greg ralls

I wish I could give you a Pulitzer prize for web journalism for this historic thread for your outstanding documentation of this event from its inception through ongoing recovery.

Agreed. This thread could certainly be crafted into a first-rate book of the disaster from the perspective of a resident.

This is an amazing thread. One thing I hadn't remembered was that it had almost exactly double the death toll as in Joplin.

I just read this story, they 'track' the storm system that would cause the Joplin tornado from it's 'birth' to it's death.

http://www.kansascit...racing-the.html

So late Sunday afternoon, when Andy Foster saw a bright pink stain on a radar scan, he knew this was no isolated twister taking out a chicken house on the edge of town. Pieces of houses, churches and barns had been blasted 10,000 feet into the sky over Joplin.

“That’s when our hearts sank.’’

*Foster placed a third and final call to Stammer.

Whatever is out there, it’s headed straight for Joplin.

*The forecasters in Springfield stared at the radar in disbelief: The messy blob from minutes earlier had morphed into a near perfect comma shape, with wind speeds maxed out in opposite directions.

I can't stop re-reading that story. Very chilling & sad.

The video itself was good, but the weird reverb effect put on the guy's voice was odd and seemed almost kind of hokey.

It's a real bummer to hear about all of the people who are now dying from that fungus, who otherwise would've eventually recovered from their injuries suffered in the tornado. Ugh.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/8612835_deadly_fungus_strikes_joplin_tornado_survivors_volunteers

Glad to hear you and your family is okay, JoMo! Sorry to hear about the loss of your friends, though. We all eagely await your accounts of that horrible evening and its aftermath.

there's hardly any damage to W 23rd Terrace St. major damage is found from Gabby St. Blvd and south...2 blocks away.

Yes, JoMO's house should be fine, if that is indeed where he lived. We all know how quickly this thing went from tornadogenesis to EF5, though, and while it would've been unwise, I'm not sure I could've resisted the urge to go outside and investigate at that point in the storm's cycle.

I've never seen anything like what they're showing on TWC right now. Unreal.