JoMo

There's a website that will change as the needs change, it's an informational website if you want to donate, or send stuff etc. It's endorsed by the City of Joplin. http://rebuildjoplin.org/

Yeah, I wasn't even prepared for it. I thought we may have some wind or a weak tornado but I wasn't expecting an EF-5. It was rain wrapped as well so some people would have had a hard time seeing it, although I was 3 blocks away and could definitely hear it inside with the TV on even. The one thing I just remembered now is the power dimming two or three times before I heard the rumbling and the eventual loss of power once it was wiped out about 3 streets away. The people at the news stations weren't taking it that seriously either since the tornado sirens go off all the time. (and they are tested every Monday at 10:00 AM if the weather is sunny). Here's a news story on how the media reacted here: http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2011/05/31/51571/tv-mobilized-as-routine-turned-to-disaster Jeremiah Cook is not a meteorologist as indicated in the story though. He's the weekend weatherman and doesn't seem to know that much about weather. I did not have power when the tornado warned storm came through on Tuesday evening/night. I didn't rely on NOAA Weather radio because their updates are not very timely. Instead I listened to the radio station that did a great job in describing where the rotation was and the direction the storms were moving. They even had the Emergency Manager call in and describe what was happening and why the sirens were sounding. The siren for my neighborhood was lost in the tornado so it was replaced with a mobile siren that performed well. The siren went off a second time and the Emergency Manager was called again and he said it was for straight line winds of 75 MPH. It's policy to sound the sirens when 75 MPH winds are expected in the city.

List of missing is down to 10 names now. 690 pets have been found and some have been reunited with 191 families. Those are the pictures that bring a tear to my eye, seeing people so happy to find their lost pets. Here's another link with before/after pics. http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/before-after-pictures-of-joplin-missouri

Federal Gov't is going to pick up 90% of the tab for expedited debris removal. Some more before/after pictures since those seem to have a lot of impact and help people understand what the area looked like before it was destroyed. It looks so bare without the trees. This isn't my video.

I saw this the other day. A bank was destroyed and all that was left was the vault. Saw this story about a UA student who lives in Joplin and was in Tuscaloosa at college and the tornado missed her by about 3 blocks. She drove home to Joplin and 3 weeks later, the tornado here missed her by 3 blocks as well. http://www.tuscaloos...03/1007?p=1&tc= There was also a local news story on a man who lived in Racine, MO and lost his wife in the Picher, OK storm when it moved into that area. He moved to Joplin with his daughter and rode out this storm in one of those twister safe tornado shelters. His house was destroyed but the shelter survived.

I should add that my ex-gf's house was about 3 houses down from here but the video cut out before it reached where she lived. She's fine but was busy getting a new social security card and a car since hers is gone, so we didn't talk about much the other day. She had a contusion, and some other medical jargon that I didn't catch but I hope to hear what she went through here in a few days if she's willing to talk about it since she was basically right in the exact path according to the NWS track.

It isn't my video, it's one I found online. The video starts in the area Obama toured actually, over by Franklin Tech and Joplin High School. He was on the same street. The guy taking the video turned right on to Missouri street. That entire area is destroyed so he could have taken that video anywhere over there and it would have looked like that. I don't know if people are going to rebuild in some areas or not. All I know is that it won't ever look the same.

They are doing 6 sweeps. The number of missing is down to 29 or so. http://dps.mo.gov/news/template.asp?ID=N01110015

Actually, it's kind of mixed emotions. I'm glad it wasn't 3 blocks closer, but at the same time, I feel bad for those involved. Hearing all the stories is incredibly saddening as is seeing the destruction of places you have known all your life. It's amazing to see the power of mother nature but it's extremely sad to consider that some people lost all they had, and some people lost loved ones. The sheer terror that people must have experienced as they heard windows breaking, wood splintering, and having their houses collapse around them.The stories are just terrible to hear. There are children that they can't identify in other hospitals around the area. There was a 4 year old whose parents were killed and they didn't know who she was. The story of an elderly lady found dead in her closet still clutching her bible. I'm sure you heard it was graduation night for Joplin High Schoolers and many were just starting their lives. I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of Will Norton. The recent graduate was on his way home with his dad and was sucked or thrown out the sunroof of his dad's car, he was found in a pond. I also just saw the story of a mother that was killed when she was going to pick up pizza for her son's graduation party. They had found her car which had been damaged, the roof and seat headrest were missing, the seat belt was still buckled and there was a shoe on the dashboard. They didn't find their mom in the car, but they got a call last night that said she had been found. I mean, could you imagine that? Could you imagine being so happy because you just graduated and then having that all ripped away in a couple of minutes? I don't think I can.... I can't really imagine that.

I don't believe so. The inflow damage is probably marked in the EF-1 area, there may be a bit more surrounding that area but it's probably very minor. They probably received debris falling.

There's still 2 people missing in that area, as well as some deaths, the ones missing may actually be from one of the houses in one of the before/after pictures I've made below even :-\ I'm fairly certain these are the right houses as I've matched them up based on driveway location and the concrete steps in the first picture. The before are from Google a few years ago, and the after were taken from that video I linked. This was just down the street from that one.

This was the video I posted the other day. I'm pretty sure this entire area is in the EF-5 damage swath. The #'s on the building are 2201 Grand Ave. He hangs a right on Missouri Ave. These were all well built wood structures that were probably 30+ years old. There are a couple of the house frames left standing but some were leveled completely.

EF-1, however I'd say it was more like EF-0. I don't think it's a continuous EF-5 damage path, but there are sporadic EF-5 damages in that area. There will be a home still standing out in the middle of a bunch of homes that are flattened. I was looking for a video I saw the other day where the guy drives down the EF-5 area in the residential area by the high school. I'll probably find that in a little bit. I found this one which has EF-4, EF-5 damage. I did not listen to this video with sound so I don't know what was said. This is taken on 26th street around Wall, Joplin, Pearl, heading west. The first building you see is Irving Elementary. A brick building that was built in 1927. After that you see a power substation which has been rebuilt already by the electric company. At around 20 seconds you see the remains of another brick building. I believe this was poorly constructed and also ancient though. This is probably really close to the EF-5 on the map. At around 27 seconds there's another brick building that belong to St. Mary's church which you can see in the back, it's a much newer construction and it was destroyed. Around 32 seconds after the dump trucks, you can see the remains of the Greenbriar nursing home (it's leveled). From there, there are numerous businesses that are destroyed and duplex that I can't seem to find on the video.

Thanks, I just found it. Yes, that warning is very wrong. I wonder what happened? All those locations are north or well north of the actual touchdown and eventual track. Were they looking at a different area? The one before that was more correct at 5:39. I'm not saying it would have mattered either way since the tornado was already on the ground and you could hear it or it was moving through the city.

I just noticed something. This was quoted from the Severe thread as the tornado was happening. I'm not sure if there are archived tornado warnings somewhere. See 6 miles NE of Galena? Now check out the map on this page showing where the first point of touchdown was. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/?n=event_2011may22_summary It's actually SE of E of Galena.

Thanks and yeah I do remember that, and remembered that your mother lived here. We've experienced an EF-5 tornado and a record breaking blizzard with 19" of snow all within 4 months.I didn't experience any hail here at all, just the inflow winds to the tornado and a little bit of rain. I know some people that already mentioned they aren't staying after this and they are going back to Michigan. So.. wouldn't you know it they have tornado warnings up there today!? It's very easy to get lost due to nothing looking like it once did. It all just kind of feels like a dream. It's going to take forever to clean all this up and once it's cleaned up it's going to look really bare. Everything has to be sorted out and looked through to make sure no body parts are in the wreckage. It's getting hot here now and everything is really going to start smelling. One thing I noticed was how close things look now. You can see things a long ways off and everything just looks like it's really close because you couldn't see it before due to the trees and houses. The area from Main street to Indiana street looks like it's about 2 blocks because you can see everything due to all the destruction. I don't know about people taking the warnings seriously. I'm sure those who were in the effected area may be a little bit more skittish and the general population may worry about it for awhile, but I think that due to us receiving so many warnings, people will once again get used to it. A lot of people were just used to nothing really happening or they'd go and sit in the closet for 10 minutes, wait for the storm to pass, then go back to whatever they were doing before. Now some of those people don't have closets.

About one week ago from today I posted this at 5:27 PM "Pitch black out, couplet nearly on me... Joplin, MO" After I posted that, I had enough time to shut down my desktop computer, look outside to the west and see the lowering and look at the base velocity again on my laptop before I heard the rumbling. 2 minutes later:

Blurry picture since traffic was moving, there were a lot of police around that were stopping people and traffic was moving at this time but became backed up in places as well. I could have taken more pictures but camera battery was low, people were there trying to find belongings, and it all basically looked just like this. Every now and then there was a house that made it or you could tell it had been a house. I believe Pres. Obama was in this same neighborhood today. People made signs that said "Gawkers, put down your cameras and help!!" I saw signs that said "Looters will be shot". I saw "For Rent" and "For Sale" signs that people had put up as a joke. There was a sign that pointed to a bucket that said "$15 for a picture" so I didn't really want them to know I was snapping pics because it does seem somewhat disrespectful but at the same time I wanted to capture the carnage that happened. Basically it all looks like this in the neighborhoods with the most damage. Just blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks of this. Shot of Home Depot. It looks like shredded cheese. Traffic was backed up and I saw this mattress in a tree so I took a pic of it while I was waiting. This is the Hampshire Terrace apartments over by Dillons. These were 2 story apartments. In some areas the first story was still there but not the second.

I'm not entirely sure even though I had classes there when I was in high school ages ago. The entire building is brick though, it was well constructed. It was only 1 story basically if I remember it right, there were no stairs leading up to a second story. There was a large auto repair area in the back which is pictured there and a lot of different classrooms that varied in size. It was partnered with the high school and some students took various classes over there for college/high school credit. It was also an adult technical school, those classes were typically at night. If you were to look behind me in that picture, you would see nothing but debris and the only way you could tell there were homes there would be because you see driveways leading up to them.

And I just put this together. This is Franklin Technology Center before and after from a picture I took yesterday. I heard the NWS used this as one of their points of reference for the EF5 rating.

Panorama that shows Franklin Tech before and After. Also Greenbriar nursing home where at least 11 perished. http://www.nytimes.c...-panoramas.html

The Joplin Globe had a fascinating story that included interviews with people along the path of the storm. It included information that included: St. Johns was shifted 4 inches off it's foundation. 4 out of 5 people that took shelter in the Elk's lodge died. There were also multiple reports of an "eye" with calmness in the center of it. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1190396915/Along-tornado-s-path-victims-recall-trauma-wonder-about-future

This is St. Paul's. The middle of the sanctuary is scooped out but the playground equipment is perfectly fine. This power pole was splintered. This was a PVC pipe assembly of some kind sticking into a house that was about 2 blocks away from where the tornado hit. What's left of someone's door was found just below the above house. A little girls shoe that I found in my yard. No idea where it came from and it wasn't there before the tornado. This really creeped me out... The final picture I took until today was a picture of a mom and her son on the 2nd level of their house attempting to gather what was left.

Yeah the car has been there, it's just weird. The actual home was probably poorly constructed and it wasn't all brick. Just the front and around the garage. There are street signs like this all over since it's very easy to get lost since the landscape does not look the same. There's even street names painted on the streets in some places. This was bedding or a mattress wrapped around a tree. Just general destruction pictures:

Yep, and if you want to see the 2 houses (the pics with the black car in it) Go to "2448 West 26th Street, Joplin, MO" and turn the camera around to the left and you can see that they are now gone and all that's left is the slabs.