. Over 10,200 people filed for disaster assistance following the tornado. The EF-5 rating (greater than 200 mph wind speeds) was mainly arrived at by the total destruction of vehicles, including some vehicles tossed several blocks and semi trucks thrown a quarter of a mile. Parking stops weighing over 300 pounds and re-barred into asphalt were uprooted and tossed. Other factors in the rating included damage to reinforced concrete structures, and that St. Johnbs Hospital building structure was compromised. Seven thousand homes were severely damaged or destroyed and another 900 damaged. Other substantial buildings damaged or destroyed included the Joplin High School and Technical Center along with five other city schools. Numerous retailers including Home Depot, Sports Academy, Dillons, and Walmart were also destroyed. The most substantial building impacted was St John's hospital which will be razed due to the tornado. It was calculated that 2 million cubic yards of debris is attributable to the storm across its relatively short length on the ground. The tornado initially touched down one half mile southwest of the intersection of JJ Highway and Newton Road in Newton County where several large trees were toppled. The tornado rapidly intensified as it moved toward the intersection of Country Club Drive and 32nd Street where it crossed into Jasper County. Damage became more widespread as the tornado crossed Maiden Lane, breaking nearly all windows on three sides of St. Johns Hospital as well as damage to the roof and exterior walls on several floors. Two patients on oxygen were indirectly suffocated when the generator and a backup generator were damaged after power was cut off. Three additional patients may have succumbed similarly though sufficient data as to the cause of death was not available. An additional indirect fatality occurred due to psychological trauma. The tornado further intensified as it destroyed homes and businesses to the immediate east and north of the hospital. A church school was completely destroyed with the exception of a portion of the sanctuary. Significant damage to the Greenbriar Nursing Home resulted in the death of 20 mostly elderly patients. The tornado continued to destroy hundreds of frame homes between 32nd and 20th Streets, leading to nearly a fifth of the deaths. Three story apartment complexes had the top two floors removed; other two story complexes were partially leveled. Fourteen deaths occurred in apartments along the track. Eleven additional deaths occurred in churches along this path. There were two fatalities in a mobile home (Joplin has a city ordinance prohibiting mobile home parks). Well built structures that were heavily damaged or destroyed along this area included the Joplin High School, Franklin Technical Center and Irving Elementary, all of which were free of students due to the weekend. The tornado also damaged three additional elementary schools. A bank was totally destroyed with the exception of the vault. A large grocery store was also destroyed. The tornado crossed Rangeline Road near 20th Street. Damage included significant to complete damage to several restaurants and large long-span retail buildings; including Home Depot, Sports Academy and Walmart in this area. Twenty deaths occurred indoors or in the parking lots of these structures. Semi trucks on the back side of Walmart were thrown more than a quarter mile. The tornado continued to move eastward along and south of 20th Street destroying numerous warehouse style facilities, a portion of Joplin East Middle School, and residences through Duquesne Road. The tornado continued destroying numerous homes as it began weakening. It turned southeast toward Interstate 44 where it threw several semi trucks as it crossed the interstate and moved into Newton County at 32nd Street just west of Kodiak Road. EPISODE NARRATIVE: A strong upper level trough across the central plains region and a strong upper level disturbance along with a frontal boundary in the area produced numerous severe storms with a few supercells across southeast Kansas. One cyclic supercell associated with the system produced a very large and deadly EF-5 tornado that hit the city of Joplin and then spawned two separate tornadoes that moved across southwestern Missouri. A separate tornadic supercell produced an EF-3 tornado that moved into McDonald County from Northeastern Oklahoma. Continuing thunderstorms lasted into July 23 as another line of thunderstorms moved across the region. This line of storms produced reports of large hail, damaging winds and a weak EF-0 tornado in south central Missouri. As the storms moved over the Joplin area, two police officers were struck by lightning while aiding in the post tornado efforts. One of the two officers later died of injuries from the lightning strike.

Yeah, I bet there are even more examples.

Statistically unlikely of course, but for anyone who thinks it can't happen again in their lifetimes, look no further back than Moore, OK which was struck by violent tornadoes 4 years apart.

I'm no expert on cell phones but I wonder if a mass texting could cause overload issues (especially in highly populated areas) and cause some to not obtain the warning in a timely fashion. Obviously the system can get overloaded with a ton of people making calls at the same time but not sure about texts.

Damn east trend. Quit stealing all the action.

My sister was at the Indy 500 and the couple sitting in back of her were from Joplin. They were not hit by the tornado but they lost 2 of their friends. I'm sure this event touches almost everyone in Joplin one way or another.

That is really sad. It's one thing when it's somewhere else but when it's your town that experiences such destruction and loss of life...I can't imagine. I'm sure it will be a long time before there is any sense of normalcy, and obviously things will never be the same for many. There's not much to feel good about but you can feel proud about how you come back.

I think we have to be careful to not box ourselves in with what we think we know about wind speeds.

Geez. Easy to see how one can become disoriented after a major tornado like this.

"Death Alley" is largely displaced from the Plains tornado alley due to a number of factors

This tornado is on the verge of becoming the 7th deadliest in US history. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/killers.html

Turns out that report about the receipt being blown over 500 miles isn't true: http://blogs.wlfi.com/2011/05/27/new-receipt-not-from-tornado/

http://www.wthr.com/story/14741054/joplin-receipt-turns-up-in-indiana

Thanks for sharing your account, JoMo. Forgive me if this sounds dumb but since almost none of us have been that close to a violent tornado, just wondering if you experienced any weird sensations like ear popping or anything else.

Great to hear from you man!

There are folks with the same surname (assuming it's correct) located in other parts of Joplin. Unclear whether they are all related though.

Death toll up to 118

That might be true in general but I think it really depends on where it hits. The next violent wedge around Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago, etc. is gonna put anything we've seen this year to the test.

Of course I didn't mean to suggest that Oklahoma has the tree coverage that Alabama does on the whole, but in the case of the 1999 Moore/OKC tornado, I remember plenty of footage that showed a considerable number of trees. Any city is going to have a substantial number of trees which may not be captured well on a national map. Trees definitely factor in, but I think OKC having longer time to realize that a monster was bearing down (among other factors) surely helped.

I don't know if I agree with that. It's not like there aren't trees in a city like Oklahoma City.

Some schools do but I imagine that most don't.

That is a real nightmare scenario. It might be 10 years or 100 years from now but it will happen someday.

I think it was farther away from him than his post suggested (although certainly pretty close). We know that Cecil Floyd had damage and that is not too far away. Tidbits from the survey would suggest that he missed the worst but the damage path is wide.

People on Facebook are saying the suspected location of JoMo was heavily damaged. I've read so much conflicting info today...