JoMo

Death toll is now 145. I think that moves it into 7th? Yeah, it's just... crazy... seeing all these places I've known all my life just turned into rubble. Panoramic pics: 1st picture is the area behind Irving Elementary school. 2nd picture is unrecognizable. 3rd picture is just east of St. Johns hospital. The picture of "God Bless Joplin, Down Not Out" was taken right by Irving. That was a power substation all bent up and you never used to be able to see St. Johns from there. The 2nd vid is a building that has been just about everything. An IGA, a bar, and was the Salvation Army place that just moved there not long ago. Edit: I tried to compare the pic of Irving and the substation to Google but the area he's standing in is covered in trees and houses on the Google picture.

The death toll is now 143 after another victim died in a Springfield hospital yesterday afternoon. The human aspect is part of the disaster as well as the technical aspect. People are sad that they've lost everything but they are happy to be alive. The only thing that really bothered me was some of the out of town volunteers here are treating it like it's summer camp or something and I don't think they were understanding that it's whats left of peoples lives. The vast majority of volunteers are not like that though. Many of the homes that were hit were older (20-30+ years) but well built wood structures. They were probably constructed to withstand 90-100 MPH winds or so. However, even newer houses and businesses did not fare that well either. One recommendation is hurricane straps, which are steel straps that bolt the roof to the walls, those are good up to 140 MPH and are fairly cheap. Those would have helped in some instances but the areas still in the direct path would still probably have been destroyed or heavily damaged. I think some things that the NWS assessment is going to find in no particular order: 1. They will find that the area suffers from 'warning fatigue'. We have a lot of tornado warnings where nothing happens. This makes people complacent. Several people I have talked to just thought it was the normal run-of-the-mill tornado warning where you go to your closet and sit until the storm passes. 2. People don't know what the sirens mean. They used to be for tornadoes only, but after we had high winds several years ago, they now set them off for 75 MPH winds or higher expected. They typically sound them for a short time, then stop sounding them. People don't know what it means when they stop sounding.... they think it means the storm or threat is over. It also probably doesn't help that every Monday at 10 AM in the Spring they were tested if the weather was nice. This probably caused people to get used to the sound. 3. The tornado became rain wrapped very quickly (it wasn't in my area) and was hard to see. It also had a 'rolling thunder' sound until it was practically on top of you. It had been rolling thunder off and on for a couple of hours due to the storms in the area. It took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn't rolling thunder. Seeing the couplet on radar and the power flickers were my only other visual cues since I did not have enough time to look outside. 4. It formed just west of Joplin, this did not give many adequate time to hear there was a tornado on the ground. We rely on spotter reports west of town in the counties to our west and southwest. If there is a tornado on the ground to the west or southwest, people take it seriously. You could also see the confusion on the local news channels about what was actually going on. 5. Lack of basements or people not using their basements. A lot of houses do not have basements around here due to the high water table and rocky soil. My neighbor has a basement and his sump pump runs 24/7 even when it doesn't rain. My ex-gf's house had a crawl space but they took shelter in an interior bathroom because they did not think anything would happen. I've talked to others that did the same thing. 6. The complex storm situation with multiple areas of rotation and the speed of how quickly the tornado developed and the confusion stemming from that. There were three areas of rotation, one large one with the parent T-storm well to the north of Joplin, another that quickly developed north of Joplin near Carl Junction, that may have hit the northern part of Joplin or it may have went between Joplin and CJ. And then the third one that wasn't impressive until the 5:24-5:25 radar update. It became apparent at the 5:29 update that this was probably producing at least funnel clouds. By 5:39 the tornado was on the ground just south of me. The NWS had Joplin covered in two tornado warnings I believe. One for the rotation near Carl Junction and one that was issued a little bit later for the southern part of Joplin that eventually produced the tornado. I think there was some confusion about where the tornado actually was due to the SVS that was issued that stated a tornado was spotted 6 miles NE of Galena and was moving NE when in fact the tornado was on the ground SE of Galena. That put an entirely different area in the tornado path. I believe it was corrected at 5:42. The warning can be found here: http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/18858-devastating-tornado-strikes-joplin-missouri/page__st__620__p__721723#entry721723 I would like to think this wasn't a factor at all, but Joplin is very 'religious'. There are a lot of churches here. People also believe that God will protect them from harm. I've heard many people say that actually. Some of the older people say 'If it's your time to go, it's your time to go', meaning they would rely on God and not really do anything to protect themselves. I would like to think that people sought shelter the best way possible.

I'm not sure about the detailed survey but I know the Picher, OK service assessment from the May 10th 2008 tornado has Oct 2009 on it's pages. I would think that there would be something out before a year and a half passes... but it is the government. I know that NWS/NOAA was going to have 3 mets here yesterday I believe.. to study 'what went wrong' and how people responded to the warnings, where they took shelter, etc... They will probably be here for a few days gathering data since there were so many people in the path of the tornado.

Town meeting tonight. People picked up the right of passage papers to allow the gov't contractors on their property in order to remove debris. They have until June 15th to turn them in. Only 20,000 of the 3,000,000 cubic yards of debris has been picked up. In 10-12 days, temporary housing will be here. I was in the disaster area around sunset tonight and that was probably the most creepy thing I have ever experienced. There was nobody in sight, no birds chirping, no sign of life at all. Mix that with the sign of smashed up cars, destroyed houses and piles of debris and it didn't seem real. It was like being in a post-apocalyptic movie.

An amazing story from a stormchaser/doctor from Florida who was on the storm and helped out at Freeman hospital. Some of it is a bit 'gory' and he does talk about having to make the decision to let someone die so others could be helped. http://stormdoctor.blogspot.com/2011/06/first-response-mode-may-22-2011-joplin.html

Nice, thank you for doing that.

They need to do something different with the sirens as people aren't really getting what they mean. I mean, they blow when there is a tornado warning, but some people think that when they stop going off then it's an 'all clear'. I don't know if they could change the tones or make an 'all clear' signal or what, but it's currently pretty confusing for people. And it was dark outside, I was right under that black area.

Jeff Piotrowskii's video and the aftermath as the pulled up at 20th and Iowa. The new footage begins at 3:50 or so. Not sure why there's a slowdown. At around 4:40 you see the remains of Franklin Tech.

Yep. from the Joplinmo website. http://www.joplinmo.org/tornadoinfo.cfm#vol

Just received information that the death toll has climbed to 141 after 3 more people passed away in the hospital. All the help and aid is appreciated but there are some things that are bothering me. 1. If you want to come and help, please do, but do it because you really want to help, not because you want some kind of fame or bragging rights. 2. Don't take smiling pictures of your 'group' in front of someone's destroyed house which used to contain all their belongings and/or family members, pets, etc This is a disaster area, not happy fun time.. 3. There are still people that live here, please be courteous to them. They were here, they know what happened, you were not.

And here's Arkansas. They apparently were training in Little Rock on May 17th, heh. http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news/?nxd_id=239667

Interesting write up by Jon Davies. http://davieswx.blogspot.com/2011/05/joplin-tornado-environment-large-shear.html Anyone found any other meteorological analysis of the tornado other than the SGF NWS? I know the study won't come out for a bit.

According to the survey it crapped out pretty fast and was EF-0 for a long way, they are basing that on the high-res imagery that was taken. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/?n=event_2011may22_survey

Interesting article about the guy that filmed the video of the tornado, Jeff Piotrowski. Also what he did as a first responder on the scene. "Using an Internet card on his laptop, he was finally able to get a call through to his friend Steve Piltz, head meteorologist and director of the National Weather Service station in Tulsa. Steve answered. “We are in a state of emergency, Steve. Joplin needs help. A massive tornado, at least an EF-4, maybe an EF-5 touched down here. Massive damage, massive injuries. Need ambulances. Can Oklahoma send any? Can you send 100 of them?” Piltz looked at the radar and saw the debris cloud. “Oh my God,” he said. The debris clouds on the radar image were enormous. “You got it Jeff. I’m on it,” Piltz replied. Piltz sent the storm chaser report immediately. Within 15 minutes of the call, Task Force I Search and Rescue teams from both Oklahoma and Arkansas were dispatched and on their way to Joplin. Jeff could breathe again, and stop counting. Help was coming, more was on the way." http://www.joplinglo...hed-storm-build

This blog has the garden hose through a tree picture. http://bus-plunge.blogspot.com/2011/06/tornado-photo-garden-hose-in-tree.html

I had a chance to talk with my ex-gf again who lived over by Franklin Tech and I got more information from her. After I saw what was left of the house first hand last week, I don't know how her husband, step-daughter and her survived. The center of the tornado passed very near them based on surveys and the description about the fence posts being moved in different directions on the JHS baseball field. She said she thought this would be just like any of the numerous tornado warnings that happen every year. They took shelter in an interior bathroom that is basically in the center of the house. She wanted to take her bird out of the cage and have it sit on her finger in the bathroom while they waited for the tornado warning to be over but her step-daughter hated the bird (as did I) and said she wouldn't go in there if the bird wasn't in it's cage. That probably saved the birds life as it survived. She had just called her mom and her phone was still in her hand. She suffered a broken finger when something hit her hand and knocked the phone out of her hand. She said it didn't really sound like a freight train, it sounded like just wind and a growling/roar type sound. She couldn't really describe it. She also suffered a laceration or something to her head, that now has e-coli in the wound. After the tornado had moved through, they started walking towards the hospital. They were all barefoot. They found someone with a van and got in the van but they didn't think that person was coming back or something so they got out and started walking towards the hospital again when someone passed by and took them to to the hospital. She's getting a new car from somewhere in Arkansas because her car was totaled. As they were test driving cars the other day and stopped somewhere, someone rear-ended them in the car they were test driving. The insurance company has set them up with another house and are going to furnish it for 2 years. EDIT: I forgot to add that when I asked if they had to dig themselves out she said no, they were already outside. It had swept all the debris off of them. EDIT2: At least 5 of her neighbors were not so lucky.

Where would you say the 250 MPH winds were? I know the neighborhood that was around JHS is a strong candidate for 'higher end' EF-5 winds, with Franklin Tech being destroyed and the surrounding neighborhood being pretty much leveled as well as Dillons being destroyed and Hampshire Terrace apartments. Greenbriar took a really big hit and those apartments over there and St. Mary's church, so I'd say it was an EF-5 there as well. It's pretty weird over there by the railroad bridge at 25th and Connecticut or so. On one side of it, not much damage at all, but as soon as you go under it, it's a disaster on the other side.

It's extremely hot out there. I hope the volunteers who aren't from the area and the volunteers in general realize just how hot and humid it is outside. It would be horrible if people had heat strokes. It's 91 outside right now at 1:30 PM, with a heat index of 97.

Thanks for writing that. I've been looking through the radar archive and SPC mesoanalysis. Just looks like everything came together just right.

http://www.riversidemo.com/police/officer-jeff-taylor-passes-away Police officer that was struck by lightning on May 23rd while helping in Joplin died this morning.

NWS team is coming to see how people responded to the warning and how they survived. "Low end EF-5" was described several times in this article. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1517687342/Joplin-tornado-to-prompt-research

Just found this Emergency Services Audio of the event. I'm fairly certain that this is JASCO (Jasper County) and Newton County. I'm just now listening to it so I don't know what all is said.

One of the last things I remember was you on TV, circling a strong area of rotation on the western side of Joplin. Of course then the power flickered a couple of times and I headed to the closet since I heard the rumbling sound before the power did go out. It was bad because it developed just west of Joplin and had not been on the ground that long. With the Picher, OK tornado or other tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, we usually get reports of the storm on the ground from over in Kansas or Oklahoma. Since this developed just west of Joplin, it was hard to warn people early on since it was just forming when it was entering Joplin. Another thing was just the strength of the tornado. I wasn't expecting that strong of a tornado and I'm pretty sure I may not be here if the tornado had hit 3 blocks closer.

I believe so. They said there were 146 remains but I guess some of those belonged to the same people. There's a memorial page that was started for those that died. http://joplinmemorial.com/

Final death toll is officially 134. Everyone on the missing list has been accounted for.