JoMo

This is about as close to what I would have seen and experienced as you can get. Later on in the video you can see the debris falling down. It appears the video was taken after the tornado had already passed though as the vid is facing south and southeast. The wife or whoever asks why it's still noisy and he remarks that the door is still open so she tells him to close it, then he gets a look outside. I recall the close lightning strike in the vid as I was on the phone with the neighbor asking if she was ok at the time it struck. I don't remember it being that windy still though. A documentary is being made by Chip Gubera about the Joplin tornado and will be released in 2012. At 0:42 seconds or so is Jeremiah Cook who was the voice on the KSN tower cam video. I've got to say, it looks really good from the trailer:

Ok, 'manufactured housing' Yeah I've seen inside one, pre-furnished, pretty nice, even comes with a weather radio so people can be scared out of their minds when it goes off at 3 AM for a flash flood watch. Laptops galore thanks to the UAE donation. Photo by David Muir:

yeah I'm pretty sure they probably learned their lesson by now and changed their manufacturing but I had not heard of this. Lots and lots and lots of news media at the high school at the mall this morning. "The Early Show" has a lot of coverage but "Good Morning America" has also had coverage. From the high school at the mall Touching story http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/08/16/joplin.school.student/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29&utm_content=Twitter

Not sure what you mean? They are prefab'ed homes. We are expecting a huge amount of media in Joplin tomorrow for the start of school. I know "The Early Show" will be here and there is a local reporter saying they expect 15 satellite trucks at JHS. (at the mall) http://www.latimes.c...0,7616892.story BEFORE/AFTER PICS of the cleanup with sliders: http://www.msnbc.msn...478/ns/us_news/

I-44 and Main is the new site for the hospital. They just announced it. This is south of Freeman hospital by at least 18 blocks. They are going to have 2 hospital locations.... One on south main is St. Johns replacement. Other one is probably going to 249 and it's going to be outpatient services and other stuff. Groundbreaking is Jan 2012 for St. Johns, complete in 2014. NE Campus groundbreaking is 2014. Overall, they are committing $950 million dollars to the hospital.

FEMA did a fantastic job supporting local and state leaders. They have extended the deadline until Aug 26th to apply for FEMA help. They were essential in finding rental property around the area in order to get people placed into rental homes and apartments. City of Joplin donated the land for the FEMA trailer parks to be set up and FEMA and US Army Corps of Engineers worked together to get contracts out to rebuild temporary facilities for 2 fire stations, the temporary schools, and clean-up of the debris. The Army Corps will be leaving Aug 22nd and the city will be hiring a contractor in early September to collect any remaining debris. There have been a few FEMA issues with personal payments to survivors that have cropped up due to incorrectly filled out paperwork, but the majority of it has gone smoothly. Joplin would not be so well off if it wasn't for the huge number of volunteers that have came to Joplin to help and donate their time. As of Aug 1st, there have been 72,797 registered volunteers that have served a total of 356,392 hours which amounts to almost 41 years of work. The volunteers are still coming and helping and are primarily being used for cleaning up yards of small debris which makes a big difference believe it or not. They are also being used to put the finishing touches on the schools, moving in furniture, sorting supplies, painting, etc... It's nice seeing rebuilding taking place all over town. We are expecting a lot of media coverage on the first day of school Aug 17th. Here's kind of a touching story that's sad but not. Man's missing dog found 12 weeks after tornado.

School starts Aug 17th. This is around 87 days since the tornado and I believe 6 schools were knocked out and had to have temporary locations. The temporary locations were set up in just 55 days. The high school at the mall is pretty awesome (11th and 12th graders) Coffee shop ran by business students, collaborative moving walls, and a bunch of other state of the art stuff including laptops for all students thanks to a donation by the United Arab Emirates. Every student gets a backpack full of supplies when they start. There was a story in USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-08-14-Joplin-tornado-schools-resume_n.htm?bctid=1105736067001 Tour of the 11th and 12th grade at the mall: Tomorrow, St. Johns will announce where they are building the new hospital.

The Army Corps was successful in clearing 100% of the right-of-ways and residential property that had signed a right-of-entry form before the August 7th 90% FEMA deadline. All sectors were closed Saturday Night (Aug 6th) but they were still collecting debris on Aug 7th from curbside areas until midnight. They will continue to stay and help until at least the middle of September as there are some people that didn't sign of the right-of-entry forms. Thanks to the Army Corps and all the volunteers!! Here's some before/after cleanup photos from Angela Covington Photography. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150404472891110.443279.762911109&type=1

26th runs east to west Yep and here's one from Main street which runs north to south There's a video that has RAW language of people who arrived in Joplin right after the tornado. They came in on Maiden Lane near the hospital off 32nd and as soon as they made it over the hill and saw all the destruction it was shocking, can't find it now though heh

A couple of updates. First of all FEMA denied the Missouri Gov. request for an extension on the 90% cleanup cost so it will revert to 75% FEMA/ 25% state and local. However, governor Jay Nixon announced today that the state will cover the full 25% of the state/local cleanup. FEMA trailer park #1 is ready to go after the first of the storm shelters arrived. Top half of concrete shelter that holds 35. The school district has accepted a bid for cleanup at the destroyed schools and it now looks like all the temporary schools will be ready for school come Aug 17th. Every student gets a backpack full of supplies so parents don't have to buy any. The school put the video back up which has a better contrast than the other video. They also added some pictures of people who had donated to the school an donations. I just can't believe how dark it was outside. The scenes that really get me are when it is pitch black and the door rips open to the outside at 44 seconds, the shot out the front door a 1:49, the hallway shot at 2:24 is amazing and it almost looks like a tsunami coming down the hall, the chunk of debris flying through the window at 2:33, the debris flying out at 2:50 and the end lunchroom scene. The lunchroom scene has me curious since there is an obvious 'swirl' to the debris which starts moving from right to left and then by the end moves left to right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ7Fx4Gxu40

New link for the tornado video from the schools. They apparently took the other one down because people were bitching about the music so someone else grabbed the video and stuck some other music on it, lol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IVjABFEQPA

Yeah it was posted here July 2nd right here. http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/18858-devastating-tornado-strikes-joplin-missouri/page__st__940__p__789126#entry789126

Also the new high school (11th and 12th) is almost complete. http://www.koamtv.co...-being-complete

A few updates today from the Joplin Press Conference. *The death toll has climbed to 160. (159 from the actual tornado and 1 from Jeff Taylor being struck by lightning the next day I believe). *The entire city has been opened up for building permits now. *80% of the debris has been cleaned up. (300 lots left to clear) *Army Corps have finished debris cleanup on Sector 1 (where the tornado first touched down to Schifferdecker) It also appears a tower of some kind was installed in the same area. It looks like it might be a cell phone tower. *Through Tuesday.... 69,088 registered volunteers. 337,627 hours. *3,391 families receiving rental assistance from FEMA, 121 mobile housing pad currently occupied. 481 spaces being developed at the airport parks. 72 mobile units in place at the airport parks.

Yeah there are still homes that have to be demolished and the businesses are lacking behind in cleaning up their messes since they do not get FEMA help and have to wait for insurance. There's also been some problems with people dumping debris not from the city on already cleaned up property. Some people are making a bundle cutting down the trees and selling it for firewood or mulch. You'll see people from out of town driving around looking for scrap metal on the curb after houses have been demolished but they have been really good at not actually going into the peoples property which kind of surprised me. I guess the power company decided to not use underground lines as they are now getting poles in the ground Talked to another guy tonight who actually saw the tornado and said it sounded more like a jet engine. He was outside with his neighbors and a different neighbor came out of his house and told them all that KSN had a tornado on the TV. He looked to the west and saw the tornado. He survived in his basement and told me that basically only one neighbor was rebuilding. It looks like we will probably win the McAlister's Deli Tea Town USA contest for $7,500 to restore the parks. http://www.facebook....217212581634900 Also Coca-Cola is having a contest for money to rebuild parks and Cunningham Park is in the running. http://www.facebook....253812004645715 UPDATE July 27th: St. Johns is going to announce their plans on where they are going to rebuild on Aug 14th. They are currently gathering peoples personal belongings from the hospital still but will implode it in another 2-3 months. A memorial is planned on the location where the hospital once stood.

FEMA news release for those that like numbers. http://www.koamtv.com/story/15150105/two-months-after-the-tornado-the-fema-numbers

Unfortunately a lot of those trees have been cut down. They came through on Sunday and whacked a lot of them down. The trees were using stored up energy to regenerate but ultimately they would eventually die due to bark damage. Trees move water up on the area just inside their bark and if that's missing then they can't move water and will die. A lot of people I've talked to aren't rebuilding because they say it's going to take a long time and they "can't stand to see it every day". The lots are selling though .

More after tornado/ 2 months later pictures have been posted here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018269/The-Joplin-restoration-begins-Two-months-huge-tornado-devastated-town-cleans-up.html?ito=feeds-newsxml Lots of 'clean' areas now.

Yeah, we had a lot of outages before due to having a lot of older trees, those trees have a tendency to break in high winds and ice storms which cause power outages. Of course you really don't have to worry about trees in the tornado areas anymore since they were all destroyed pretty much. In other news, it sure is dusty out there, and the winds have kicked up so I'm pretty sure I saw a dust devil earlier, lol

I don't know, I think they may be going underground for some, I'm not really sure though. In my new pics you can see the "EDE Trans" in between the two driveways. The EDE is for Empire District Electric. I've also seen "EDE Pole" and "EDE Prim" and "EDE Sec". However, I'm not sure how they would do that if peoples driveways are still in the way.

Still looks pretty desolate out there...... Standing at the corner of 29th and Monroe, it still looks desolate. This area was full of trees and homes. In the background you can see the church, 3 1/2 blocks away. The truck from the above picture, guess it had a flat... nice job with the boards supporting the jack guys...... Sunset on the desolate land This pic was taken in the same areaish on 7/7: The sun going behind a roofless house.

Now on to the rebuilding! This is a completely new garage, all it's missing is the guttering, and power of course. People rebuilding their 2nd story back on to their house, personally I think they just should have rebuilt the entire house based on the extent of the damage. This is a pretty big house that's being built. I think these people are doing it themselves with some help from family members. It took them a week to build the floor, and in 2 days, they haven't accomplished much framing. This smaller house was framed in a day:

It's been 2 months today. I took some pictures on July 21st and here they are. This was a house that said "Do not touch" and nobody has touched it really. This is a house that's still in the process of falling down, but note the orange stick in the front yard. That's the electric company marking where the power lines are going, looks like these will be underground. It says "EDE Trans" This is a tree that has really regrown all it's missing leaves since the tornado. Somebody put a note on it that says "Don't cut down this tree". The previous tree I took a picture of and posted has been cut down

Story from the Christchurch, NZ area about the Joplin tornado. The lady you saw in Jeff Piotrowski's video is interviewed. Another from NZ comparing the response from FEMA vs the response at Christchurch

Some progress being made as the electric company is marking locations where power poles are to be installed in the tornado destroyed areas now that a lot of it has been cleared. Saw a house that had hurricane straps installed being demolished today. Last pass for FEMA collection of debris starts July 22nd. I'll probably post some new pics on the 22nd when I take my 2 month shots.