2011 Joplin tornado

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In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers published a study disputing the tornado's initial EF5 rating, based on surveying damage on over 150 structures within a six-mile segment of the storm's path. According to the report, over 83% of the damage was caused by wind speeds of 135 mph (217 km/h) or less, the maximum wind speed of an EF2 tornado. An additional 13% was caused by EF3 wind speeds, and 3% was consistent with EF4 winds. The study found no damage consistent with wind speeds over 200 mph (320 km/h), the minimum threshold of an EF5 tornado. [63] Researchers concluded that the inability to find EF5 damage was due to the absence of construction standards that were able to determine the necessary wind speeds. Bill Colbourne, a member of the engineering team that surveyed the damage, declared that "a relatively large number of buildings could have survived in Joplin if they had been built to sustain hurricane winds."

However, the EF5 rating stood. The NWS office in Springfield stated that their survey teams found only a small area of EF5 structural damage, and that it could have easily been missed in the survey (at and around St. John's Medical Center). [64] Bill Davis, head of Springfield's NWS office, said that the results of the study "do not surprise me at all," adding that "there was only a very small area of EF5 damage in Joplin...we knew right off the bat there was EF4 damage. It took us longer to identify the EF5 damage and that it would take winds of over 200 mph (320 km/h) to do that damage." [65] Additionally, the basis for the EF5 rating in Joplin was mainly contextual rather than structural, with non-conventional damage indicators such as the removal of concrete parking stops, manhole covers, reinforced concrete porches, driveways, and asphalt used to arrive at a final rating. The presence of wind rowed structural debris, instances of very large vehicles such as buses, vans, and semi-trucks being thrown hundreds of yards to several blocks from their points of origin, the fact that some homeowners never located their vehicles, and the overwhelming extent and totality of the destruction in Joplin were also taken into consideration. [11]

According to a detailed damage survey by Timothy Marshall, a majority of houses were destroyed at winds of EF2-3 strength. However he identified 22 well anchored houses which were assigned EF5 ratings. [66]

Response

Immediately following the disaster, emergency responders were deployed within and to the city to undertake search and rescue efforts. Then Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency for the Joplin area shortly after the tornado hit, and ordered Missouri National Guard troops to the city. [38] By May 23, Missouri Task Force One (consisting of 85 personnel, four dogs, and heavy equipment) arrived and began searching for missing persons. Five heavy rescue teams were also sent to the city a day later. Within two days, numerous agencies arrived to assist residents in the recovery process. The National Guard deployed 191 personnel and placed 2,000 more on standby to be deployed if needed. In addition, the Missouri State Highway Patrol provided 180 troopers to assist the Joplin Police Department and other local agencies with law enforcement, rescue, and recovery efforts that also included the deployment of five ambulance strike teams, and a total of 25 ambulances in the affected area on May 24 as well over 75 Marines from the Ft. Leonard Wood Army base. [40] Due to the severe damage caused by the tornado, the traveling Piccadilly Circus was unable to perform as scheduled. As a result, the circus employees brought their two adult elephants to help drag damaged automobiles and other heavy debris out of the streets. [67]

Despite the destruction, two Waffle House locations in Joplin remained open following the tornado. This led Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate to develop the concept of the Waffle House Index for measuring disaster impact. [68] [69] [70] [71]

In May 2012, the Missouri National Guard released documents showing that four soldiers looted consumer electronics from a ruined Walmart during efforts to locate survivors the day after the tornado. According to the investigative memo, they believed the merchandise was going to be destroyed. All four soldiers were demoted and had letters of reprimand placed in their personnel files, but were never prosecuted, though many civilian looters were. [72]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers produced this graphic to illustrate the amount of debris removed from Joplin just six weeks after the tornado. Chiefs Graphic (5941115020).jpg
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers produced this graphic to illustrate the amount of debris removed from Joplin just six weeks after the tornado.

Cleanup

The Joplin tornado generated an estimated 3 million cubic yards of debris, [73] an amount sufficient to cover a football field 120 stories high. [36] :19 Removal efforts lasted for months, and at their height more than 410 trucks a day transported debris to landfills in Joplin itself, as well as nearby Galena and Lamar. [74] [73]

The tornado also led to renewed lead contamination on many Joplin properties. Joplin had been the site of lead mining and processing for decades before cleanup efforts began in the mid-1990s, and the tornado's upheaval of the surface as it swept houses from foundations and uprooted trees re-contaminated about 40% of yards in southern Joplin, leaving behind chunks of raw lead ore the size of tennis or golf balls. The city spent more than $5 million to clean the properties up using grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, scraping off the topsoil and replacing it with clean soil, and further required that builders in the damage area test for lead and clean it up before construction. [75] [76]

Social media response

The tornado also highlighted a new form of disaster response, using social media. This type of disaster response is now known as Social Media Emergency Management. News outlets began aggregating images and video from eyewitnesses shared through social media. [77] Public citizen-led Facebook groups and web sites coordinated information, needs, and offers. The results were so effective the project became a finalist in the 2011 Mashable Awards for Best Social Good Cause Campaign. [78]

National attention

President Obama greets a tornado survivor on May 29, 2011. Obama-joplin-missouri1.jpg
President Obama greets a tornado survivor on May 29, 2011.

President Barack Obama toured the community on May 29, flying into Joplin Regional Airport and speaking at a memorial at the Taylor Performing Arts Center at Missouri Southern State University about two miles (3.2 km) north of the worst of the devastation. [79] Obama had been on a state visit to Europe at the time of the storm. Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church were also scheduled to protest the same day in Joplin, but they did not show up. There was a massive counterprotest that was organized in response to the Westboro protest, in which thousands of protesters showed up holding signs saying, "God Loves Joplin" and "We Support You Joplin." [80]

President Obama also delivered the commencement address at Joplin High School on May 21, 2012, a year after the tornado. [81] [82]

Rebuilding and recovery

FEMA maintained a large presence in Joplin following the tornado, with as many as 820 employees working in the city. One FEMA undertaking was the construction of 15 temporary housing sites in and around Joplin, which housed 586 families/households at their peak. [83]

The city, warned by federal officials that it should expect to lose 25% of its population following the tornado, responded quickly and built an average of five houses a week between 2011 and 2022. Most businesses reopened, and more than 300 new businesses opened between 2011 and early 2016. [84]

In April 2012, Joplin voters approved a $62 million bond to continue constructing new schools and repair damaged existing ones. [83]

Engineers criticized the tilt-up construction of the Home Depot building, in which all but two of the walls collapsed in a domino effect after the tornado lifted the roof, killing seven people in the front of the store (although 28 people in the back of the store survived when those walls collapsed outwards). Home Depot officials disagreed with the study published by The Kansas City Star and said they would use the tilt-up practice when they rebuilt the Joplin store. [85] On June 1, the Home Depot said it would have a new temporary 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m2) building erected and operational within two weeks. In the meantime, it opened for business in the parking lot of its demolished building. [86] On June 20, the Home Depot opened a temporary 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) building constructed by the company's disaster recovery team. [87]

Within two years, the city's workers and community groups compiled and published "Joplin Pays it Forward" to give recovery advice to other places struck by disasters. [88] Many homes and businesses have been rebuilt since the tornado. Joplin High School was reopened on September 2, 2014. St. John's Regional Medical Center (now Mercy Hospital) had to be rebuilt and reopened in 2015. [89]

Mental health impacts

Eighteen people committed suicide in the wake of the tornado, according to the executive director of the Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri, a co-chair of the city's long-term recovery team. Calls about domestic violence grew in the year following the disaster. [84] In 2024, Jennifer M. First, J. Brian Houston, and Sangwon Lee with the University of Tennessee along with Megan Carnahan and Mansoo Yu with the University of Missouri, published a qualitative case study of survivors from the tornado, in which they described how survivors recovered from "tornado brain". [90] In the paper, they stated approximately 41% of the residents of Joplin were directly impacted by the tornado and that the tornado lead to "various mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder". [90]

A number of documentaries have been produced about the Joplin tornado and its effects on the city. These include Heartland: A Portrait of Survival, directed by Erica Tremblay and featured at the Omaha Film Festival and the St. Louis International Film Festival, [91] [92] as well as Deadline in Disaster (directed by Beth Pike), which followed the staff of The Joplin Globe in the tornado's aftermath and received a regional Emmy in the Documentary-Cultural category during the 37th Mid-America Emmy Awards. [93] In October 2011, The Joplin Globe released a hard-cover pictorial book entitled 32 Minutes in May: The Joplin Tornado. [94]

In March 2025, Netflix released a feature-length documentary on the tornado, titled The Twister: Caught in the Storm. [95] Residents of Joplin who recalled the storm were interviewed for the documentary. Director-writer Alexandra Lacey told The Hollywood Reporter, "It was a difficult prospect to find the characters and make sure that we were treating each one of them the right way and making them feel comfortable to tell their story. [...] What really struck me was the lasting mental health impact on the folks there in Joplin. Every time the wind gets stronger, or the sirens go... It’s really hard.” [96]

See also

2011 Joplin tornado
Photograph of the 2011 Joplin tornado.jpeg
Joplin 2011 tornado.jpg
2011 Joplin Tornado Timeline - free.png
Corps employees from Philly show Joplin some brotherly (5998863356).jpg
Joplin 2011 tornado damage.jpg
Clockwise from top: View of the rain-wrapped tornado in Joplin; track and timeline of the tornado; aerial view of Joplin 10 days after the tornado; EF5 damage to the St. John's Regional Medical Center; radar image of the tornado in the city of Joplin, with a clear debris ball present
Preceded by Costliest U.S. tornadoes on Record
May 22, 2011
Succeeded by
-

Notes

  1. Per the associated reference, this damage total belongs to the City of Joplin, where the tornado spent the vast majority of its lifetime and did the most damage. It does not include the damage to structures outside the city, where the tornado touched down (to the southwest) and dissipated (to the east).

References

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Further reading

37°03′38″N94°31′51″W / 37.06056°N 94.53083°W / 37.06056; -94.53083