Video: Remembering Joplin

Very eye-opening video of a likely routine drive for most residents in Joplin. Take a look for yourself and catch up with the rest of my commentary below. You also might want to turn the volume down unless you are a Linkin Park fan.




I often here or read after a tornado that the area is unrecognizable to locals. This video at least helps to understand why that is. To think every landmark that you have been use to seeing for the last 10 or 20 or 40 years has been removed in the matter of minutes is unimaginable. To see the all the foliage along side the road turn into nothing but giant oddly shaped twigs is bizarre.

The second thing that stands out is what you see towards the end of the video. After minutes of driving passed flattened homes and buildings and piles of debris, you start to see buildings still in tact and trees with leaves. It's like driving into a completely different area.

Very very strange and sad that this happens to so many places every year. But it also shows that life is slowly moving on for the community even with all the fatalities. I still keep myself updated through various pages on Facebook (the one awesome thing that site is good for). Yesterday I saw a post that said the city manager has said that 60% of the debris has been removed. Think about that. We are approaching two months after the tornado hit and slightly more than half of the wreckage is gone. What a long process.

I said it before and I probably haven't stuck with it enough, but I plan on continually posting news, videos and pictures from Joplin and one of the worst tornadoes in recorded history.