Joplin Marks 15th Anniversary Of EF-5 Tornado That Killed 161 On May 22, 2011

Fifteen years after an EF-5 tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011, the storm is still remembered as the deadliest tornado in modern U.S. history, killing 161 people and injuring over 1,000 more.

“The 15-year anniversary of the deadly Joplin tornado On May 22, 2011, an EF5 tornado with winds of more than 200 miles (322 km) per hour devastated Joplin, Missouri”

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FOX Weather said the tornado registered winds over 200 mph and reached a maximum width over a mile wide, and it struck across a 22-mile path that damaged around 7,500 homes.

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The same FOX Weather account said roughly 75% of Joplin sustained damage and nearly a quarter of the city was destroyed, while the storm caused an estimated $2.8 billion in damage.

NPR described the tornado as a massive, multi-vortex storm that took nearly 160 lives and said Nanda Nunnelly survived after the tornado sirens went off and she jumped in a closet with her husband and dog.

NPR also said the tornado was recorded at three-quarters of a mile wide, and it described how Joplin became known for kindness and cooperation in the months after the disaster.

Dr. Kenneth Stewart, an associate professor at KCU in 2026, recalled that on May 22, 2011 he was medical director of the St. Johns Emergency Department but ended up treating patients on 20th Street after heading into Joplin to help.

In the account from KCTV, Stewart said, “We could see just this huge tower of black clouds,” and he described how he asked the pastor of Wildwood Baptist Church if they could use the church as a triage facility.

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KCTV said Stewart had no equipment, not even a stethoscope, when the first patient arrived with a 2-by-4 lodged in her pelvis, and it reported that two paramedics helped him stabilize her with intubation and intravenous needles.

KOAM News Now marked the anniversary at Cunningham Park for Operation Bar BEQ relief proclamation and food distribution, where business owner John Abernathy described finding a house at a crawl space and hearing people screaming for help.

KOAM News Now also quoted Mayor Rob O'Brian saying, “15, 15 years later and and certainly there's a remembrance to this,” while describing mourning for those lost and hope for those injured physically and emotionally.

NPR said that in the weeks after the tornado, almost 100,000 volunteers from nearly every state helped clean up debris and rebuild, and it described how schools reopened on time the following fall.

“JOPLIN, Missouri – It's been 15 years since the deadliest tornado in modern history ripped through Joplin, devastating the city of 50,000 in southwest Missouri”

FOX Weather

NPR quoted Darren Fullerton, who ran a Red Cross emergency shelter at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin after the tornado hit, and it described acts of kindness ranging from ranchers cooking steaks for volunteers to someone making balloon animals for kids at the shelter.

NPR also quoted Joplin vice-mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean saying the recovery took people out of their silos and helped them “remember that they're human,” and it added that she said it “didn't matter what color you were.”

In a separate anniversary gathering, KOAM News Now reported that Tracy Dufault, a representative from Walmart, said the tornado changed the company’s community assistance philosophy to “helping neighbor and neighbor.”

FOX Weather said President Barack Obama spoke to the people of Joplin during a memorial service a week after the tornado, and it quoted him saying, “How we respond when the storm strikes is up to us.”