As you may have heard a massive tornado hit Joplin Mo. yesterday evening. We live in a small town 15 miles west and saw the tornado forming. Those were some wicked looking clouds! We got a call from my daughter that her and my son-in-law were trapped in their house. We rushed over and thankfully they were OK. They have only been married 6 months and lost their house and both cars.
  You just can't believe the devastation. The tornado cut a path that was a half mile to mile wide all of the way across joplin. We helped pull people from a nursing home that was a couple of blocks from my daughters house. We just had to lay them in the street, there was no way for the ambulance to get through.
  Here are a few pics. The house with the trees on it was my daughters. They were right on the edge. The rest of the pics are a block or two away.



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Glad your family made it out ok. This is turning out to be a really shitty year for disasters. We're still cleaning up here from the tornados a few weeks ago. If there's anything we can do to help, let us know.

Holy shit! I saw this on the local and national news. Just awful. Last count was 89 dead. By looks of your pics and the videos I saw on the news I'm not surprised it's 589 dead. It kicked the hell out of a big hospital. Bet that was a living hell to go through. Sick in bed at the hospital and then have that come knocking on the door! My thoughts and prayers to the families of the dead, to those that were injured and to those that lost everything they owned. Just be thankful you and your loved ones are alive. Everything else can be replaced someday.

I was just southeast of there in Harrison, AR two weeks ago on a motorcycle ride. Thankfully the weather was great at the time. But that part of OK, AR, MO, etc can have some terrible weather this time of year.

Sad news.

My jaw just drops.  I am glad they made it out OK.  I have trouble wrapping my mind around this kind of devastation.  I have never lived through something like this and hope to never have to.  How do people just keep rebuilding?

Glad your daughter and son in law are OK.  Shame about the house and cars though.

Good on ya for helping others

Wow....staggering even from afar.

Godspeed to you and to everyone dealing with this.

Glad your family is safe.  The photos are unbelievable.

Guessing certain sized tornados don't car how good the house is made.   Glad they survived it.

Quote from: Heath on May 23, 2011, 09:08:49 AM
My jaw just drops.  I am glad they made it out OK.  I have trouble wrapping my mind around this kind of devastation.  I have never lived through something like this and hope to never have to.  How do people just keep rebuilding?

The last large tornado that went thru Joplin was back in 1972 (or 1973) - people rebuilt back then and I'm sure that people will be rebuilding this time around. 

I'm about 12 miles North of the damage, so our house and neighborhood was spared, but from what I've heard on FB and twitter - it isn't looking good.  Over 100 confirmed deaths as of earlier this afternoon.

Reports (from a policeman friend) of vermin/scum looting the Academy Sports and overturned trucks...people can be so ugly at times.

M.

A few more pics to put the devastation into perspective:













Happiness in the midst of tragedy - they just found their dog alive in the rubble of their home:

  The hospital in the pictures is St. Johns, where my wife works. They are going to place a tent in the parking lot and keep going while they rebuild.

I have no idea how they can keep going and working under those conditions. Look up "total devastation" in the dictionary and there will be a pic of Joplin, MO. Since Katrina hit NOLA I have never seen such destruction. I have no idea how I would deal with something like that if it happened here in the DFW,TX area. I swear part of me wants to get in my truck, load a couple of duffles full of clothes and water bottles and head up there to help. My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones and those who have lost their homes. We will add you all to our pray list.

Joplin:


A Home Depot:


A Neighborhood:




Where many people still get their strength:

National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for this afternoon here in upstate NY.

Not exactly tornado alley up here...


Thank goodness we have a nice basement  



  *EDIT*   Just a watch, not a warning.  Either way it looks like some hail is coming my way soon.

Unbelievable.  I have some experience with a f3 tornado in my neighborhood in 2003, but this is just different.  If we needed something, we walked 4 doors away in any direction and there was a "normal" house.  You would have to walk for miles from the epicenter in Joplin - just hopeless - it will be hard to handle physically and emotionally.

Our insurance carriers had a hard time dealing with 2 dozen houses, I can't imagine the mess with several hundred (thousand) houses.

mitt