Tornado Central

Joplin, Missouri, Five Years After the May 22, 2011 EF5 Tornado: Before and After Imagery

Before, after, one year after, and most current (Mar. 2016) view of the swath of damage from the May 22, 2011 EF5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri. (Google Earth)

An EF5 tornado up to a mile-wide left a six-mile long gash in the city of Joplin, Missouri, on May 22, 2011. While the city has rebuilt, there are still signs of the scar left behind five years later.

Packing estimated winds over 200 mph, the Joplin tornado was the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. since 1947, with 158 deaths directly attributed to the storm.

(MORE: The 10 Deadliest U.S. Tornadoes)

Base reflectivity (left) and storm-relative velocity (right) images of the Joplin, Missouri, tornadic supercell at 5:43 p.m. CDT on May 22, 2011.
(NWS-Springfield, Missouri)

Even when correcting past U.S. tornadoes for inflation, the Joplin tornado was also the costliest single tornado in U.S. history, with damage estimated at $2.8 billion.

The sheer scope of the damage was beyond belief.

St. John's Regional Medical Center was ground zero. The hospital was damaged to the point that it became structurally unsafe to rebuild and had to be demolished the following January.

Before, after and March 2016 view of the property of the former St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri. The hospital was torn down, as damage to the foundation left the building structurally compromised from the May 22, 2011 EF5 tornado.
(Google Earth)

The new Mercy Hospital Joplin, built to withstand an EF3 tornado opened on March 22, 2015.

Over 15,000 vehicles including buses, vans, and semis were tossed up to several blocks away, either crushed, rolled into balls, or wrapped around trees beyond recognition. Some owners never found their vehicles.

(MORE: The 10 Worst U.S. Tornadoes)

Also heavily damaged was Joplin High School, though, miraculously, nobody was at the school at the time, as graduation ceremonies had just ended about three miles north of JHS.

A new Joplin High School campus opened on September 2, 2014.

Before, after, January 2014, and March 2016 images of Joplin High School in Joplin, Missouri.
(Google Earth)

More than 500 businesses were affected by the tornado, impacting between 4,500 and 5,000 employees.

Among those were a destroyed Walmart Supercenter, an Academy Sports and Outdoors store and a Pizza Hut along Range Line Road.

In this area, pavement was found to be scoured out in spots, and manhole covers were even removed, indicative of at least 200 mph winds.

Before, after and March 2016 view of businesses damaged by the May 22, 2011 EF5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri. The Walmart Supercenter (blue), Academy Sports and Outdoors store (yellow) and Pizza Hut (red) are highlighted.
(Google Earth)

Some neighborhoods were left unrecognizable.

About 7,500 residential dwellings were left damaged or destroyed, affecting more than 17,000 residents, according to "32 Minutes in May," a book published by The Joplin Globe.

A June 2013 study from the American Society of Civil Engineers concluded more than 83 percent of structural damage was caused by winds only up to EF2 intensity, though, as mentioned above, National Weather Service storm surveys finding removal of concrete parking stops, manhole covers, and scoured-out pavement was used to justify an EF5 rating.

(MORE: 7 Things You Should Never Forget When Tornadoes Strike)

The Joplin Globe estimated this tornado generated about 4.1 million cubic yards of residential and commercial debris.

Five years later, new homes have been built in these tornado-scarred neighborhoods. However, some commercial and residential lots remain vacant.

The loss of tree cover remains one of the starkest legacies of one of the nation's worst tornadoes.