All language subtitles for D D S01E04 Tornadoes 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD2 0 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Tornadoes are one
of Mother Nature’s

most extraordinary phenomena.

With a diameter
of over 3,000 meters,

they can leave
a trail of destruction,

covering areas
greater than 300 kilometers,

or nearly the distance
of a plane journey

from New York
to Washington D.C.

With eyewitness accounts and
fascinating expert insights,

we investigate an area
in the United States

known as Tornado Alley,

and take a look at
a terrifying day in May, 2011,

when the small town of
Joplin, Missouri

was ravaged by one
of the deadliest tornadoes

to ever strike America.

By the nature of
its extraordinary structure,

a tornado can
rip through a district,

completely destroying
one house

while leaving its neighbor
virtually unscathed,

making it
one of Mother Nature’s

most mercurial killers.

Tornadoes are
nature’s most violent storms.

Spawned from
powerful thunderstorms,

they can cause fatalities

and devastate neighborhoods
within minutes.

They are vertical funnels
of violently spinning air,

extending from a thunderstorm
right down to the ground.

Their winds can reach
over 400 kilometers per hour

and can clear
a highly destructive pathway.

Some tornadoes
are clearly visible,

while rain or
low-lying clouds hide others.

They can develop so quickly

that there is little,
if any, advanced warning.

Before a tornado hits,

the wind may die down
and the air become still.

Sometimes,
all you are able to see

to determine its location

is a cloud of debris
whirling above the ground.

Tornadoes usually form near
the far side of a thunderstorm

and are often accompanied by
falling rain and hail.

But as violent as these
driving forces may be,

they can sometimes
bring with them

clear skies and sunshine.

The most destructive tornadoes
spawn from giant,

persistent thunderstorms
called supercells.

So a supercell is
a rotating thunderstorm,

so it’s a special kind
of storm.

We don’t often get them
here in the UK.

But in parts of the world
like the United States,

this is where you hear about
the most-- big landmasses--

you get
the conditions necessary

to produce these massive
rotating storms

that produce really big
hailstones, really heavy rain,

strong winds,
and then tornadoes.

The magnitude
of these twisters can be seen

in the infamous
Tri-State Tornado,

considered the deadliest
tornado in U.S. history.

On the 18th of March, 1925,

this tornado struck Illinois,
Indiana, and Missouri.

During a terrifying
three and a half hours,

it punched a path
over 468 kilometers long,

leaving 695 dead
and over 2,000 injured.

It struck thirteen counties,
and resulted in a total

of 16.5 million dollars
worth of damage,

roughly the equivalent
of 230 million dollars today.

Tornadoes frequently affect
various regions of America,

making it appear
as if this natural phenomenon

is unique
to that part of the world.

But the number of countries

where these deadly forces have
been reported is immense,

ranging across the globe
from India to Argentina,

South Africa to Australia.

Even England is not immune

to this freak
weather phenomenon.

It’s just absolutely amazing.

I can’t believe it.
I’ve heard since

that there’s a lot of other
households being affected.

Traditionally,

this country is thought of

as a land of
gently rolling countryside,

where a few inches of rain
can be a major talking point.

But a surprising study
in 2015

showed that England has more
tornadoes per square kilometer

than anywhere else
in the world,

and that includes America’s
notorious Tornado Alley.

One of the interesting aspects
of tornadoes

in the United Kingdom

is that they occur year-round.

So in the United States, we have
a very distinct seasonality,

so it’s really
during the spring

and again a little bit
in the autumn.

But in the United Kingdom,

it’s really unique that
we get tornadoes year-round

and there really isn’t
a peak seasonality for them.

On average,
England is hit by

about 34 tornadoes each year.

It just went really dark.

Me and my friend had to hold on
to the railing.

It was that windy.
It just went completely black,

and then just big dust storms
flying around everywhere.

In 2005,

a tornado in Birmingham

reached speeds
of 200 kilometers per hour,

injured 19 people,
tore up more than 1,000 trees,

and caused 40 million pounds
worth of damage.

Unbelievable, heh.

For all the years
we’ve been kept,

all the years
we’ve been on this site,

the best part of 10 years,

I mean, I’ve never seen
anything like this at all.

Not since...
back in ’86 or ’87.

And to sort of see
where it’s so focused

and to see the trail of it,

it’s absolutely incredible.

I saw a table
flying across the air--

you know, a picnic table,
four legs.

Across the air.

Right over the top there.

And all the dust
and debris came up:

flowers, leaves, bits of tar,
everything else,

like a whirlwind going ’round.

In November 1981, no less than
105 small tornadoes

touched down
across a large portion

of the English Midlands,

setting a world record for
the most number of tornadoes

in a single 24-hour period.

It’s only a matter of time
before we do get a larger one,

which would be
life-threatening.

So if people realize, are aware,
that tornadoes do occur

relatively commonly
in the United Kingdom,

then they can take the necessary
stage of precautions.

But in terms of overall
numbers and ferocity,

the United States
is undoubtedly

the world’s tornado hotspot,

with about a thousand twisters
occurring each year,

resulting in 80 deaths and more
than 1,500 injuries annually.

All 50 states
have experienced twisters,

but Texas, located in
the American South,

holds the record
with an annual average of 120.

A 1953 outbreak
in the central city of Waco

remains the most devastating
twister in the state’s history.

While it would eventually
spread to 10 additional states

over the course
of its three-day lifespan,

114 fatalities would occur
in the city of Waco alone.

The most destructive tornadoes
occur in Tornado Alley,

a region that includes
South Dakota, Nebraska,

Kansas, Oklahoma,

Northern Texas,
and Eastern Colorado.

In this region,

the atmosphere is affected by
the Rocky Mountains to the west

and the Gulf of Mexico
to the south.

During springtime,

the Rocky Mountains can funnel
a strong westerly jet stream

of cool, dry air
across Tornado Alley.

This often creates
a trough of low pressure

drawing in warm,
moist air from the Gulf.

That gives you
the perfect conditions

for large, powerful
thunderstorms

and the strong vertical winds
necessary to spawn tornadoes.

Jet streams are narrow,
fast flowing currents of air

around 8 to 11 kilometers
above the Earth’s surface,

flowing from west to east

at speeds of up to
320 kilometers per hour.

They were first discovered
during the Second World War

when pilots regularly flew from
America to the United Kingdom

and noticed that time was being
saved on flights to the UK.

They are formed
by temperature differences

in the upper atmosphere,

between the cold polar air

and the warm tropical air.

In the U.S., jet streams drag
cold air from the north

towards the warm air
from the Gulf of Mexico.

As the jet stream
swings further north,

so does tornado activity.

Tornadoes can form
at virtually any moment,

but occur more often
in late afternoon,

after a daily buildup
of heat.

They are also more common
in spring and summer.

Despite popular belief,
tornadoes are invisible.

The reason
we are able to see them

can be attributed
to condensed water droplets,

as well as dust and debris
that gets picked up

as they move across land.

The funnel of spinning air
on an average tornado

is about 200 meters across,

although as it twists
and shifts,

its path of destruction
will be eight times that width.

Many tornadoes
move across the ground

at roughly
50 kilometers per hour,

but may suddenly increase
to speeds

of over
100 kilometers per hour.

Most don’t travel
further than 10 kilometers

during their brief lifespans.

But in that time, they can be
astonishingly destructive.

The winds in super tornadoes,

the ones that cause widespread
devastation and death,

can reach terrifying speeds of
up to 480 kilometers per hour.

Nothing above ground
can survive in their path.

And it’s that path
of destruction

that is used
to measure, classify,

and compare every tornado.

The Enhanced Fujita scale
is how we measure

the strength of a tornado,

and it’s based on damage,

rather than a direct
wind speed measurement.

So the Fujita scale

was developed in 1971

by Ted Fujita, a scientist,
and he found

a correlation between
the wind speed

and the damage
caused by a tornado.

Now in 2007,

the National Weather Service
in the United States

switched to the Enhanced
Fujita Scale,

so they added more structures
and more information

about what wind speeds could
affect different structures,

and different building
standards, and practices.

So they’ve kind of updated
the Fujita scale

with a bit more information.

The base level for a tornado

is an enhanced Fujita zero,

or EF zero for short.

Winds will be up to
137 kilometers per hour,

and you will typically see
light damage.

The next level of severity
is EF-1,

with winds of up to
177 kilometers per hour.

The effects will be moderate:

Mobile homes will be
overturned or badly damaged.

When you reach EF-2,

winds have moved up
to 217 kilometers per hour.

At this point, there will be
considerable damage.

Roofs will tear off
well-constructed houses.

If you reach EF-3, you’ll
have some really brutal wind,

with speeds of up to
265 kilometers per hour.

Expect the damage level
to be severe.

Entire stories of
well-constructed houses

will be destroyed.

At the next level of EF-4,

you’ll have ferocious winds of
up to 322 kilometers per hour,

resulting in cars
being thrown from the ground.

But the most intense tornado
of all is an EF-5,

with wind speeds of
over 322 kilometers per hour.

Anywhere hit
by such a calamity

will suffer
unimaginable damage.

Strong frame houses will be
swept off their foundations

and entirely leveled.

Objects the size of cars
will become weaponized,

flying through the air
further than 100 meters.

It was probably 15 minutes
of this

just steady, loud rumble,
shaking sound...

almost like an earthquake.

And, uh, once that passed,
we could hear natural gas.

It was just
spewing out of the backyard

of the house we were in.

The wind from an EF-5

releases one billion watts
of kinetic energy,

equal to the electric output of
a large nuclear power station.

These types of tornadoes
only account for

around 5 percent
of the overall number,

but they wreak by far

the greatest proportion
of damage,

death, destruction,
et cetera.

So most of these lower-end
tornadoes pass without anything,

or much happening, so you
might get some branches broken

or some small trees
blown down.

It’s these really big ones that
constitute a small proportion

that are responsible
for much of the damage.

But if we know that
tornadoes are so dangerous,

why can’t we just build houses
that are twister-proof?

It’s certainly possible
to build structures

that can withstand a tornado,

but they wouldn’t make
very suitable homes.

And even if you live
in Tornado Alley,

it’s highly unlikely
that you are going to receive

a direct hit.

Even in the most tornado-prone
place in the world,

any given square mile is only
going to get hit by a twister

once every 700 years.

So it simply
doesn’t make sense

to live in
the kind of concrete bunker

that could survive
such a cataclysm.

But when it comes
to protecting your home

from the peripheral damage,

there are plenty of things
that can be done.

The most vulnerable part
of a building is the roof.

With that gone, not only would
wind and rain easily come in,

but walls would also collapse.

So securing roof tiles

and attaching steel ties
to the rafters is essential.

Another option would be
creating a safe room,

a room with reinforced
concrete walls and no windows,

within the interior
of the home.

Protecting our homes
is important.

Protecting the people inside
of them is paramount.

While tornadoes may form
in a quick manner,

there are
visible danger signs

that one should always be
on the lookout for:

A dark, greenish sky,

large hail,

and a powerful,
train-like roar

from the spinning air
in the distance.

You may notice the wind
becoming mild

and the air growing still.

The U.S.
Meteorological Service

has developed its own tools
to help save lives.

They use Doppler radars,

satellites, weather balloons,

and computer modelling

to watch the skies for
severe storms

and suspicious
tornado-like activity.

Doppler radars are able
to penetrate weather systems

to record wind speeds
and spot any areas

of rotation
inside thunderstorms.

Before Doppler radar,

the tornado warnings
were based on knowing that

the environmental conditions
were conducive

to creating a tornado,

or based on live reports

from people who were living
in the area,

or perhaps a police officer,
or an emergency responder.

So those were... If you wait
to get a tornado report

and then
you issue a tornado warning,

that’s quite
a reactionary warning.

Now, that can give you
lead time,

you know,
the next town over,

if you know the direction
the tornado is heading,

you do have some lead time.

but Doppler radar gives
a bit more lead time

because you can see
a tornado potentially develop,

so it gives a bit more
lead time, in that sense.

If you consider
that a typical thunderstorm

is about 10 to 20
kilometers across,

containing both upward
and downward air currents,

it is vitally important
to be able to see

what is happening
inside the storm.

When a tornado has been
officially sighted,

warnings are issued
to the population.

The message is stern,
but simple:

Seek immediate shelter.

Now, with modern technology,

the National Weather Service
now has the ability

to give you location-based
warnings on your mobile phone,

so it will pick up
where you’re located.

They have smaller
warning areas now,

and you’ll be able to know
that there’s a tornado

that’s closer to your area,

which is really helpful for
people reacting to a tornado.

Knowing a tornado is
going to form is one thing.

Figuring out where it is headed
is another matter entirely.

It had been previously thought

that once a twister
had been formed,

it would take a random path
of destruction.

But a study of
the catastrophic 2011 tornadoes

in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
and Joplin, Missouri

seemed to illustrate
some surprising patterns.

Careful analysis of
aerial photos

showing the trail of devastation

found that tornadoes
preferred going uphill,

and caused more destruction
during their ascension.

Scientists also noticed
tornadoes jumping over valleys

and only critically damaging
the tops of surrounding hills.

This has significant
implications

when it comes to decisions on
where and how to build

in areas prone
to major tornado activity.

If you were in a building
and a tornado was occurring,

you want to get to the interior
space of that building,

and preferably
in a smaller room.

So if you’ve ever seen a house
under construction, for example,

you see all
of the support beams in place.

If you look at a bathroom
in a house that’s being built,

there are a lot
of support beams around.

That’s a very sturdy place
to be.

You also want to be away
from windows

because windows quite often
shatter in a tornado

and debris will be flying,

so you want to be
protected from that.

It’s helpful to be underneath
a sturdy object, so in case

the roof collapses,
for example,

you’ll be protected from that,

and if you can cover yourself up
in anything,

that will be helpful too,
to protect you

from debris flying.

Another crucial source
of information

for tornado patterns and
behaviors are storm chasers.

Each year, scientists, weather
experts, and adrenaline junkies

race to be in the right place
at the right time

when a tornado strikes.

They try to guess
where it is headed,

so they can place
sensors in its path.

These sensors can provide
important data like wind speed,

temperature, humidity,

and pressure
from inside the tornado.

It’s an incredible challenge,

but it’s also
incredibly dangerous.

I spent a year in the States,
in Oklahoma,

where I got interested
in this stuff.

And I got the chance
to storm chase a bit,

we saw some tornadoes,
supercells from a distance--

so not properly right in there.

I went back for a holiday
a couple years later,

was staying
at a friend’s house,

and got caught up
in a supercell

with tornado sirens going off--
a tornado warning.

So I spent a year there without
seeing anything up close,

and then went back
for three days,

and was right
in the middle of one then.

So that involved
everything from sheltering,

getting into the bathroom,

putting a mattress over
your head. It was quite...

My heart was going quite fast
during those few minutes.

It doesn’t last long, but...

everything just went black.

The power went out,
and stuff like that...

Battering winds
and driving rain,

lightning strikes
and flash floods:

These are just to name a few
of the horrors

these daredevils will face,

all in the hopes
of getting themselves closer

to something even more
terrifying: the tornado.

If you’re driving in a car,

you may think you can
outrun a tornado

because they’re not gonna--

tornadoes don’t propagate

forward at 100 miles per hour.

However,
what a tornado can do

is it can lift up
from the ground

and reform in another
place very close by.

And that place could be right
in front of your car.

Tornadoes can also take a sharp
right-hand turn without notice.

They tend to wobble,

they tend to not go directly
in a straight line.

On average, a tornado will go
in a straight line,

but they do wobble.

And you can’t predict that
when you’re in a car.

But tornadoes are
not only found on land.

They can also form
over oceans,

lakes, and even rivers

as swirling columns of air.

Tornadic waterspouts
share features

with land tornados.

They are linked
with severe thunderstorms

and often coincide
with large hail,

powerful winds,
and storm surges,

as well as
hazardous lightning.

If a waterspout moves onshore,

the National Weather Service
will issue a tornado warning,

as some of them pose
a significant danger

to both life and property.

But thunderstorms
aren’t always necessary

to form a waterspout.

There exists a strange kind
of waterspout which forms along

the dark flat base of a line
of developing cumulus clouds:

the fair-weather waterspout.

While tornadic waterspouts
develop downward

in a thunderstorm,

a fair-weather
waterspout develops

from an isolated patch
of rapidly spinning air

on the surface of the water
and builds its way upwards.

By the time
you can see the funnel,

the fair-weather waterspout
is reaching maturity.

They form
in light wind conditions,

which is why they remain
relatively static.

But moving in to take a closer
look would be a grave mistake,

as they can be just as deadly
as a tornado.

There is another cousin
of the tornado

that also
forms in fair weather

known as the dust devil.

A dust devil is a strong,
clearly formed whirlwind.

A large dust devil
can be 10 meters wide

and extend more than
a kilometer in height,

a palpable threat
to both people and property.

Dust devils require certain
conditions to spawn.

They need clear skies
and a flat, barren surface,

such as desert or tarmac
to absorb heat from the sun

and create the hot air
that fuels them.

Any wind will destabilize
their spinning effect.

When the earth is heated up

such that an area of the earth
is warmer than the air above it,

then you have rising air,
and now if that air is rotating,

and it gets stretched,
it rotates very quickly,

and becomes a dust devil.

Dust Devils are
mostly small and short-lived,

but can often develop
into a truly dangerous threat.

But it’s
the fully formed tornado

that is Mother Nature’s true
wind-driven killing machine.

The worst outbreak occurred
in the United States

on the 3rd and 4th
of April, 1974.

The country saw 148 twisters
across 13 states,

killing 335 people

and injuring upwards of 6,000.

Just how deadly
and destructive they can be

was made tragically apparent
in May of 2011,

when an EF-5 tornado
swept across Joplin,

a town in Missouri with
a population of over 50,000.

By the time that twister had
blown its devastating course,

it had killed 158 people

and injured
upwards of 1,000.

It was a hot and humid
Sunday afternoon

on the 22nd of May, 2011
in the Central United States.

As clouds gathered,

people braced themselves
for a coming summer storm.

But as cold and warm fronts
clashed in the skies above,

a supercell
thunderstorm was formed.

2011 had already been

a testing year
for wild weather.

Throughout April, several
state records were broken

during a period which included
a deadly outbreak

of violent tornadoes
across the Midwest.

By the end of April,

there had been a staggering
292 tornadoes,

setting a new record for
the total number of twisters

in a single month.

On the 27th of April,

the first EF-5 super tornado
in three years

killed at least 14 people
and cut a half-mile swathe

through entire neighborhoods
in Smithville, Mississippi.

This is why weather watchers
became so concerned

when just four weeks later,

another supercell
moved ominously

from southern Kansas
to Missouri.

The National Weather Service
issued a tornado watch

at 2:40 p.m.,
Eastern Daylight Time,

indicating that conditions
for tornadoes were favorable

in parts of Arkansas, Kansas,
Missouri, and Oklahoma.

The storm generated
several twisters,

as well as wind damage
and flash flooding

across southwestern Missouri.

Late in the afternoon,
storm chasers and spotters

reported multiple vortices
west of Joplin.

The National Weather Service
received its first report

of the tornado
at 4:34 p.m. local time,

from west of
the Missouri-Kansas border.

It intensified
with unprecedented speed

as it transformed
from a funnel cloud

to an extremely large
and powerful twister

in under 10 minutes.

By 4:45 p.m., Jasper County
Emergency Management

had begun coordinating with
the National Weather Service

to track the tornado

and issued a specific alert
for Joplin at 5:17 p.m.

The City of Joplin borders
Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

At the time, its population
was only around 50,000,

but more than 400,000 people

lived within a 64-kilometer
radius, making Joplin

Missouri’s fourth largest
metropolitan area.

At 5:17,
outdoor emergency sirens

immediately sounded in Joplin.

They wouldn’t know it
at the time,

but they now had
just 24 minutes

to protect themselves
from the monster tornado

that was to destroy
much of their city.

When they heard the first wail
of the sirens,

many people looked out
and saw nothing,

and just assumed
that it was a false alarm,

and the later sirens
may have been drowned out

by the noise of
torrential rain and hail

that preceded the tornado’s
first onslaught.

It’s very tempting to go outside
and see what’s going on.

I cannot recommend
against that enough.

You typically do not have
that much time

before a tornado strikes.

So if a tornado warning goes off
and you’re in your home,

go into an interior room
in your house,

preferably away from windows.

Go under something sturdy,

just in case there’s debris
falling on you,

and if you can wrap yourself up
to prevent being damaged

by the debris that’s flying
around you, then that’s ideal.

As the storm tore through
entire neighborhoods,

emergency services collapsed.

Two of the four fire stations
in the city

were swept away
by the strong winds.

The local hospital
was being torn apart.

All police, fire,
and ambulance personnel

were given instructions
not to venture out

until the storm had passed.

If you’re out in the open,

there’s no building
you can take shelter in,

get out of your vehicle
if you’re in a vehicle--

a vehicle is not a safe place
to be in a tornado--

find the lowest place
around you, such as a ditch,

and get flat,
as flat as possible.

Try to cover up
your head and neck

to prevent
being injured by debris.

Don’t go under an overpass.

So it’s quite tempting to try
to hide underneath an overpass

because you won’t be affected
by the hail,

but it’s been found
that the winds in a tornado,

as they pass over an overpass,

can create
a wind-tunneling effect,

which can actually create
wind speeds that are higher

than actually within
the tornado itself.

Ranked as an EF-5,

the highest possible
classification,

it was estimated that

the tornado’s
maximum wind speed

clocked in at more than
320 kilometers per hour.

The tornado sliced through
over 9 kilometers of Joplin,

from west to east,

cutting a swathe
of destruction and death

over a kilometer wide.

It caused 161 fatalities

and 1,371 injuries,

making it the single deadliest
U.S. tornado since 1947,

and the seventh deadliest
in U.S. history.

At the height of its ferocity,
it crushed homes

and wrenched them
from their foundations.

Steel reinforced concrete
porches were torn apart

and hurled through the air.

Concrete driveways lifted off
the soil beneath them.

Family cars were launched
through houses,

or rolled and spun until
they were completely crushed.

More than 15,000 vehicles,

including heavy buses
and tractor trailers,

were picked up
and carried by winds,

some for hundreds of meters.

Thousands of buildings were
destroyed and damaged.

Wood framed houses
turned into kindling,

and paving stones were tossed
through the air like confetti.

Shocked survivors rummaged
amongst the debris

of what only a few minutes ago
had been their family homes,

searching for
their possessions.

They knew that for them,
this was day zero:

They would have to start
their lives again from scratch.

People were seen
walking around in a daze.

They couldn’t even tell
where they were.

Everything they had known,

every street sign,
every building,

every landmark, was gone.

In its place,
a flat sea of debris.

The loss of life could well
have been higher.

At the time
the tornado struck,

Joplin High School was holding
its graduation ceremony

at the nearby Missouri
Southern State University,

which fortunately did not
suffer significant damage.

The Joplin High School
building, however,

suffered a direct hit.

The Joplin tornado
destroyed 4,380 homes

and damaged
an additional 3,884.

It tore structures
off their foundations,

leaving only anchor bolts
on the ground.

Even buildings
with pre-cast concrete walls

suffered partial
or complete collapse.

The area affected
by the tornado

was comprised of
almost 30 percent of the city

and generated some 2.3 million
cubic meters of debris.

The tornado also caused
serious damage

to several
healthcare facilities.

In the case of St. John’s
Regional Medical Center,

along with significant
structural damage,

five patients and one visitor
tragically died.

The hospital’s
emergency helicopter

was also
completely destroyed.

You’re talking on the orders
of maybe tens of minutes

to half an hour or something.

You want people to be there
as quickly as possible,

but obviously you have
these mitigating factors.

You’ve got trees down,

you’ve got this scene
of devastation

you have to navigate
your way through.

So it’s not
just the simple question

of getting the right people
to the injured,

and worse than that,
on time,

it’s the fact that oftentimes

they can’t get there
as quickly as they’d like to,

and this helps,
or this pushes the number up,

a lot further in time,

in the hours or so
after the event.

After the tornado passed,

ambulances and crews arrived
quickly at the scene.

Emergency responders from areas
all around southwest Missouri

were summoned to report
to a command post

at 34th and Main,

to help deal with
the damage and destruction.

In the immediate aftermath
of the tornado,

members of the public,

many of whom had just seen
their own homes destroyed,

searched through the debris
for survivors.

Many of the paramedics
answering calls

found it virtually impossible
to recognize streets

which had once been
very familiar.

Fires caused by gas leaks
lit up the night sky.

It was like a war zone.

Hundreds of electricity
transmission poles had fallen,

forcing much
of the devastated city

to endure the tornado’s
aftermath without power.

Phone communications
in and out of Joplin

were largely cut off.

Downed trees and power lines
added to the debris

blocking many streets
in Joplin,

making them impassable
for the emergency services.

Clearing those
became a priority,

and the fire service called for
extra heavy equipment

and front loaders
to help shift the debris.

As the roads freed up,

the movement of emergency
vehicles throughout the city

gradually improved.

Extra police were called up
to help with security.

Highway Patrol troopers
moved swiftly

to become a visible presence,

both to reassure
shaken survivors

and to prevent
opportunistic crime.

Some 9,000 people
were displaced.

The extreme destruction forced
thousands of residents

to seek refuge
with family or friends.

The American Red Cross
established a shelter

at the Missouri
Southern State University

for some 300 residents
made homeless by the tornado.

The university served
as the base

for many first responders.

Some of the city’s undamaged
school buildings

were also opened as shelters
for the displaced.

That Sunday night,

Governor Jay Nixon declared
a state of emergency

and announced the deployment
of the National Guard

in response
to the deadly disaster.

Not much more than 12 hours
after the tornado touched down,

nearly 500 firefighters,

public works personnel,

and other municipal employees
volunteered for duty.

Teams of searchers fanned out
across several square miles

of smoking wasteland.

They went house to house,

plot to plot,
checking for survivors,

listening out for anyone

who might have been trapped
under their fallen homes.

If they came upon a room
that was still standing,

they marked the wall outside
as they went in to search

and crossed the mark
to show that it was all clear.

Collapsed buildings which
had been thoroughly searched

were marked in
a highly visible red paint.

Even wrecked cars were marked.

Everywhere it was conceivable

that a person
could have been trapped

was marked with a cross
if it was all clear,

or a V
if it contained a victim.

Specialized emergency response teams,

including Missouri’s Disaster
Medical Assistance Team,

were sent to provide
aid and assistance

to the tornado-stricken town.

In the days
following the catastrophe,

the official government effort

was geared
towards search and rescue,

as opposed to cleaning up,

so the tornado’s
10-kilometer path

still resembled a war zone.

In all,
17 people were pulled alive

from the contorted remains
of homes, shops, and offices.

Rescuers continued to sift
through the debris,

desperately searching
for survivors,

but more often than not,
finding only corpses.

Four days after the disaster,
125 bodies had been recovered.

Considering that 232 people
were still unaccounted for,

they expected
the grim toll to rise.

EF-5, or the highest level
of tornadoes,

constitute about one
in a thousand of all storms,

and this was the level
of the Joplin tornado,

so even though in the U.S.

they get these really intense
and violent storms a lot,

seemingly, it’s still relatively
rare for any one location

to receive or to be
impacted by one of these.

So the National Weather
Service went back

and did a particular assessment
of this event

to try and work out why.

So they gave their warnings
on time, people were warned,

but assessment of the event
and the aftermath was that

because this was such a rare
and exceptional event,

despite the warnings,

people were a bit blasé
about reacting straightaway,

and this is something
that probably contributed

to the death toll
being as high as it was.

There were many
personal tragedies.

A 16-month-old boy had been
pulled from his mother’s arms

when the tornado
ripped her home apart.

The search for the missing
child had been followed

on news items and social media
across the nation.

But hopes were dashed
when his body was found,

buried amongst the rubble.

Those on the frontlines
in Joplin

continued treating the injured
and searching for bodies,

all the while facing

the psychological challenges
of dealing with devastation

most of them
had never even imagined.

When it became clear

that there were no more
bodies to recover,

four joint task forces
were set up

to manage the largest
recovery priorities:

housing,

schools,

critical infrastructure,

and debris removal.

They coordinated the disposal
of hazardous household wastes

from the tornado’s
impact zone,

as well as conducting
air monitoring

for the presence
of asbestos

and other dangerous
dust matter.

Debris was spread far beyond
the city limits of Joplin.

An open Facebook group
was set up

for people finding debris
away from the Joplin area,

to help send back items
of personal importance

to people who may well have
lost everything in the tornado.

We know how hard it was,

and we know what a long road
of recovery

it’s going to be for them.

But... we know

that there can be a light
at the end of the tunnel.

One week after the storm,

President Obama
visited the city

to see the damage for himself.

At a memorial service,

he let the people of Joplin
know they were not alone,

their tragedy
was a national tragedy

and everything possible
was going to be done

to help continue with
the rescue and recovery effort.

This has been such a devastating
and traumatic experience

for all of us in Joplin,

and people have reached out
to us from all over the world,

and it has helped us become
a better community.

And the response that people
have given to Joplin

helps us see the hope
for the future of Joplin.

Following the President’s visit,

the Federal Emergency
Management Agency

established 15 temporary housing sites

throughout the area.

At its peak, it was home

to 586 families
and households.

Through the first year
of recovery,

the agency provided nearly
21 million dollars in grants

to help victims pay for home
repairs, temporary housing,

and other critical
disaster-related needs.

In the aftermath
of the disaster,

it was estimated that more than
140,000 registered volunteers

provided nearly 900,000 hours
of service.

AmeriCorps, a voluntary
civil society program

supported by both public
and private donations,

also made
a long-term commitment

to the recovery efforts.

In the year
following the disaster,

more than
350 AmeriCorps members

from across the United States
served in Joplin,

aiding homeowners
and coordinating donations.

The tornado that brought chaos
and death to Joplin

surpassed the 8th of June,
1953 tornado

that claimed 116 lives
in Flint, Michigan,

making it
the deadliest single tornado

to strike the U.S.

since modern record keeping
began in 1950.

There has been
a decline in the number

of tornado-related deaths

in the United States
over the past century.

I think the reason for this
could be because

people know
more about tornadoes,

are more aware of them,
are more aware of what to do,

and also because
the National Weather Service

has an early warning system
in place.

So the average lead time
for a tornado is 13 minutes,

and that gives people
enough time to take shelter.

On the fifth anniversary

of the disaster,

the city organized
Joplin Proud:

four days of events

to recognize an unforgettable
date in their history.

Guest speakers shared

what the city had learned
from the storm.

A marathon, a kid’s run,

and a walk of silence were held
to commemorate the tragedy

and to celebrate
the regeneration

and rebuilding of their town.

A permanent memorial
was laid out,

with a plaque listing the names
of all the lives lost.

It also contains
an illustration

detailing the path
of the tornado,

as well as the haunting
outlines of two houses

that had once stood
in its place.

It’s not just
that you need to be able

to accurately forecast
a tornado...

it’s that you need to make sure
that the public are responding

to those warnings in the way
that you want them to.

And this is
a more challenging thing,

’cause that draws an aspect
of social science as well,

it’s not just
you have your equations

and you work them out
in the atmosphere,

and that’s fine--
it involves more of

a cross-disciplinary approach
to science,

and that’s something that is not
always as easy to get right.

So, oftentimes groups may be
focused on their particular area

and then interacting with these
other scientific groups is,

doesn’t always
come naturally to people,

so that, I think, is probably
the biggest challenge,

probably on a par
with the actual science

of what is going on
inside the storm.

Cunningham Park,

which had been destroyed
and rebuilt in the wake

of the tornado, was dedicated
to the volunteers.

A robust metallic plaque
was constructed to honor

all those who "offered
themselves to the Joplin effort

without request,
serving as a reminder

of the overwhelming power
of human generosity."

It was named "The Miracle
of the Human Spirit."

We’re now in a point
where you can have

really, really detailed
simulations of tornadoes.

This was unimaginable,
say, 50 or so years ago.

We’re talking several orders
of magnitude, smaller now.

It still won’t be perfect,

’cause any time you have storms
or what’s known as convection,

you have a kind
of random element to it.

So it’s never...

There’s always gonna be
some secrets

that the atmosphere
will keep basically,

but, generally,
we’re much closer

to being able to predict

the degree of
intensification of tornadoes,

and the timing of
intensification of tornadoes,

and these are the most important
things for people on the ground.

Joplin residents share
a deeply held desire

not to forget the tragedies
that befell them

during that fateful May
in 2011.

They and all those
who came to their aid

are a testament to the strength
of the human spirit

when faced with the brutal side
of Mother Nature.

Their story is yet
another reminder

of the deadly disasters

that continue to threaten
our homes

and our lives.