Joplin Tornado May 22

On May 22, 2011, at 5:41pm, an EF-5 tornado ripped through the middle of Joplin, levelling many homes, killing 161 people (at last count) and injuring many more. We were very fortunate that everyone in our family was safe, no property was lost or damaged, including our construction site. It certainly changed many aspects of life as we knew it. There are many photos and videos you can find on the web, but I have a few I want to post here that we found interesting or unusual.

My elementary school, Irving, was hit hard, and is considered to be a total loss. It is unlikely that they will rebuild on the same property due to the lack of parking and busy streets. Most of the homes and businesses in this area have been completely cleared away.

Irving School (where I went grades 1-6)

This is all that remained of the Greenbriar, which was a nursing home. Wheelchairs are parked in the area that used to be the parking lot for cars. A number of residents died there, but it was amazing how many survived. Thankfully, my mother did not live there.

Greenbriar Nursing Home

Sam saw the UPS man attempting to deliver a box on May 24, 2 days after the storm. We wondered what he did with the box. 

UPS driver--What did he do with the box?

This is a house as seen on Google Street View before the storm.

House at 24th & Moffet before the storm

This is the same house after the tornado. Check out the position of the front door relative to the steps leading up to it.

House at 24th and Moffet after the storm

There are also many other locations with major damage, including Mercy St. John's Hospital and the Joplin High School.

Deer sighting

Just 2 days after the tornado, in the early morning, I saw two deer exploring near our porta-potty! I figured they were wondering just what that purple building was for.

Basement Footings!

The forms for the basement footings went in after the swimming pool had dried up sufficiently. Vince and his crew are pouring the footings for our basement. May 10, 2011.

The square pads are support for the columns that will hold up 2 steel beams. Those are needed because we'll have light-weight concrete in the floors, and brick pavers on a good part of the main floor. We enjoyed watching the pumper-truck driver standing on the edge, controlling the crane and the flow of concrete! The crew really worked well together to get the job done in very short order.

Basement Swimming Pool

After recent rains, the basement has collected almost enough water to go swimming! Well, it's not too deep, but the bottom is totally covered. Sam's drain is working so that will help clear the water out. This was shot on April 26, 2011. It didn't take too long to drain out, but the bottom was muddy for a while. We have to wait for it to dry out some before the dozer can clean up the cave-ins. Then the concrete folks can begin to work on the footings. It's kind of nice to have a little break in the action.

Lakefront Property!

Jim and Dianne had some visitors swimming in the pasture just north of their house! This was on April 26, 2011.