JoMo

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?

Did he say manhole covers? I wonder if he was talking about the street ones or the water ones as well? The street ones are huge and heavy and in the road. The water ones are lighter and are just 'lids' that sit on top of the grass on the openings for the water shut-off valve in front of residences. The water company had to go up and down every street in the area looking for missing covers that either disappeared or were destroyed by heavy equipment running over them, they did this before winter set in so the shut-off valves wouldn't freeze.

AMS has put their recorded presentations up. This is the Joplin session: http://ams.confex.com/ams/92Annual/webprogram/Session29800.html A couple of inaccuracies in Tim Marshalls concrete presentation are.... The 'bowling alley' was actually the Salvation Army thrift store. The High School has always had graduation (for at least the last 10-15 years) at the Leggett and Platt Athletic Center ( at MSSU college campus) Overall, Tim Marshalls was the most interesting presentation, the others were kind of a let down since there were people filling in for others.

Ok, I have mapped a lot of the videos in this thread and some I have found. These are shortly before, during, or shortly after the tornado stationary videos. I know I am probably missing many, and there's another that was filmed at the KSN studio parking lot that I can't find but I know exists. If you have found a new video, let me know and I'll add it to the map. Thanks to those that posted them and cyclone77 for finding the location to several of these. These videos are videos from youtube, they may have cussing in them. The map is 2 parts, it basically divides the path in half. Part 2. The numbers came out weird after uploading, but they generally go from left to right on the map. 5. 27th Minnesota. (Marked) *UPDATED* March 4th 2012..... S Minnesota Ave & E 24th St, right next to the High School. : 6. Joplin High School: (Marked) youtube.com/watch?v=zQQqX5ln4vs 7. 17th and Indiana: (Marked) 8. 20th Rhode Island: (Marked) 9. Charlie's Chicken area: (Marked) 10. Freightliner (Marked) 7th and Rangeline: 11. Wal-Mart 15th Rangeline: (Marked) 12. Apartments: (Marked) youtube.com/watch?v=1GLN6DFWbLE 13. Fastrip video: (Marked) 14. Duquense: (Marked) 15. East Middle School: (Marked) 16 .Con-Way truck bay. (Marked) *new* 3/27/2012... Other Con-Way: (Marked) 17. 18-wheeler (Marked but uncertain of actual location)

Ok, I have mapped a lot of the videos in this thread and some I have found. These are shortly before, during, or shortly after the tornado stationary videos. I know I am probably missing many, and there's another that was filmed at the KSN studio parking lot that I can't find but I know exists. If you have found a new video, let me know and I'll add it to the map. Thanks to those that posted them and cyclone77 for finding the location to several of these. These videos are videos from youtube, they may have cussing in them. The map is 2 parts, it basically divides the path in half. Part 1. 1. KSN-TV TowerCam (Marked) 2. Cedar Ridge: (Marked) 3. Cedar Ridge 2: (Marked) 4. 24th and Schiff: (Marked) 0.4 miles East of St. Johns: Parking Garage...Down at 6th and Main or so. This is unmarked because I don't know the location but it shows the start of the tornado: Unknown: Also Unknown but it's 4 city blocks from the edge of the tornado: youtube.com/watch?v=wQHNx0WjXYQ

Like this one taken by the apartment complexes on 20th.

New video uploaded Feb 15th. This is over by the high school.This is similar to the gas station video. It does appear a gust front hits the area first before the tornado arrives and there is such a long duration of destruction. THERE IS A LOT OF CUSSING ON HERE.... but.... wow.

That is one I had not seen. I'm not sure exactly where that is. The comments say they were 0.4 miles east of the hospital, but I'm not sure about that. I am compiling a list of tornado videos (pre or during) that I'll post sometime. I think it's just the Federal ones that are upgraded with solar panels and remote activation and silent testing. The one of here by me that was replaced after the tornado definitely has the remote activation and solar panel on it.

Still a 3 minute activation, however, if 10 minutes have passed between the last activation and the storm still has not arrived, they can blow them again for 3 minutes. They will also be able to activate them individually or in groups. They are going to start testing them individually on Feb 27th and silent testing will begin in the summer. The solar panels are to charge the batteries if there is a loss of power.

Ok second try...Joplin's siren policy was changed tonight. Fire Chief Mitch Randles said this which is what I've been saying all along: "People hear the sirens during the testing and the other warnings and they get desensitized to those sirens. So what we're trying to do by limiting the number of testings is to limit the number of times people hear the sirens to only when they need to take cover." Tests will be conducted on the first and third Mondays of the month instead of every week like they were before. 2 sirens will be replaced and 16 upgraded with mobile activation technology, solar panels, and silent testing technology.

I thought they would leave them on the entire time a tornado was on the ground as well. By the time they stopped activating the 2nd time (3 minutes) it was near the high school, about halfway through the city. I think leaving them on would amplify the seriousness of the warning. You have to remember, the sirens are activated here a lot, I think around 6 times a year for tornado warnings and usually nothing happens.

Joplin CVB has decided to stop printing the 'tornado tours' maps. 'Tuttle says the agency has run out of the maps at some locations, and the visitors bureau board has decided to hold off reprinting them. Maybe it will be revised for the one-year anniversary, and maybe it will be a different map that reflects a different moment in Joplin.' http://www.latimes.c...1,6583307.story Joplin tornado siren policy will be discussed at the city council meeting tomorrow. They won't say what changes they are making though until the meeting. http://www.newstalkk...cussed/12323487 KSPR's coverage on Zachary Williams is up for an award.

The entire experience since the tornado has been surreal, lol I lost my elementary school, middle school, high school and you can count Franklin Tech as a different school I guess. My senior year had a lot of classes over there. It's still weird seeing all the changes, after the hospital is gone, it will look even more different.

Joplin High School Demolition started today after delays due to a a flooded basement and asbestos abatement. Still waiting on the hospital demolition due to asbestos issues. Pics from KZRG: http://www.facebook.com/NewsTalkKZRG

I posted a picture of the groundwork going on for the Elks Lodge a few pages back. They have now finished with that and have been building the basement possibly? This was taken about a week ago: This is one of the houses Samaritan's Purse is rebuilding. I posted the story that they were building 20 homes earlier: A picture of St. Johns with a house being rebuilt in front of it. I'm posting this so I can remember to take a pic of the same view in a couple of months when St. Johns is gone. A pic of one of the most exciting things... Street lights! You have no idea how exciting it is to see these going up in the destroyed neighborhoods, it was so dark without these. This is taken on the same street as in post St. Paul's is behind me and it has started rebuilding it's sanctuary area. The area before: And now, featuring street lights.