![]() ![]() fatalities per year than hurricanes and earthquakes combined. Tornadoes are also more deadly, causing more U.S. It’s true that they are smaller events and impact less area than say, a hurricane or an earthquake, but tornadoes are much more common and significantly more intense than we have understood in the past. One hundred sixty-one lives lost, 3,000 residences heavily damaged or completely destroyed the devastation was overwhelming.ĭid you know that, with the exception of provisions governing the design of storm shelters, the word “tornado” isn’t even in our building codes? Is it any wonder that our buildings fail? We design for other hazards, but tornadoes haven’t been part of that calculation because they are perceived as being too rare, which is strange because we record over 1,200 of them annually. And I had never experienced the aftermath of an EF-5, so Joplin was a first. Only after that tornado, which damaged parts of Sedalia, Mo., had passed, were we able to get back on the road.Īs part of my work, I had seen the damage that tornadoes and other severe types of weather can cause, but you never really get used to it. We had to race to the small town of Marshall, Mo., where we ended up huddling alongside some students in the basement of the Missouri Valley College science building. Coincidentally, as my colleague Erica Kuligowski and I were driving to Joplin to get our first look at the 2011 tornado’s impact, we had a pretty harrowing run-in with an EF-2 tornado. Growing up in Dallas and going to school at Texas Tech in Lubbock, I’ve had a few close calls with tornadoes as well. Living in southeast Louisiana for nearly 20 years, my family and I had experienced many of these hurricanes directly, including some of the most infamous storms of the past few decades: Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike. As an engineering professor and director of the LSU Hurricane Center, I had conducted a number of investigations following tropical cyclones. I had come to NIST just three months earlier from Louisiana State University to lead R&D efforts under the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program. I was among a small, but highly skilled team of engineers and a sociologist dispatched to the scene two days later to collect data on how well the buildings and emergency communications systems had performed during the storm. Over 3,000 of those residences were heavily damaged or completely destroyed. ![]() All told, the tornado damaged 553 business structures and nearly 7,500 residential structures. With losses approaching $3 billion, it was also the costliest tornado on record. It caused 161 fatalities and more than 1,000 injuries, making it the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. since we began keeping official records in 1950. (Source: helpjoplin.The May 22, 2011, tornado in Joplin, Mo., rated an EF-5-the most powerful ranking-on the Enhanced Fujita tornado intensity scale. Interstate 44 is closed due to overturned tractor trailers. Communications are difficult with power lines and phone lines down from the storm. A first report of confirmed dead comes in, estimated at 24 people. It left an estimated 161 people dead and damaged some 8,000 structures.ħ:30 p.m. The EF-5 Joplin tornado had winds in excess of 200 mph, was nearly a mile wide, and had a track lasting six miles. Approximate initial Tornado touchdown is about half a mile southwest of JJ Highway and Newton Road (southwest of Joplin City limits).ĥ:41 p.m. The local storm report stated: “NUMEROUS REPORTS OF TORNADO ON THE GROUND WEST OF JOPLIN AND POWER FLASHES.” The NWS Springfield, Mo., Weather Forecast Office issued a tornado warning with 17 minutes of lead time for touchdown and 19 minutes lead time before the tornado entered Joplin.ĥ:34 p.m. TIMELINE (Source: National Weather Service)ĥ:11 p.m. Initial 3 minute siren alert sounded for Jasper County and Joplin.ĥ:17 p.m. ![]() It had also issued a tornado watch more than four hours in advance of the tornado touching down. The National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center highlighted southwest Missouri for the potential for severe weather several days prior to Sunday's storm. "The Joplin tornado is the deadliest single tornado since modern recordkeeping began in 1950 and is ranked as the 7th deadliest in U.S. As the community marks the progress five year's later, here is a look back at how the storm played out. physically and took an unimaginable emotional toll on its people. ![]()
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