JoMo

Jeff has been storm chasing for like 35 years. On his Joplin DVD, it shows them following the parent supercell across KS into MO (which was north of Joplin) and it was pretty ragged and not producing much so they went farther south. They also followed just behind the tornado until they couldn't go any farther due to damage, it was then they pulled down Iowa street and started search and rescue. On the vid, they black part of it out when he is pulling someone from a house, and there's another part where a lady comes and tells him that 'there's a dead man over there'. He tells her he knows and that there's nothing they can do for him, they just have to help the survivors. He was also making phone calls to the Tulsa NWS to tell them to relay information and get as much help to Joplin as possible. When help doesn't arrive, they go and look for help and find a Carthage Fire Department truck down the road, and they bring them back down that street to start search and rescue farther down the block. Despite it being 11 months since the tornado I still remember it like it was yesterday. The HRRR did really well on this day. It doesn't always get things right though. I remember I was looking at it before the tornado and saw that it was developing additional storms across SE KS, NE OK. I thought at the time, these storms would interefere with the big main supercell so I expected a 'cluster' of thunderstorms with high winds, hail and heavy rain. I actually felt a bit better when I saw those additional cells developing on the HRRR. Nothing really different from what we get all the time anyway. I went outside and started moving some of the lawn ornaments and stuff up closer to the house so they wouldn't blow away or get damaged. I never really expected the tornado though. In fact, just 10 days earlier on May 12th there was a storm that showed signs of rotation just west of here. I actually saw it but it was elevated and it had the look of a mesocyclone that was collapsing. It didn't produce anything as it moved to basically the NW of Joplin. I did notice one thing that did freak me out though on the HRRR other than the crazy helicity, both the LFC and LCL height was the same and it was very low in a very localized area along I-44 from Joplin on a bit northeast. This meant that pretty much any storm would be surface based and low to the ground. Once the parent supercell that had been in SE KS produced an outflow boundary, and the new strong updrafts in NE OK/SE KS latched on, Joplin's goose was cooked.

NBC Nightly News will air a special segment on Joplin on Monday Night's newscast. They were at the Joplin Prom tonight as well. Over 50 local and National Sponsors helped put the prom together. The first prom since the tornado. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x1865824808/Students-enjoy-enchanted-evening-at-Joplin-prom One girl didn't get to go to prom since she's in the hospital with a rare respiratory infection caused by the tornado. The nurses at Cox South in Springfield donated their time and money and transformed a wing of the pediatric ward into a prom for her. Several of her friends from Joplin went up and helped her celebrate. http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-cox-south-nurses-create-prom-dance-in-pediatric-ward-20120421,0,3480093.story Weather Radios for Duquesne should arrive before long: http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1774446550/Officials-say-Duquesne-weather-radios-should-arrive-soon

I know someone was asking about the May 22nd plans here in Joplin. This article should answer some of those, everyone is invited. http://www.joplinglobe.com/tornadomay2011/x1774443364/Memorial-walk-to-mark-one-year-of-unity-after-Joplin-tornado Also, Chelsea Clinton was at the high school today, she's doing a story for NBC Nightly News. I don't know when it will air.

Cal Ripken Jr was in town today with Energizer to work on a Habitat House. They donated $10,000 to the local Habitat for Humanity. Photo from KZRG: More than $311 million in building permits have been issued since the tornado: http://www.joplinglo...-Joplin-tornado Video of some of the 18 homes Convoy of Hope is rebuilding in Joplin. These are using the insulated concrete forms where the house is made out of concrete poured into these forms so it's more 'tornado resistant'. And finally, this video is the best I have found that shows what Joplin looks like as of probably a month or so ago. These people take a drive down where the tornado impacted and show the emptiness and the rebuilding. Keep in mind that this area was full of trees and buildings and houses.

Here's a story that ran a few days ago. It examines Joplin vs Tuscaloosa recovery and how Joplin is using local business and relaxed regulations and restrictions vs Tuscaloosa's regulations and waiting on FEMA: " The reason for Joplin's successes and Tuscaloosa's shortcomings? In Tuscaloosa, officials sought to remake the urban landscape top-down, imposing a redevelopment plan on businesses. Joplin took a bottom-up approach, allowing businesses to take the lead in recovery." The Alabama city's recovery plan, "Tuscaloosa Forward," is indeed state-of-the-art urban planning—and that's the crux of the problem. It sets out to "courageously create a showpiece" of "unique neighborhoods that are healthy, safe, accessible, connected, and sustainable," all anchored by "village centers" for shopping (in a local economy that struggles to sustain current shopping centers). Another goal is to "preserve neighborhood character" from a "disproportionate ratio of renters to owners." The plan never mentions protecting property rights. In Joplin, the official plan not only makes property rights a priority but clocks in at only 21 pages, compared with Tuscaloosa's 128. Joplin's plan also relied heavily on input from businesses (including through a Citizen's Advisory Recovery Team) instead of Tuscaloosa's reliance on outside consulting firms. "We need to say to our businesses, community, and to our citizens, 'If you guys want to rebuild your houses, we'll do everything we can to make it happen,'" said Joplin City Council member William Scearce in an interview. http://online.wsj.co...=googlenews_wsj

KZRG photos of the new St. Johns (Mercy) component hospital. This is the hospital until the real one is built by 2015. The proposed new hospital layout:

To go with the whole Easter Theme...... Rise, Neighborhood, Rise! This is what it looked like before the tornado: This is in August, 3 months after the tornado, notice how empty it looks: And Fri, April 6th 2012: Geese making their migration back north. These geese think that's a pond they are by, when in fact, it's where a house used to be and the foundation was dug out and water collected in the hole.

yep, Cunningham Pool on the N side of the park. Small pic of it after the tornado.

The street you were on was probably 26th. The street names are painted on by AmeriCorps volunteers. The street signs that are missing were part of the insurance coverage for the city. It takes a long time to get that sorted out I guess. The cleanup went extremely quickly for the amount of debris that was out there and Wal-mart, Home Depot, Academy rebuilt really quickly. The two towers at the hospital really haven't been touched due to asbestos abatement still going on so what you saw was tornado damage. The medical buildings just to the south of the hospital have been torn down. The hospitals were really close and even though Freeman wasn't hit by the tornado it did suffer roof damage from the inflow winds. Mercy uploaded a video of how the components to the component hospital have been built, towards the end you can see a time-lapse video of it being assembled on site. I think Mid-April is the expected opening. Cunningham Park right across from the hospital has a pool and now, cool new slides that it didn't have before. It's going to open on-time Memorial Weekend.

Anything else that shocked you? You can still see people's clothes in some of the trees as well. We've had a lot of amazing volunteers come and they've been working on cutting down and clearing out the downed trees in the more forested areas.

Yeah it's pretty shocking that those trees survived the winter and are now coming out of it even though they are disfigured. The Atlanta based contractor the school district hired to do demolition work is now suing the school district for non-payment. http://www.joplinglobe.com/tornadomay2011/x611942262/Contractor-sues-Joplin-School-District The Bel-Aire shopping center which was destroyed (featured at the first of the storm chaser van tour video where the chasers were fleeing the path) is going to be rebuilt bigger. A Longhorn streakhouse, which is new to Joplin will also be built there. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x2108288656/Bel-Aire-rebuilding-plans-suit-neighbors Volunteers from Ohio, Chicago, OKC, Tulsa have moved to Joplin since the tornado. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x1789079835/Volunteers-others-moving-to-Joplin-after-first-coming-to-city-to-help-out “The people here are exceptional. I feel like there is something here special that you don’t find everywhere else. They are kind and appreciative. They don’t focus on what they lost, but what they have. It is teaching me lessons and I have grown in a way I’ve never grown before. You can’t put a paycheck on that.” “We, as people, seek out the company of others like us,” she said. “I have found that here. I fit in.”

The school bond unofficially passes. It required 57.1% of the vote, it received somewhere around 57.6%. That means we'll be getting community shelters, and the schools posted in the last post ^

Big school bond issue going up for vote on April 3rd. Not only are Joplin High School, Irving Elementary, East Middle School and Elementary #2 going to be rebuilt but they will build gyms that will double as community shelters. There will be the capacity to hold 20,000 people. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1451002518/School-storm-shelters-could-house-20-000-people-as-well-as-students http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x1451002524/Joplin-School-District-seeks-OK-for-bond-issue High School virtual tour: Irving virtual tour:

We're over the $300 million mark on new construction. 59% built back as far as homes go. Joplin Globe has an interesting map plotting where these homes are, how much they cost, etc. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x684076010/Joplin-construction-tops-300-million-since-tornado But builders are clashing over home sizes and values which may have actually slowed the rebuilding some as Joplin doesn't have specific zoning requirements in the old neighborhoods so you're getting doublewide modular houses beside fancy houses driving the property values down. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x684073610/Builders-clash-over-home-sizes-values

Updated vid from Con-Way truck bay. You can see the doors explode inside at about 38 seconds in and one of them kinds of floats around for awhile. And pretty high quality vid from some chasers just minutes after the tornado moved though on Rangeline.

For a quick tour: If you take the Rangeline exit off I-44, you can head north to 20th street, you can see all the places that have built back in the commercial district there. Come back west on 20th and enjoy the nothingness that is 20th street. You can see where Hampshire Terrace apartments used to be and Dillons supermarket before you reach where Joplin High School used to be. Head south on Indiana avenue to 26th street where you will turn back west and take 26th all the way back west until you reach Schifferdecker. This will show you the hospital and Cunningham Park. They were working on bringing down the medical buildings around the hospital, but the actual hospital probably won't come down until sometime in late April. Everything should be open and there aren't really any places to avoid. Pizza Hut on Rangeline was rebuilt and it reopened yesterday I think.

Out of the 4,000 weather radios ordered, there are 630 left to be handed out. Boomtown days has been canceled this year since they want to concentrate on the May 22nd event(s). FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 23, 2012 #175 SUBJECT: Community invited to One Year Anniversary: “A Day of Unity” CONTACT: Lynn Onstot, Public Information Officer 417-624-0820, ext. 204 Community members along with the City of Joplin are finalizing plans for “A Day of Unity” to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the May 22, 2011 tornado. One of the main highlights will include “A Walk of Unity” that travels through the area devastated by the EF-5 twister. With several stops along the route, the Walk will begin in the eastern side of Joplin, near 17th & Range Line, and move through neighborhoods until reaching Cunningham Park. The Walk is scheduled to begin at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22nd and will conclude near the five o’clock hour at the Park in time for a 5:41 p.m. Moment of Silence, with a formal dedication of the bronze plaque inscribed with the names of those who lost their lives in the tornado. “It is a day to be one as a community, to stand tall and recognize the many facets of this past year,” said Mark Rohr, City Manager. “As we remember the many trials and sadness we’ve experienced, we also acknowledge the courage it takes to move forward in the recovery process.” One goal for the Walk is to symbolize walking against the wind which exemplifies the resilience of our citizens and how they, in the hours of peril and still today, stand strong and united. The Walk will also be a time to acknowledge the 119,000+ volunteers who have come from near and far to aid in the rescue, recover and now the rebuilding of Joplin. A special invitation is being extended to the many individuals, organizations and agencies to return and join us on this significant day. But, most importantly, the event is A Walk of Unity to demonstrate the strength as a community and how everyone has worked together setting a new standard in disaster response. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the manner that suits them, whether walking a portion of the route or the entire distance, or joining along the way in one of the many neighborhoods as they reconnect with their neighbors. The public is also invited to join in the activities at the stops along the route. Details of the route as well as the planned events along the way are being finalized and will be announced in the near future. Please watch for more announcements about other activities being planned for the Day of Unity.

City of Joplin ordered 4,000 Midland WR-120 weather radios with a Red Cross $50,000 donation and donations from the Joplin First Response tornado fund. They got the first shipment of 800 in and gave them out at 3 local fire stations today and I believe they were all given away. You had to provide a photo ID and proof of residence, also people were required to sign an agreement that they would not sell the weather radio.

Joplin High School is almost completely gone now, just piles of debris: Compared to this after the tornado:

Still seeing a lot of Spring Break groups here in Joplin helping out. AP ran an article today about Joplin and New Orleans. http://www.columbiat...-common-ground/ It was interesting they put this in the article: Joplin also lacks the history of political corruption, cronyism and internecine squabbling that has long characterized New Orleans. "New Orleans has a history of ineffective government. It's going to be harder for them to get things on track, compared to Joplin," said David McEntire, a professor of emergency administration and planning at the University of North Texas who studies global responses to natural disasters. The 150,000 sq ft component hospital for Mercy/St John's is almost complete. This will be the permanent structure until the actual hospital is rebuilt. It is made up of 224 structural steel components that have came from California to Joplin via truck. When it's completed in April it will be the quickest and largest acute care hospital ever constructed in the US. http://news.yahoo.co...-071245033.html The Facebook page Joplin Tornado Info, as well as Branson Tornado Info (which made their page in January before they were hit by a tornado on Feb 28th) have information about the use of social media for disaster recovery. It's a good read, especially if you are interested in making a page for your city. This is a PDF document: http://extension.mis...20disasters.pdf And Joplin tornado sirens will only go off the first Monday of the month after the silent siren testing hardware is installed.

Thanks for posting these. These are high quality pics of some of the area depicted in cyclone77's circled area. I found a lot of them very interesting. Considering how tightly packed the houses were, it's difficult to tell if some of these would have the foundations completely swept clean or not but it's obvious there was complete failure in a lot of the houses in this area. I think the pic of the rebar/concreted pole is interesting as well as the pic of two of the metal poles bent facing each other.

That damage was 1 block west and 1 block north of the vid basically. I've always thought the center was probably a bit farther north when compared to the survey or the tornado had a much stronger northern side when compared to the south side, if that makes sense. The tornado was taking a bit of a north jog at this time so the people in that house were extremely lucky.

President Obama will be the commencement speaker at the JHS graduation ceremony on May 21st 2012. One day before the tornado hit a year ago.

The location of this video (Over by JHS has been posted) It was taken at 24th and Minnesota, it's on the same street as the Home Security video posted above but 3 blocks farther north. The NWS survey has the center crossing very close to this house. Lot of cussing:

Yeah, it was reported that there were missing manhole covers and there was one that I saw, but I had no idea there were so many others missing. Those things are hard to get up as it is since they usually have the road sealer around them and sit even with or even below the road surface itself. I guess this was probably a pressure thing from underground as the tornado went over?