We were able to stage operations out of other city facilities. While a third of Joplin was basically wiped out, “ two-thirds of our city was unaffected, so that was beneficial for us. However, as Sam Anselm says, they still feel lucky there wasn’t more widespread destruction.

The city itself sustained damage to two fire stations, No.2 and No.4, both of which were completely destroyed, as well as damage to half a dozen city parks-not to mention damage to transportation infrastructure including curbs, streets, sidewalks, lights, signs and signals.

Mercy Hospital Joplin was demolished, as were Joplin High School and several elementary schools. According to the City of Joplin Public Information Office, there were 7,500 residential dwellings damaged by the storm of those, well over half, 4,000, were completely destroyed, causing some 9,200 people to be displaced. Joplin City Manager Sam Anselm estimates the tornado affected probably a third of the city, “in terms of square footage and area.” And the one-third of the city that was affected came at a terrible price. But we’re right in the middle of the recovery still, especially with our infrastructure projects and some of our housing projects as well.” We’re hoping to have the majority of our projects completed by 2019. This is a marathon-redevelopment and recovery does not occur overnight. But he warns, “There’s actually a lot to do. The city has definitely made progress, according to Joplin’s City Planning and Development Director Troy Bolander. It would be very easy for anyone who doesn’t live in Joplin to assume that the city’s recovery is already complete, or must be nearing completion.

Now, it’s been five years since the Joplin tornado. 161 people lost their lives that afternoon. The ¾-mile-wide twister touched down at the western city limits of Joplin, stayed on the ground clear across the city for six miles, and continued another seven miles into the town of Duquesne and into rural Jasper and Newton counties. On Sunday May 22 nd, 2011, the most devastating level of tornado, an EF-5 packing winds of over 200 miles per hour, tore through Joplin, Missouri. The facts of the story are all too familiar by now-especially to those who lived through it.

Death toll joplin tornado 2011