JoMo

Yeah there are still homes that have to be demolished and the businesses are lacking behind in cleaning up their messes since they do not get FEMA help and have to wait for insurance. There's also been some problems with people dumping debris not from the city on already cleaned up property. Some people are making a bundle cutting down the trees and selling it for firewood or mulch. You'll see people from out of town driving around looking for scrap metal on the curb after houses have been demolished but they have been really good at not actually going into the peoples property which kind of surprised me. I guess the power company decided to not use underground lines as they are now getting poles in the ground Talked to another guy tonight who actually saw the tornado and said it sounded more like a jet engine. He was outside with his neighbors and a different neighbor came out of his house and told them all that KSN had a tornado on the TV. He looked to the west and saw the tornado. He survived in his basement and told me that basically only one neighbor was rebuilding. It looks like we will probably win the McAlister's Deli Tea Town USA contest for $7,500 to restore the parks. http://www.facebook....217212581634900 Also Coca-Cola is having a contest for money to rebuild parks and Cunningham Park is in the running. http://www.facebook....253812004645715 UPDATE July 27th: St. Johns is going to announce their plans on where they are going to rebuild on Aug 14th. They are currently gathering peoples personal belongings from the hospital still but will implode it in another 2-3 months. A memorial is planned on the location where the hospital once stood.

FEMA news release for those that like numbers. http://www.koamtv.com/story/15150105/two-months-after-the-tornado-the-fema-numbers

Unfortunately a lot of those trees have been cut down. They came through on Sunday and whacked a lot of them down. The trees were using stored up energy to regenerate but ultimately they would eventually die due to bark damage. Trees move water up on the area just inside their bark and if that's missing then they can't move water and will die. A lot of people I've talked to aren't rebuilding because they say it's going to take a long time and they "can't stand to see it every day". The lots are selling though .

More after tornado/ 2 months later pictures have been posted here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018269/The-Joplin-restoration-begins-Two-months-huge-tornado-devastated-town-cleans-up.html?ito=feeds-newsxml Lots of 'clean' areas now.

Yeah, we had a lot of outages before due to having a lot of older trees, those trees have a tendency to break in high winds and ice storms which cause power outages. Of course you really don't have to worry about trees in the tornado areas anymore since they were all destroyed pretty much. In other news, it sure is dusty out there, and the winds have kicked up so I'm pretty sure I saw a dust devil earlier, lol

I don't know, I think they may be going underground for some, I'm not really sure though. In my new pics you can see the "EDE Trans" in between the two driveways. The EDE is for Empire District Electric. I've also seen "EDE Pole" and "EDE Prim" and "EDE Sec". However, I'm not sure how they would do that if peoples driveways are still in the way.

Still looks pretty desolate out there...... Standing at the corner of 29th and Monroe, it still looks desolate. This area was full of trees and homes. In the background you can see the church, 3 1/2 blocks away. The truck from the above picture, guess it had a flat... nice job with the boards supporting the jack guys...... Sunset on the desolate land This pic was taken in the same areaish on 7/7: The sun going behind a roofless house.

Now on to the rebuilding! This is a completely new garage, all it's missing is the guttering, and power of course. People rebuilding their 2nd story back on to their house, personally I think they just should have rebuilt the entire house based on the extent of the damage. This is a pretty big house that's being built. I think these people are doing it themselves with some help from family members. It took them a week to build the floor, and in 2 days, they haven't accomplished much framing. This smaller house was framed in a day:

It's been 2 months today. I took some pictures on July 21st and here they are. This was a house that said "Do not touch" and nobody has touched it really. This is a house that's still in the process of falling down, but note the orange stick in the front yard. That's the electric company marking where the power lines are going, looks like these will be underground. It says "EDE Trans" This is a tree that has really regrown all it's missing leaves since the tornado. Somebody put a note on it that says "Don't cut down this tree". The previous tree I took a picture of and posted has been cut down

Story from the Christchurch, NZ area about the Joplin tornado. The lady you saw in Jeff Piotrowski's video is interviewed. Another from NZ comparing the response from FEMA vs the response at Christchurch

Some progress being made as the electric company is marking locations where power poles are to be installed in the tornado destroyed areas now that a lot of it has been cleared. Saw a house that had hurricane straps installed being demolished today. Last pass for FEMA collection of debris starts July 22nd. I'll probably post some new pics on the 22nd when I take my 2 month shots.

It was around a 17 minute warning time until it touched down. Tornado warning issued at 5:17 that included the Joplin area that was hit. The previous warning was issued for northern Joplin at 5:09 I think it was. The problem was, it touched down so close to the city. I just looked back and there was a local storm report of a funnel cloud near Riverton at 5:25. I did not know that and I don't think any of the media received that information. I don't know where they got the 5:41 time since it was in Joplin at around the 5:35-5:36 mark. I talked to a lady last night that lives between here and the state line. She said there was one that moved across the south end of her property, then the Joplin one. Looking back at the warnings, I'd say that was possible with the area of rotation to the north of Joplin and then the actual Joplin tornado to the south. The 2nd set of sirens going off and the approach of the tornado were very close in timing though. I had a guy who lived a block and two houses away from a warning siren ask me if I heard the 2nd siren because neither he or his wife heard it (i heard it, but I'm pretty sure it was right when the rumbling of the tornado started), while they did hear the first. If they blew the sirens at 5:31, he would have heard it since the tornado would have been about 5-6 minutes away from his house. They took shelter in the hallway and luckily their house remained standing, I don't really know how though, but it will have to be bulldozed due to extensive roof damage and the inside is a mess from debris blowing through it. UPDATED July 20th: Actually, I'm sure the 2nd sirens went off after it was on the ground because the video of the tower cam from KSN shows power flashes before the sirens were activated. If they had been activated at 5:31 then the tornado wasn't on the ground yet.

Fascinating story of the woman that was the wife of the Jasper County officer in Payless shoe store. If you listened to the emergency audio he said his wife was trapped in there. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1475587560/Merger-of-storms-added-steroids-needed-to-form-May-22-tornado Also, Bill Davis, NWS said this about the cell mergers: “To get a tornado going is, in itself, a rare thing,” said Bill Davis, head meteorologist with the National Weather Service station in Springfield. “Now, just think about what it took to get that to happen with such a massive tornado. “The mergers, if you will, added the steroids to this storm. We could have had an EF-2 or an EF-3 tornado without the merger. But something happened and it had to fit perfectly to produce this EF-5. The odds of that happening are astronomical. “This is a tornado that was pieced together from several circulation mergers to make the perfect storm.” It also mentioned the 2nd siren was sounded at 5:31. The touchdown didn't occur until 5:34 and it was near me at 5:38. I'm pretty sure I heard the siren just before the rumble thunder sound and it had already been on the ground.

And great news today! City news release: In a major step forward for Joplin’s tornado recovery, City officials now are granting building permits for nearly all tornado-damaged residential properties from Picher Avenue west to the city limits. “This is a really significant step for us to be able to open up these areas to help jump start the rebuilding process,” said Mark Rohr, Joplin city manager. “Many considerations caused the City to temporarily suspend issuing these permits right after the tornado, but we are sensitive to the fact that our residents want to move forward. That’s why we’ve been working very hard with our state and federal partners to quickly remove the debris so that citizens can start rebuilding.” Building permits are still on hold for residential properties along 20th and 26th Streets, as well as Schifferdecker Road, for safety reasons because those roads are the main routes for trucks hauling out tornado debris. City officials continue to closely monitor these areas and will allow permitting as quickly as possible once traffic loads decrease to safer levels. The availability of building permits on the city’s west side now allows residents to proceed with one of two options – building a new structure on an existing foundation or basement, or starting from scratch and building a completely new structure from the ground up. When using an existing slab or basement, it’s best to have a structural engineer or qualified building professional do an inspection to ensure that the slab or foundation is safe to hold a new structure. Building permits can be obtained at the Joplin Building Division, 4th floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main Street, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Permits must be issued in person – either to a resident or contractor. Permit fees, which cover necessary municipal inspections, vary depending on size of the structure. For more information, contact the building division at 417-624-0820 Ext. 520. All permits will be reviewed for compliance with zoning, future traffic plans and floodplain areas. When obtaining a permit, please be prepared to provide the following necessary documentation: a) completed permit application; survey plot or site plan; c) construction plan showing wall sections and elevations. The City already has issued nearly 1,500 permits to repair damaged residential properties in the impacted areas. Repair and rebuilding permits in commercial areas also are being issued. City officials continue to evaluate the debris-removal efforts in the remaining tornado-damaged areas so that citizens can begin getting residential building permits as soon as the progress allows.

With the houses and trees gone, there are views that couldn't be imagined before. These two views were just amazing to me and I actually had to make sure I pulled up the correct spot on Google Maps a few times. This: Is now: And this: Is now this (there was a newer house straight ahead when compared to the Google pic):

A couple of updates on a few houses then I'll make a new post for some others. I forgot to include the after pic in my last update. First pic was taken 3 days after the tornado: This was a month after the tornado: I posted this on page 47 but I took an updated cleaned up pic this evening Before tornado: A month after: This evening:

Construction is starting on the FEMA trailer park that will house around 350 FEMA trailers. http://www.koamtv.com/story/14878321/construction-to-start-on-fema-housing-communities Some of the people have been staying in a tent city by Shoal Creek after the tornado. http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-tent-city-camping-out-tornado-victims-volunteers-shoal-creek-clyde-black-ashley-norris-dozens-of-tents-set-up-along-the-creek-have-become-a-temporary-town-20110705,0,8594.story Lots of areas have been cleaned up, some trees have almost made a full recovery in the EF-4 area over by me. A lot of lots where houses were are now just dirt lots with the occasional caution tape marking the gas line and water hookup areas. Contracted workers still working to clean up the remaining houses and debris, demolition ongoing for those that had insurance. Chick-fil-A on Rangeline, which was destroyed by the tornado, is looking at a grand opening on Sept 1st The Cut Loose has completely rebuilt and reopened. I believe this is a salon?

Yeah it's approximately 400 yards from 27th to 24th, and I'm still not sure if that is where the center actually tracked. It may have tracked farther north based on the survey that stated the baseball field may have been directly tracked over due to the positioning of the poles that were bent to the ground.

The person that uploaded the video said he/she lived at 27th and Minnesota. The tornado tracked to the north of the persons house and the survey has the center crossing 24th and Minnesota moving east-northeastish. The camera in the front was pointed north, so the back camera was probably pointed south so they sustained EF2-EF3 winds at the location of the camera.

Nice... Apparently, the Joplin tornado had an 'eye'. The Joplin Globe did a story on it today. http://www.joplinglo...that-it-had-eye *"Bill Davis, head meteorologist with the National Weather Service station at Springfield, said the eye of the Joplin tornado might have been as wide as 300 yards. The tornado itself was three-quarters of a mile wide. If the tornado was traveling at 10 to 25 mph, being in the eye would last a few seconds, he said. “If you were in it, you could sense that things had slowed down,’’ Davis said." *“I had my glasses on. I looked up and saw these vortexes, and saw debris flying in the air. It looked like I could see blue sky at the top,’’ she said. “I can’t put into words what I saw. *He could see daylight, then, within a few seconds, he said the back wall of the tornado struck, and injured him with flying debris. *“We thought we were through it because it calmed and you looked up and saw clear, and the next thing you know you saw it coming again.” *Greg Carbin, head of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said, “I believe it is possible. We have had very similar eyewitness accounts. You have the initial wall and the backside. In between, there is very little going on.’’ On the wind speeds: “For the manhole covers, it barely exceeds 200 mph. It’s at least that much. With the parking stops, they are in the 205 mph range,’’ he said. Said Sarkar: “In a tornado of that size, the wind speed would be zero at the center. There would be a few seconds of no wind at the center line. “We do know that the front side of this counterclockwise rotation is 25 mph more than the average speed of the tornado and that the backside is 25 mph less because of the forward motion of the tornado,’’ he said.

The tornado from the East Middle School surveillance cameras. The best views are the main entrance and the last view IMO.

Found a great site with a 'birds eye view' that shows the devastation much better than ground shots and satellite shots. These pics were taken 10 days after the tornado from what looks like a plane? You may have to refresh a few times and the images are big http://xpda.com/joplinTornado/ It looks like he flies west to east, then back west. There are a lot of good detailed images but some notable places in the images: This was the area I was 3 blocks from. According to the survey, the tornado was EF-4 and crossed where the white car is on the street in the center and down a bit (lower left on the 2nd image), which meant the strongest winds were on the N side with a sharp cutoff to EF-2 to the south. The tornado was just starting to widen. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170170.jpg http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170173.jpg Neighborhood west of St. Johns Hospital. One of these houses on that street had an above-ground steel storm shelter that survived the direct impact of the tornado which was approaching EF-5 intensity. I'm looking into getting one. On the center-right of this image you can see the Elk's Lodge, in which 4 people perished. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170178.jpg Multiple things to note on this image. St. Johns is in the lower left. The new mobile tent hospital is on the bottom right. The weird track looking thing was a walking track. On the top left is the water treatment plant, a building built in 1901 that was part of the original plant did not survive the storm. The tornado was causing EF-5 damage. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170182.jpg This is just east of the previous image above. In the upper right portion of this image, you can see a building that looks like a T with an extra dash, this was Greenbriar nursing home where 11 perished. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170185.jpg Still heading east a bit. Directly in the center is a Taco Bell, which did extremely well when compared to the buildings around it. It still had glass in some of the windows. Just to the left of the center, the large building with all the parking lot was the Salvation Army store which had opened not long ago. The building itself was very old. There was a truck found in the center of this building, nobody knows how it got there. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170188.jpg Still moving east. The neighborhood west of the high school which was probably the hardest hit area in terms of destruction and structures being completely leveled. I believe the tornado was reaching it's peak here. On the bottom left you can see Taco Bell from the previous image above. A little up from the center where the parking lot is was a church. On the top right is Joplin High School. In the top-center, is the remains of Franklin Technology Center. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170190.jpg Closeup of Franklin Technology Center. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170267.jpg My ex's neighborhood, just west of JHS. Her house is actually pictured here. Each driveway led to a house. Tremendous loss of life in this area. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170193.jpg Joplin High School http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170194.jpg Neighborhood just east of JHS. Towards the far right and up a bit is what's left of Dillions grocery store. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170197.jpg Closeup of Dillions http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170256.jpg Hampshire Terrace apartment complex is on the left. These were 2 story apartments that are now a story or less. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170203.jpg Close up of Hampshire Terrace: http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170254.jpg Lots to be seen on this image. A lot of apartment complexes. On the far left is Hampshire Terrace. To be honest I don't know the names of the rest of the complexes in this image but there are several. Just up from the center of the image was Commerce Bank. All that's left standing is the vault. Just to the bottom right of the center is the Olympic Fitness Center. Their indoor pool and what looks to be a court of some kind is exposed. On the upper right and down a small bit is where some 3 story apartments were that are now 1 story or less. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170202.jpg Home Depot cleaned up rather quickly. Their new tent can be seen in the lower left. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170211.jpg This looks to be Academy Sports http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170212.jpg The apartment complex east of Wal-Mart. This 3 story complex I believe had hurricane straps that tied the roof to the walls. You can see a cell phone tower actually fell on the complex. The tornado was starting to weaken as it reached this area. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170215.jpg From there the images go into the Duquense area which I know nothing about. East middle school, which was deemed destroyed because it would cost more than 50% of it's worth to repair. The tornado was back down to an EF-4 or EF-3 when it hit this school and was weakening and moving SE. http://xpda.com/jopl...do/P1170234.jpg There are numerous closeup images and images of places I can't remember. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I noticed the 'calm' as well, it lasted probably 1-4 seconds and I was in the very edge of the tornado. EF1 damage according to the survey. This was probably just an outer 'core' of some kind or something? I don't think it was a calm at the center or anything like that since the center passed off to the south of me by about 5-6 blocks. I mean, is it possible that it was an outflow of some kind from the mesos collapsing on the storms to the north? If it was that, it may have enhanced the circulation and what caused it to dip just south before it moved E or ENE along the boundary? In other news, Rush Limbaugh is bringing himself and a truckload of his tea to Joplin for the 4th. Agree with his politics or not, it's bringing the spotlight back to Joplin for some, which is good news for us.

I checked out Joplin Metro Magazine which had pictures and stories from the tornado. I haven't actually read the articles yet but I did look at the pictures. One picture was of the piece of wood driven through the concrete curb from a different angle. It gave the location of the picture at Peace Lutheran Church at 2002 Wisconsin Ave. This area was a couple of blocks east of the high school and was in the direct path. I've circled where the impact likely was based on looking at the image in the magazine and the one posted online. It looks legit, and I don't think there was a PVC pipe there, I think it just went through the concrete. The cell phone image since the other image doesn't appear to be online. Thanks to: http://www.eversostr...-concrete-curb/ EDIT: Also found out why the A-10's were here. They have thermal imaging equipment that can detect people's heat signatures under the rubble.

Mike Bettes (the weather channel) and his 3 year old golden lab he adopted from Joplin. He named her Joplyn. He also adopted another dog as well. http://www.koamtv.co...aced-by-tornado The JopAthon adoption was a huge success.