The evening of May 22 was a night tens of thousands of people will never forget. A roaring EF5 tornado ripped apart a Midwestern city of 50,000 and caused 155 deaths. It was the single deadliest tornado in the United States since modern record keeping.
The path of destruction was nearly a mile wide in some places and nearly 14 miles long. The Springfield News-Leader reports the recovery phase is in full swing as hundreds of thousands of tons of debris is being removed at a frenetic pace. Rebuilding homes has been slow.
The lessons learned from the tornado are plentiful and heartbreaking. Because wind speeds were so strong, sturdier homes may not have prevented mass casualties. Home shelters run from about $3,000 to $4,000 and are made of steel. One Joplin Globe letter to the editor dated April 12 wondered why there weren't more tornado shelters in town. The short piece now stands as an eerie prediction of events six weeks later.
Split-second decisions made by residents out and about on a quiet Sunday evening led to whether someone was hurt, spared or died. The tornado plucked young and old, rich and poor, from this Earth.
Physical buildings can be rebuilt but the lives that perished left behind families that will never be the same. The spirit of community is vital to any municipality. Thousands of stories have circulated of bravery, survival and fortitude. One new story details how a 10-year-old girl survived even after a piece of iron pierced her internal organs. Mason Lillard finally went home to Nixa after nearly a month in various hospitals.
Rebuilding isn't perfect but it is moving forward. The city of Joplin placed a moratorium on new housing construction in the disaster zone. Meanwhile, FEMA announced they will build temporary housing by the Joplin Regional Airport on the north side of town. As many as 624 families are known to be waiting for some kind of housing while homes get ready to be built or rental properties become available.
Outreach to the city and its residents has been fantastic. Millions of dollars have been donated from sources like Brad Pitt, Walmart, Home Depot and millions of individual donors. Thousands of volunteers have descended on the city to help with cleanup efforts.
All of these things add up. They make Joplin a stronger, safer and better place to live. It will not be easy to move forward for those impacted the most by the storm, but the job will get done. Humanity has persevered on this planet for two million years and we will continue to survive with the same indomitable spirit that sent humans to the moon.
We do these things not because we have to, but because we are able to. Instead of giving up, we move forward. When humanity may succumb, we fight for what we hold dear. When things get tough we don't abandon, we cherish and hold our families closer.
That's the spirit of Joplin that I will remember one month after the tornado.
William Browning, a lifelong Missouri resident, writes about local and state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Born in St. Louis, Browning earned his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri. He currently resides in Branson.
