Joplin, MO Tornando May 22, 2011

 Here are pictures of the devastation left behind in last nights tornado in Joplin. Joplin is about an hour away from me in Springfield. My cousin just moved in yesterday to a new house there and was unpacking and all that stuff when the tornado hit. My dad, brother, aunt and I, all went down today to help him patch up his roof with tarps and plastic the best we could.

 Until you have either been through a tornado or gone thru it in the aftermath pictures don't even begin to give you the magnitude of how much damage is really there. My cousin was extremely fortunate in that his house just lost shingles, broke windows and lost a couple trees. One street further south of him its completely a different story. Houses totally destroyed, trees laying through homes, cars and trucks flipped over and piled on top of one another. Its a very hard thing to look at, much less live thru.

As of this post there are 116 confirmed deaths. And so much destruction you can't believe it. My brother and I drove by what used to be Home Depot and theres nothing but rubble and twisted metal and over turned cars. You can see in the photo above what looks like a Ford Explorer is totally smashed.



Here is a picture of the same Ford Explorer and another Truck just like they were in a demolition derby.

 The Walgreens here has been completely gutted. As we drove by it you could see that there was nothing but collapsed trusses and bent metal inside.

This is a local lumber yard sign folded in half. The picture isn't real clear but the side you are seeing actually belonged on the other side. It just whipped around and bent. Unbelievable how strong this kind of thing is.

This car is down a street where every home was leveled. Imagine being in this kind of storm and how horrifying it would be to go thru it. Winds are said to have been 198 MPH and this picture proves that. A mid sized car tossed around and destroyed. I looked in the inside and the floor board was ripped up and setting half way on the seat.

This is the hospital where a ton of damage happened. If you look at the cars they are piled on top of each other. Just Unbelievable stuff.

As I was leaving this area I happened to look over and see this house. At least these people are ok. Man it's a hard thing to think about so many didn't get out.