The Joplin Tornado: A Super Storm's Story

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, a super-strong tornado named EF5 visited Joplin, Missouri. It was like a giant, angry vacuum cleaner! This tornado was so wide, it was almost as wide as a mile, which is like a super long race track. It spun around for almost 40 minutes, traveling a distance longer than 20 football fields put together. It was a very, very powerful storm!

This giant tornado touched down just outside Joplin and zoomed right into the city. It was so strong that it damaged about 8,000 buildings. That's like if every single house and school in a big neighborhood got hit! Over 4,000 houses were completely destroyed, which is a lot of homes for families. It even damaged important places like a hospital, making it hard for people to get help.

Sadly, this tornado was the deadliest of the year. It hurt about 1,150 people and took the lives of 158 people. That's more people than are in your whole school! It was the worst tornado in Missouri for a very long time. It's important to remember this day so we can learn how to stay safe when storms like this happen.

After the tornado, people in Joplin were very brave. They helped each other rebuild their homes and businesses. Even the President came to visit and help. It took a long time, but Joplin got stronger. They even came up with a special way to help prepare for storms, called the Waffle House Index, because some restaurants stayed open!