Joplin tornado, May 22nd: 10 year anniversary

10 years.

10 years since we lost 1/3 of our town and 161 lives to one of the largest tornadoes in modern American history. 10 years since we gained the label ‘the tornado town’, a moniker we’ve worked hard to overcome- after all, who wants to be known only for their disasters? Yet we also remember with both pride and grief, as we reflect on our resilience and willingness to help one another, and also the people and places we lost.

Now that a decade has gone past, you can’t even visibly tell what we lost anymore, driving through the center of town. Only one indicator remains: the lack of trees, even as many young ones race to take the place of the old oaks and elms and walnuts we lost. “Naked Trees” was the name of a song by local band Me Like Bees, and still captures well the feeling of hope even as we marveled at the destruction of the time.

To you native Joplinites- you need no more in the way of stats on the day. And truth be told, many other local publications and media outlets have done an excellent job remembering. We’re here to leave you two things:

1: a quick directory of other resources. We didn’t feel the need to double down when so many other local resources were covering this anniversary so well. Here’s a handful of them listed out below.

2: a re-publishing of some photography from our editor, Mark N, who lost his own home in the tornado and captured a set of images from 1 to 6 months later as the town grappled with loss and showed the world how to be neighborly and how to rebuild from disaster. This is a brief excerpt from his series.

REMEMBERENCE DIRECTORY

1: 4 states homepage survivor account

2: Joplin Globe feature on the ‘Dear World, From Joplin’ photo exhibit- now on display once more at Spiva Center for the arts.

3: Joplin globe feature on families remembering lost love ones

4: a feature from the weather channel: What our meteorologists haven’t forgotten 10 years later

5: St Louis dispatch: a video commemorating the events and facts on the anniversary

6: Original NY Times article from 2011

7: PRINTED: check out—

J-Mag
Joplin Globe
the Chart
Show Me mag
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From Toad editor and photographer Mark N- a set of images taken after the Joplin Tornado.

[words and photos originally published in 2016].

5 years. That's how long it's been...

It seems like it was 20 years ago. And like it was yesterday. It's a strange feeling, to be sure. And I still have such a mix of emotions about it- pride in our exceptionally resilient community, sadness over those we lost (we should've lost thousands, but the 161 were painful enough), thankfulness that my wife, kids and I weren't in our home when a semi trailer ripped through our living room.

Here’s a set of images, cateogorized by the 5 different ways I was able to observe the aftermath and response: