joplin tornado
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joplin tornado
The 2011 Joplin tornado was a multiple-vortex tornado rated as an EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale which struck Joplin, Missouri,USA at about or shortly before 5:41 p.m. CDT (2241 UTC) on May 22, 2011. It was part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak and reached a maximum 0.75 miles (1.21 km) wide during its path through the southern part of the city. It rapidly intensified and tracked eastward across the city, and then continued eastward across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Jasper County. This was the third significant tornado to strike Joplin since May 1971. Along with the Tri-State Tornado and the 1896 St. Louis-East St. Louis tornado, it will rank as one of Missouri’s and America’s deadliest and costliest tornados; the cost to rebuild Joplin in today’s U.S. dollars could reach $3 billion. The May 2011 tornado was the deadliest tornado to hit the United States since 1947 and the eighth-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history, killing 142 people, though the toll is likely to rise still further as more of the missing are recovered and definitively identified.
joplin tornado
A preliminary survey of the tornado damage by the National Weather Service office in Springfield, Missouri, began on May 23. The initial survey confirmed a violent tornado rated as a high-end EF4 with winds up to 198 miles per hour (319 km/h), tracking at least 7 miles (11 km) in length, and 0.75 miles (1.21 km) wide across the city. Subsequent damage surveys, however, found evidence of more intense damage, and so the tornado was upgraded to an EF5 with estimated winds of 225 to 250 mph (362 to 402 km/h).
joplin tornado
joplin tornado
The tornado initially touched down just east of the Kansas state boundary near the end of 32nd Street between 5:35 and 5:41 p.m. CDT (2235 and 2241 UTC) and tracked just north of due east. Surveys remain incomplete there so it is possible it may have started in Kansas and crossed the state line into Missouri.
joplin tornado
joplin tornado
Damage became very widespread and catastrophic as it entered residential subdivisions in southwest Joplin. In addition, St. John’s Regional Medical Center in the same area was heavily damaged with many windows and the exterior walls damaged and the upper floors destroyed. Several fatalities were reported there. Virtually every house in that area near McClelland Boulevard and 26th Street was flattened, and some were blown away in the area as well. Trees sustained severe debarking, a nursing home and a church school in southwest Joplin were also flattened and several other schools were heavily damaged. Damage in this area was rated as a low-end EF4.
joplin tornado
As the tornado tracked eastward, it intensified even more as it crossed Main Street between 20th and 26th Streets. Virtually every business along that stretch was heavily damaged or destroyed and several institutional buildings were destroyed. It tracked just south of downtown, narrowly missing it. More houses were flattened or blown away and trees continued to be debarked. Two large apartment buildings were destroyed, as well as Franklin Technology Center and Joplin High School. Fortunately, no one was in the high school at the time. It approached Range Line Road, the main commercial strip in the eastern part of Joplin, near 20th Street. Damage in this area was rated as a high-end EF4.
joplin tornado
The tornado peaked in intensity as it crossed Range Line Road. In that corridor between about 13th and 32nd Streets , the damage continued to be very intense and the tornado was at its widest at this point, being nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. Some of the many destroyed buildings include a Cummins warehouse, Walmart Supercenter #59, a Home Depot store, and numerous restaurants, all of which were flattened. Heavy objects, including concrete bumpers and large trucks, were tossed a significant distance, as far as 1/8 mile (200 m) away from the parking lots along Range Line. Numerous other commercial and industrial buildings, as well as more houses, were destroyed with some flattened or blown away as the tornado tracked through southeast Joplin. Many fatalities occurred in this area. Damage in this area was rated as an EF5)
joplin tornado
joplin tornado
joplin tornado
joplin tornado
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