Joplin, MO hit by giant tornado

[Zuul]

Huge twister kills 89 in Missouri

Knowing the area and seeing what the damage looks like, I think the fire chief is making some incredibly conservative estimates so far.

Here's a panoramic view from down by the hospital. That was all city before and, chillingly, I know that the majority of houses in that neighborhood were all on slabs without basements. Since the houses themselves are scrubbed down to the ground, a door to door search for survivors isn't going to yield much.

This map gives a rough idea of the path of destruction.

I just don't even know what to think. I was there literally days ago with my mother, helping her look for houses. We had just gotten back to Wisconsin. She put in bids on one in Webb City and one in Duquesne. Knowing where her realtor lives, I'm not even sure if he made it, or the majority of people we just spoke to. The prayers of an agnostic don't do any good, but I do fervently hope as many people got through without injury as possible.

[CatInASuit]

That is quite a devestating panoramic view showing just how bad it is.

How common or not are twisters like that in the area, and how far away are Webb City and Duquesne?

[Zuul]

It looks like Webb City and Duquesne got hit as well. They're about six miles apart, I think.

Southern Missouri is most definitely in tornado alley, so it gets hit fairly regularly. This sort of storm is pretty rare, though. If it was an EF4 like they're thinking it was, then 0.7% of tornadoes are this strong. Most reports are saying the tornado started half a mile wide and then expanded to 3/4 miles and it was powerful enough to level entire well-built houses.

[What Exit?]

Has this big a twister ever hit an actual city before?

[Hatshepsut]

Tornados are terrifying. There is so little you can do to protect yourself. But I'm a little surprised that so many of the homes didn't have basements or some kind of home shelter. On the other hand, when I was a kid we lived in an area prone to tornadoes (a serious one did a lot of damage not too far from our house when I was around 8) and we didn't have a real basement to hide in, just the lowest part of the split-level house. Why DON'T homes in tornado-prone areas have shelters? I know there is no guarantee you'd be safe inside, but surely it could help.

[What Exit?]

I think Joplin never expected to get hit. I mean this tornado destroyed apartment complexes. From my little knowledge, Tornadoes usually don't hit cities for some reason.

[Sarahfeena]

The are terrifying and devastating. I have a feeling the death toll will go way way up.

[Zuul]

Looking at a check-in list on Facebook, there are around 400 confirmed dead and missing. Some of those missing might still be found, but in a lot of cases people literally disappeared before the eyes of the people around them. An eighteen-month old baby is gone and as little as they are at that age, I don't know if a body will ever even be found.

The houses down there are nice, sturdy buildings. A typical tornado would have damaged them, but almost every single one I went into had an internal room that would have made for a good shelter in a storm. It's just not normal for a tornado to rip through a city and level houses down to the foundation.

[What Exit?]

This is already a really bad year for tornadoes with twice the deaths of an average year already.