Joplin Tornado one of the worst tornados ever! part 1 of 3

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Tonight, it's going to be a
little bit different. I will not be

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sharing a story about demons or goblins
or ghost or deer, which seemed to

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be a reoccurring thing on this show
for some reason. Deer, I I

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don't know animals. But this is
actually a little bit different because and I'm

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curious to see what you all think
of this. So yeah, make sure

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you let me know. I'm going
to share a story. And this was

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actually suggested by a listener. I'll
give it to shout out to Steve Carroll

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for the suggestion on this. It
is about a tornado that hit Choppelin,

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Missouri. It's a very bad tornadic
event to happen in Joplin, Missouri.

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And that's what I'm going to share
today. So what I'll do is I'll

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go through the first part of this
and we'll go from there. But yeah,

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Jopolin is a city in Jasper and
Newton Counties in southwestern corner of the

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US state of Missouri. Lead was
discovered in Joplin Creek Valley before the Civil

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War, but only after the war
did significant development take place. So therefore

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that's how this city becomes a development. By eighteen seventy one, numerous mining

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camps spring up in the valley,
and resident John Seacawks filed a plane for

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the city in the East Valley.
Cox wanted to name this place Joplin City,

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after the Spring and Creek that's nearby. The bulk of this city is

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in Jasper County, while southern portion
is in Newton County. Joplin is the

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largest city located within both of those
counties, with a population of fifty two

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thousand people as of the year twenty
twenty. It's the thirteenth most populated city

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in Missouri. City covers an area
of thirty six square miles, so it's

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no by no means a small city
where this event happens. The twenty eleven

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Joplin Tornado was a large, devastating, multi vortex tornado that struck Joplin,

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Missouri, United States, on the
evening of Sunday, May two, two

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thousand and eleven. It was the
first F five tornado to occur in Missouri

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since May twentieth night, eighteen fifty
seven, when an F five destroyed several

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suburbs of Kansas City. It was
the third tornado actually strike Joplin since nineteen

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seventy one. On the evening of
May twenty first, twenty eleven, at

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excuse me, eight pm Central Time, the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center

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issued a slight risk of severe weather
for the following day for much of the

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upper Plains in the Midwest. By
eight am the following day, on the

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twenty second, forecasters at the Storm
Prediction Center realized that a more intense weather

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outbreak was likely to occur and upgraded
the large area that had previously been to

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a moderate risk. Now fast forward
three and a half hours to eleven thirty

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am Central Time. A public severe
weather outlook was issued at this time,

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and the outlook stated that severe weather
was expected that afternoon, with tornadoes,

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large hail, strong wind all named
as threats. At one thirty PM,

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four hours prior to the tornado,
the Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch

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for southwestern Missouri to remain in effect
until nine PM that evening. The watch

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predicted the following explosive thunderstorm development with
a strong tornado or two highly possible thunderstorms

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began developing between two and three PM
over southeast Kansas. They quickly became severe,

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and as the thunderstorm development continued moving
east, forecasters became more concerned about

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tornadic development. Thunderstorm west of Joplin
that eventually produced the IFI tornado was first

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issued at five seventeen PM Central Time, seventeen minutes before it touched down and

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nineteen minutes before it entered the city
of Joplin. The tornado first touched down

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in Newton County, Missouri, just
east of the Missouri Kansas state line,

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approximately one half mile southwest of the
intersection of South Central City Road thirty second

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Street. At five thirty four.
Eyewitnesses and storm chasers reported multi vortex rotating

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around the parent circulation. Here's the
tornado down several large trees at an EF

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zero intensity. Civil defense sirens sounded
in Joplin twenty minutes before the tornado struck

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in response to the tornado warning at
five point seventeen. The following counties were

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issued for that tornado warning. It
was Newton and Jasper Counties, which we

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talked about earlier, is where Joplin
is and southwest portions of the counties that

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surrounded. But many Joplin residents did
not fill the need to react even though

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there were sirens. The tornado and
it will also cut myself off there there

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is a lot of tornado activity in
southwest Missouri. It's Tornado Alley area,

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so I think they probably do become
a little bit numb to this. Okay.

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The tornado had just developed and moved
east northeast and strengthened to an e

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F one intensity as it continued through
rural areas towards Joplin, snapping trees and

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power bowls and damaging outbuildings widening.
The tornado then tracked into a more densely

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populated southwest corner of the city,
near twent Hills Country Club. It heavily

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damaged several homes at a subdivision in
this area up at this point up to

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an EF three strength. The tornado
continued to cause EF three damage as it

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moved through another subdivision just east of
Iron Gates Road. Numerous homes were destroyed

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and multiple vehicles tossed around, some
of which were thrown onto or rolled into

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homes. The tornado reached E four
intensity just before crossing south Scheffendecker Avenue at

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five thirty six pm. The tornado
produced its first area of EF four damage

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only four minutes after touching down,
as several small but well built commercial buildings

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were flattened. Consistent EF four to
e F five damage was noted as it

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continued through southern Joplin. Numerous home
businesses and medical buildings were flattened in this

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area, with concrete walls collapsed and
crushed into the foundations. A large steal

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reinforced step and floor structure leading into
a completely destroyed metal building was deflected upwards

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several inches and cracked steel trustles from
some of the buildings were rolled up like

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paper. Multiple vehicles were thrown and
mangled or wrapped around trees nearby. Several

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three hundred pound concrete parking stops anchored
with reebar were torn from the parking lot

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in this area and thrown up to
one hundred yards away, and Iowa State

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University wind engineer calculated the force needed
to remove those parking stops from the lot.

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The wind requirements to do that would
be exceeding two hundred and twenty miles

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an hour. Damage became remarkably widespread
and catastrophic at and around the nearby Saint

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John's Region Medical Center, which lost
nearly every window on three sides, interior

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walls, ceilings, and part of
its roof. Its flight rescue helicopter was

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also blown away and destroyed. This
caused five casualties and nine story buildings were

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damaged so bad and later on it
would be these buildings were deemed structurally compromised

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and then had to be torn down. According to the National Weather Service,

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such extreme structural damage such as large
and well built structures, likely indicated winds

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that exceeded two hundred and thirty miles
an hour. Vehicles in the hospital parking

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lot were thrown into the air and
mangled beyond recognition, including a semi truck

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that was tossed one hundred and twenty
five yards and wrapped completely around a debark

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tree. Small debris from hospital,
including X rays, medical reports, and

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dental records, were found and the
surrounding counties around that area many whiles to

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the east. Wind rowing of debris
was noted in this area, and more

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concrete parking stops were removed from the
parking lot by the tornado. Virtually every

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house near mcleland Boulevard and twenty sixth
Street was flattened, some were completely swept

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away, and trees sustained severe Debarking
this point in time, I'm going to

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share the first video that kind of
goes along with the timelines of this.

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Let me see you coming across the
Kansas border and just about to make it

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to the Joplan area. We also
have some showers and storms across northern Arkansas.

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Please do take heap, get in
your tornado shelters right now. We

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can't stress this enough. Okay,
where you hear that? Wait for get

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friends going to It's gonna do it
yet further not here. I'm thick.

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But stop stop stop, it's coming
towards us. Oh wait, okay on,

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Oh, I say, I say, I see, I say.

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We're getting closer. We're gonna get
closer. We're gonna get closer. Stop

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stop, stop, it's right field, get closer. You're going to get

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closer. I think it's right there. I know, I know it's right

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there. I know. But we
can get closer. Oh my gosh,

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we'll do on your window, We'll
down your window. Oh what is it?

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Do it? Okay? Hold on, I got Oh it's getting big,

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big, big big. That is
huge, dude, that's going because

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I'm walking a strong, large tornado
the south side of wine and A.

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Chief Randalls has advised that we would
be waiting before we send anyone out for

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any of their vehicles out for search
and rescue, drinking one queen dream.

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I'm honoring fine, now you can
hand that line. Yeah, just kind

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of goes slow and don't keep high
out because we're not sure where don't or

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where that is over Marning Gary worn
over barn dr servos, Okay, you

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gotta way out. I don't know
where. I don't know where we are

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across the road he said, Oh
gosh, okay, got it there.

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Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh. There it is there, it is.

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This is doing mine in the heart
oft job where we're going Choppol in

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twenty six fifteen, we have a
house that has been struck at top of

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the house has come down on the
people. Oh god, you're house.

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None none, dolphin's gone gone right, it's gone all right, I guess

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damn. Now, so the storm
has just moved into the city at this

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point in the story. Your thoughts
so far as crazy. This footage courtesy

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the Weather Channel and National Weather Service. Actually you got to see in real

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time how fast this thing went from
basically like a rope string tornado to a

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massive tornado that later we'll get into
the size somewhere. But did you see

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how fast that happened. Yeah,
that was nuts. I knew where it

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was going because I remember when this
happened and everything. That was a crazy

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time. But yeah, when I
saw that just now, I was like,

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Man, you can't really trust things
not to get worse. If there's

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a bad you know, anything like
that, you need to get away as

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fast as possible. It was talking
about the police were not planning on sending

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any rescue forces out till this is
over, right, which is very smart,

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but they already had as you saw
one of the officers dash cam,

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people that were stuck out in the
storm. That was crazy. This is

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another thing we always talk about these
like talk about like ghost stories or or

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rather strange things. This is truly
something that's very terrifying. We talk about

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EF four EF five storms. They
produced the equivalent damage of an atomic bomb.

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Right, So what has just started
and what we've just got into here

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is the making of something. There's
not many more dangerous things that can happen

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in the world than what's happening.
It's like in times level of damage just

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crazy. Yes, literally, we're
seeing just right now, as it starts

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and builds strength, we're seeing things
already getting flattened and it's just now starting

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to enter the city of Joplin,
Missouri. This was a time period where

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there was a lot of storms,
outbreaks, and tornadoes. This year twenty

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eleven, I'm trying to remember,
and it may been the following year,

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but nevertheless, here in Indiana where
I live, there was a one in

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Henryville, a town in southern Indiana, and that's actually when I was living

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in southern Indiana. There was pretty
similar damage. Kind of takes me back

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in the city I was actually in
that tornado wasn't there, but there was

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a tornado that day. Yeah,
Like it kind of takes me back to

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where a tornado was just a few
miles from me, right, I mean,

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yeah, I remember that. It
was like a couple of stretch of

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a few years there, whether it
just seemed like there were way too many

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tornadoes going and I remember, like, you know, thinking, man,

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what the heck is going on here? Absolutely terrifying. You have no control

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over this. There's nothing you could
do besides try to get somewhere safe.

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I will say, though, I
will say just talking about I don't know

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at the top of my head what
the average lead time is for getting a

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warning and the sirens and all that. But it seems like they had a

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pretty decent lead time here. They
at least knew that, Yeah, there

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was a chance of it early on, but typically I don't think storms even

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get fifteen minutes. People get fifteen
minute notice for a tornado. I mean

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that, I think that's pretty good. But still, though, you just

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start thinking about something so bad it's
gonna happen. How much is fifteen minutes

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really? I mean you can't even
get your car packed up in fifteen minutes.

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Yeah, not with everything that you
want to take with you. Yeah,

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especially a family, you know whatever, You definitely can't. Yeah,

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like I said, slightly different story
from what you actually do, but terrifying.

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Man, that to me, this
is this is this is scary.

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I don't know anything much more scary
than this. I think I'll take your

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haunted deer that you talked about last
couple of weeks. I got some some

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more similar stuff to that tonight.
Well, yeah, we'll jump back into

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that of course here again in a
minute. But yeah, I think we

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did a pretty good job set in
the stage for the beginning of that very

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much. So, yeah, that
was crazy. Jeff Townsend Media sees you

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good night, And the question is
do I stay here? Will you be

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back? Are you gonna come back? Will you be back? Are you

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coming back?