Period 1
2nd Quarter Research Report
January 3, 2017
The Joplin, Missouri Tornado The Joplin tornado included many details common to tornadoes and caused damage and destruction to property and lives that affected the region, but the area has recovered in its aftermath. The Joplin, Missouri tornado was only one of the first of many destructive and devastating natural disasters to come in 2011. A tornado starts as a spinning tunnel of wind in the sky, but the second it touches the ground it becomes a tornado. The Joplin tornado has some common factors like other tornadoes. Tornadoes strike in the Midwest of the United States, where hot, wet air from the Gulf of Mexico and cold, dry air from Canada mix most frequently. Joplin hit on May 22, which is in the spring. Most tornadoes in the United States strike in spring and summer where the weather is warmer. The Joplin tornado’s wind speed was at its highest at an estimated 200 miles per hour, most tornado wind speeds only climb to about 150. Southwest Missouri was hit with a “multi-vortex” tornado, which is a tornado where two or more cyclones hide inside a wider wind tunnel. That kind of tornado is not very common, and that’s one of the factors that makes Joplin so well-known. The Joplin …show more content…
St. John’s Regional Medical Center was so damaged to the point that it became so structurally unsafe, that it couldn’t be rebuilt and had to be demolished the following January. A high school was damaged severely just a few minutes after graduation ceremonies, but Seilbert credited the 222 million dollar push to reconstruct the schools. In August when school started up again, the town made makeshift classrooms in abandoned stores. Five years later, houses and neighborhoods had been built in the previously tornado scarred areas. However, some lots remained vacant due to destruction. Many trees also cover areas that were once ridden with debris and the tornado’s