A similar pattern of deaths is observed when age of the tornado victims is analyzed by the four damage zones. For all four age groups considered in this study, the highest number of deaths occurred in the central zone and the lowest number occurred in the outermost zone Table 4. Although not presented in Table 4 , when death rates per male and female or by age groups for each damage zone were calculated, the pattern is similar to the one described above: the rates consistently decrease from the catastrophic zone to the other three zones.
Table 5 presents tornado fatality totals by location of death for the United States, the United States without Joplin, and for Joplin. The table clearly shows remarkable differences in terms of proportion of tornado deaths by several locations among the United States, the United States without Joplin, and Joplin. These differences are particularly evident between the United States and Joplin.
Field surveys combined with a GIS analysis revealed that almost all of the mobile home units in Joplin were outside the tornado path Paul and Stimers It is worthwhile to mention that the proportion of deaths caused by tornadoes in the United States in defies past trends. Figure 2 clearly illustrates that over the past 27 yr, more tornado deaths have occurred in mobile homes than any other location tracked by the SPC.
The number of violent tornadoes in explains why the proportion of deaths in mobile homes was relatively low and the proportion of deaths in permanent homes was relatively high Simmons et al. More specifically, EF1 and EF2 tornadoes are potentially lethal for residents of mobile homes.
They observed no significant death toll difference between mobile and permanent home residents for EF4 and EF5 tornadoes see also Simmons et al. In both cases, the percentage of death in permanent homes is much higher than the corresponding percentage reported for the period — Fig. With the location of 79 fatalities still unknown, the contribution of deaths in permanent homes in the United States could change.
As compared to the — period, relatively more deaths occurred in Joplin in permanent homes, largely because of the absence of basements and inadequate structural conditions in housing units of the city Paul and Stimers According to a NWS assessment team report, many Joplin residents took shelter after receiving the tornado warnings in the most appropriate location e.
Unfortunately, a considerable number of them did not survive NWS For example, Margaret Tutt, a yr-old woman who had lived alone since in a single-story brick home on South Wall Avenue, followed a standard drill when she heard sirens. She grabbed a purse packed with a battery-operated radio, a flashlight, and medication for a breathing problem, and went into her interior bathroom. Her house was demolished and she died there Younker and Kabel Even though many residents waited to take action until the last seconds, the NOAA report claims that in many cases it was a life-saving measure.
Belowground shelters e. It is unclear to what degree the lack of basements contributed to tornado mortality in Joplin NWS Joplin has fewer basements than Jasper County communities as a whole. Many of these older houses are not secured to their foundation; some do not even have a foundation Paul and Stimers Both Table 5 and Fig.
No other tornado has destroyed or damaged so many business facilities in the past. Many restaurants and retail stores are located along this road, and several fatalities occurred in those businesses. Other business facilities in Joplin severely affected by the tornado included the 15th Street Walmart Supercenter, the Home Depot store, and several restaurants, all of which were flattened.
Two walls of the Home Depot store collapsed in a domino effect after the tornado lifted the roof, killing seven people in the front of the store; fortunately, 28 people in the back of the store survived when the walls collapsed outwards. Three people died in the Walmart Supercenter, but survived Dennis Fatalities were also reported from other churches.
At least 10 elderly residents died in the Greenbriar Nursing Home Zagier Three people died at the Elks Lodge, which had been preparing for bingo night when the tornado struck.
If this tornado had arrived two hours later, there would have been as many as 40 or 50 people in the lodge, and many of them likely would have been killed. Six people died in St. The sixth fatality was a hospital visitor Dennis The proportion of tornado deaths occurring in vehicles was higher in Joplin than the nation as a whole Table 5. Because the Joplin tornado occurred on Sunday afternoon, many people were in vehicles, returning to their homes from stores, restaurants, the Joplin High School graduation ceremony, or from out of town, explaining the relatively higher number of tornado deaths in vehicles.
An almost equal proportion of people died outdoors both in the United States as a whole and in Joplin. Finally, the location of deaths is also analyzed by tornado damage zone. Unlike Table 5 or Fig. The last category includes persons who died outside of a structure, including the 24th and Main Street triage center, industrial structures, or inside a vehicle. Deaths in unknown locations are also included in this category.
Data presented in Table 6 suggest that most tornado deaths in Joplin occurred in buildings located in the catastrophic damage zone. The same is also true for commercial and other structures. Unlike residential and other structures, the extensive damage zone also experienced a relatively higher proportion of deaths in commercial structures. This indicates that the business deaths were less concentrated in the catastrophic damage zone than the deaths in the residential structures.
This, in turn, calls into question how well such structures protect their occupants. This is an important finding because business structures are generally considered relatively safe locations in comparison to other structure types.
Information included in Table 6 generally supports, with few exceptions, the contention that both number of death and death rates per structures for residential, business, and others locations generally follow a decreasing trend from the catastrophic zone to outward zones.
However, comparison of death rates per structures presented in Table 6 clearly highlights the business death aspect of the Joplin tornado death toll. Business location death rates are much higher than the residential location rates in all four damage zones. There are basically two reasons for this. The number of deaths caused by the Joplin tornado in business structures was far higher than the national annual average for the same type of location.
The differences in denominator also contributed to a large gap in tornado fatality rates between residential and business locations.
We were unable to calculate the number of destroyed and damaged residential structures by the four tornado damage zones considered in this study. However, we assume that the death rates for destroyed residential structures would be higher than for damaged residential structures. This study has analyzed the Joplin, Missouri, tornado fatalities by four damage zones. We found that the central zone labeled as catastrophic produced the most fatalities, while the remaining three zones extensive, limited, and moderate, in order of decreasing intensity generally showed a decreasing number of deaths.
The rate of deaths per residents also decreased from the catastrophic zone outward, as did the density of deaths deaths per square mile. This provides support for the working hypothesis that the number of deaths or death rate differs significantly by tornado damage zone. In fact, the tornado season resulted in a death toll not seen in this country for decades. Fatalities in stand at , and the fatality threshold had not been eclipsed since , when fatalities occurred Simmons and Sutter Although people died in many locations e.
This calls into question the protective ability of such structures. Many business structures in Joplin had designated safe areas, but those areas did not offer sufficient protection against an EF5 tornado. This finding shows an urgent need to add additional and more effective safety features to such buildings, which will reduce fatalities from future tornado events. The second-highest number of deaths occurred in residential buildings.
Given the soil conditions of Joplin, most notably the depth to bedrock, residents of the city should seriously consider alternatives to basements before they begin constructing new homes. One such alternative is public shelters that can withstand severe tornadoes. Such a shelter was built 20 mi 30 km southeast of Joplin in Seneca, Missouri, after a destructive tornado affected the community in Not many Joplin residents can afford this and the Joplin city council did not make safe rooms a condition of rebuilding.
Fortunately, a considerable number of homeowners had already built safe rooms either inside or outside their residential structures. Another important finding of this study can help policy makers and public emergency management agencies to reduce elderly casualties. This study found a significantly high number of fatalities among the elderly population. One way to reduce their fatalities is through improving existing tornado warning dissemination system. Warnings should be disseminated in such a way that all elders are able to receive the intended warning in a timely manner.
Public education should also be extended to them so that they can comply with tornado warnings Paul and Stimers , Analyses of this study required different types of data collected from many secondary sources. One of the challenges was to use appropriate data for a particular analysis because several sources provided the same type of data but not the same numbers.
Our field-experience-based knowledge of the study area and excellent cooperation from the city and county emergency officials proved very fruitful in this regard. Despite the fact that tornado fatalities are caused by interactions of many factors, evidence produced in this study clearly shows that the EF scale, which differs along as well as across tornado track, is an important determinant of tornado deaths. From through , tornado magnitude or intensity was measured on the Fujita scale F scale , introduced by Theodore Fujita in , and it ranged from F0 through F5.
On 1 February , the EF scale replaced the F scale. The EF scale has the same basic design as the original scale, with six categories from 0 to 5 representing increasing degrees of damage Paul It should be noted that EF and F scales are damage scales, not, strictly speaking, intensity measures, even though we use them to control for magnitude Wurman et al.
Damage area was initially reported as 2. The average tornado damage area in the United States is less than 1 mi 2 Simmons and Sutter The number of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed differs not only over time, but also from one source to another. A six-page long report published by the City of Joplin on 5 April reports that the tornado destroyed and damaged and residential dwellings, respectively.
The Jasper County GIS estimates damage or destruction of a total of structures, including commercial structures, while the USACE claims a total of structures damaged or destroyed, including commercial structures Levitan Various sources report different fatality totals for the Joplin tornado.
In the catastrophic zone, most solid structures were destroyed, while destruction of some solid structures with most sustaining exterior damage occurred in the extensive damage zone. Six EF5 tornadoes occurred in , compared to just two EF5 tornadoes nationally over the prior decade Simmons and Sutter Sign in Sign up. Advanced Search Help.
Weather, Climate, and Society. Sections Abstract 1. Introduction 2. The Joplin, Missouri, tornado 3. Tornado fatalities: An overview 4. Methods 5. Results a. Deaths by damage zone b. Deaths by gender and age of victims per damage zone c. Location of death d. Location of deaths by damage zone 6.
Export References. Export Figures View in gallery Tornado damage path in Joplin. View in gallery Joplin tornado death by damage zone. View in gallery Home location of Joplin tornado victims. Close View raw image Tornado damage path in Joplin.
View raw image Joplin tornado death by damage zone. View raw image Home location of Joplin tornado victims. Chart I. Tracks of Centers of Anticyclones, December, Author: P. Previous Article Next Article. Editorial Type: Article. Bimal Kanti Paul 1 and Mitchel Stimers 2. Article History. Download PDF. Full access. E-mail: bkp ksu. Keywords: Climatology.
Authorities estimate 25 to 30 percent of Joplin has been damaged by the tornado, with highly populated areas having been hit by the storm. Cries could be heard early this morning from people trapped below the wreckage, while crews have been pulling out bodies and lining them up in the streets for loved ones to identify, according to ABC News affiliate KODE.
Search and rescue efforts are being hampered by continuing severe weather today, including 40 mph gusts and hail. Strong winds can topple the cranes used to lift wreckage, although current wind speeds are still allowing their use. More severe weather, including high winds, rain and hail, is expected Tuesday before the storms finally abate later in the week, according to Accuweather meteorologist Mark Paquette.
There is also a fear of gas explosions in the storm's aftermath and authorities are telling people not to light any cigarettes because so many gas pipes are broken, causing concern that what's left of Joplin might go up in flames, KODE reported. State and local law enforcement agencies, including fire mutual aid, are coordinating search and rescue and recovery operations.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol sent troopers from other regions to help local officers in southern Missouri deal with the destruction, the governor's office said in a statement. Keith Stammer, emergency management director for the city of Joplin, told "Good Morning America" that all 25 of the city's sirens did activate, and that there was a minute notice from when the sirens were activated before there was a first report of a tornado strike.
Jeff Piotrowsky, a storm chaser who was in Joplin at the time the storm hit and spoke to "GMA" about witnessing the tornado form over the city, said, "We saw a big cloud mass and we knew it was going to start tornadoing. It quickly brewed to a half mile wide, then three-quarters? In total, 70 tornadoes were produced by the storm system since Friday, including at least 47 tornadoes Sunday.
Tornadoes were reported in seven states from the Canadian border to Oklahoma. Warnings and watches were posted from Texas to Michigan. President Obama released a statement on the emergency late Sunday night, saying, "Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the tornadoes and severe weather that struck Joplin, Missouri as well as communities across the Midwest today.
We commend the heroic efforts by those who have responded and who are working to help their friends and neighbors at this very difficult time," Obama said in the statement. Earlier Sunday, tornadoes had torn across other parts of the region, killing at least one person in Minneapolis. Midwest residents were cleaning up Sunday after several tornadoes Saturday left one man dead and one Kansas town nearly destroyed.
At least 20 tornadoes were reported across three states Saturday: 14 in Kansas, five in Oklahoma, and one in Missouri. Joplin is being rebuilt using state and federal funds, and the morale of the community received a boost when President Obama delivered the commencement address at Joplin High School on Monday evening. The High School itself was destroyed during the tornado, and students spent the past year taking classes in a temporary facility.
A tornado warning was in effect for Joplin at the time the storm struck, yet it was not enough to prevent so many deaths. Given all the advances that have been made, the high death toll in Joplin has prompted many in the meteorological and emergency management communities to rethink how they issue tornado warnings. One of the major lessons stemming from Joplin is that more attention needs to be paid to ensuring that tornado warnings encourage people to take protective action.
A post-tornado survey report by a National Weather Service team found that most Joplin residents did not take shelter when they heard the tornado sirens. Instead, they waited until they received additional information confirming the threat. In part, this was because of the prevalence of false alarms. In the wake of Joplin, and other deadly tornadoes that struck during the season, the National Weather Service is experimenting with issuing tornado warnings that contain enhanced wording in order to help encourage people to act.
While the tornado that devastated Joplin was the seventh deadliest in U. The scene in Woodward, Okla. The deadliest tornado on record in the tornado-prone state of Oklahoma had a path length of miles. According to the National Weather Service , the tornado had a maximum width of 1. The tornado was ranked as an F-5 on the Fujita Scale, and it slammed into Woodward without warning at pm on April 9, More than 1, homes and businesses were destroyed and 1, people injured.
The Weather Service said the bodies of three children were never identified, and one child who survived the tornado was never reunited with her family. Downtown Gainesville, Ga. Credit: Digital Library of Georgia. The tornado that hit Gainesville, which occurred a day after the Tupelo event see No. According to the Digital Library of Georgia , 60 people died in just one building when the Cooper Pants Factory, a two-story garment factory, collapsed and burned after being struck.
Many of the victims were young women and girls. In all, were reported killed. This tornado was part of a group of twisters that struck Mississippi that day, and although it missed downtown Tupelo, it flattened residential areas around the town.
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