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Devastating tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri


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I still dont know what to think on this supposed 24 minute lead warning time on this event . I lean towards what Doug said in his blog JoMo , even though after talking with a few in emergency mgmt, the true times havebeen sugar coated in my opinion and maybe the whole truth isnt being told .. But thats just my opinion on this whole deal FWIW nothing or sumthin who knows...

It was around a 17 minute warning time until it touched down. Tornado warning issued at 5:17 that included the Joplin area that was hit. The previous warning was issued for northern Joplin at 5:09 I think it was. The problem was, it touched down so close to the city. I just looked back and there was a local storm report of a funnel cloud near Riverton at 5:25. I did not know that and I don't think any of the media received that information. I don't know where they got the 5:41 time since it was in Joplin at around the 5:35-5:36 mark.

I talked to a lady last night that lives between here and the state line. She said there was one that moved across the south end of her property, then the Joplin one. Looking back at the warnings, I'd say that was possible with the area of rotation to the north of Joplin and then the actual Joplin tornado to the south.

The 2nd set of sirens going off and the approach of the tornado were very close in timing though. I had a guy who lived a block and two houses away from a warning siren ask me if I heard the 2nd siren because neither he or his wife heard it (i heard it, but I'm pretty sure it was right when the rumbling of the tornado started), while they did hear the first. If they blew the sirens at 5:31, he would have heard it since the tornado would have been about 5-6 minutes away from his house. They took shelter in the hallway and luckily their house remained standing, I don't really know how though, but it will have to be bulldozed due to extensive roof damage and the inside is a mess from debris blowing through it.

UPDATED July 20th:

Actually, I'm sure the 2nd sirens went off after it was on the ground because the video of the tower cam from KSN shows power flashes before the sirens were activated. If they had been activated at 5:31 then the tornado wasn't on the ground yet.

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2nd post... just registered... I was on the old board... I am a chaser... but haven't read any of this thread other than the last page.

I had decided to not chase that day (long story), but instead to get into OK for the next day's risk.  I saw the Joplin storm from just W of Wichita.   It didn't have an overshooting dome.  It had an overshooting cone, which was taller than it was wide (at its base), and pointy at the top.  Think "dunce cap".  It was, I believe, at least 50% as tall as the rest of the storm, so if the flat anvil top was at 45K feet the top of that cone was over 70K. I thought one or two of you on this board might find that interesting.

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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.

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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

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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.

donottouchcleaned.jpg

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"

edetranscleaned.jpg

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 :(

treenotecleaned.jpg

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Now on to the rebuilding!

This is a completely new garage, all it's missing is the guttering, and power of course.

garagebuiltcleaned.jpg

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.

rebuild2storycleaned.jpg

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.

newbighousecleaned.jpg

This smaller house was framed in a day:

newhouseturncleaned.jpg

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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.

desolatecleaned.jpg

The truck from the above picture, guess it had a flat... nice job with the boards supporting the jack guys......

flattirecleaned.jpg

Sunset on the desolate land

sunsetcleaned.jpg

This pic was taken in the same areaish on 7/7: The sun going behind a roofless house.

sunset2cleaned.jpg

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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.

Interesting they aren't taking the time to go underground. Was it discussed?

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Interesting they aren't taking the time to go underground. Was it discussed?

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.

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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.

My electric co-op sends out a bi-monthly newsletter, and coincidentally there was a recent discussion in there about the underground vs. poles issue. The point was made that burying power lines is WAY more expensive than hanging the lines from poles. On top of that, though outages would be less frequent, when an outage DOES occur it is WAY more difficult to repair.

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My electric co-op sends out a bi-monthly newsletter, and coincidentally there was a recent discussion in there about the underground vs. poles issue. The point was made that burying power lines is WAY more expensive than hanging the lines from poles. On top of that, though outages would be less frequent, when an outage DOES occur it is WAY more difficult to repair.

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

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Thanks for all the pictures. It's amazing how quickly some of the trees sprung back to life. Even though the landscape still looks barren, it seems a lot more upbeat with most of the debris removed. It's starting to look more like a giant construction site now than a scene of a huge disaster. They've made amazing progress down there. :thumbsup:

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Thanks for all the pictures. It's amazing how quickly some of the trees sprung back to life. Even though the landscape still looks barren, it seems a lot more upbeat with most of the debris removed. It's starting to look more like a giant construction site now than a scene of a huge disaster. They've made amazing progress down there. :thumbsup:

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 .

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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 .

I don't blame them. I know if the town I grew up in got destroyed and 100+ people died, I'd get out too. The constant reminder would be too hard to deal with on a daily basis.

I have friends that lived in Homestead during Andrew and moved up to Ft. Lauderdale/Coral Springs and have never been back to Homestead since.

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I hate to say this, but man I almost in a way wished the STL tornado would have wiped everything clean... there are a lot of areas that have STILL basically not been touched since Good Friday's tornado in Bridgeton. While it will still take a long time for you to get everything back to normal, (if joplin ever does get back to the way it was) things are going faster out there than they are in the St Louis area that's for sure...

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I hate to say this, but man I almost in a way wished the STL tornado would have wiped everything clean... there are a lot of areas that have STILL basically not been touched since Good Friday's tornado in Bridgeton. While it will still take a long time for you to get everything back to normal, (if joplin ever does get back to the way it was) things are going faster out there than they are in the St Louis area that's for sure...

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.

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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.

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WOW WOW WOW can yo post the other school footage you talk about?

This was just uploaded from an account called "joplinschools" on Youtube about an hour ago. It looks legit. It's security cam footage from the schools. I know the East Middle School footage is in there and pretty sure I recall the high school canopy in there as well. The ending is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ3FvzPM9RU

Also the new high school (11th and 12th) is almost complete.

http://www.koamtv.co...-being-complete

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