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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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MORE ON WEATHER.COM: First Response Team of America - Joplin Tornado (PHOTOS)