Joplin, Missouri Tornado Damage

Today we drove to Joplin, MO to do some shopping.  When we drove into town we were reminded immediately of the huge tornado that went through there on May 22nd.  159 people were killed and the devastation seemed to go on forever.  Seeing the images on TV did not really make the impression on us that seeing it in person did.  It's hard to grasp that Mother Nature can cause such fury!  The Home Depot seemed to be severely damaged and they had a HUGE tent set up in the parking lot that they were using for a temporary store.  The Walmart was GONE and they had one of their semi trailers in the parking lot (which is all that was left) with a sign painted on the side of it saying they looked forward to reopening in the fall.  I'm not sure what year they were referring to, but it definitely wasn't 2011!

This used to be a parking garage across from Hope High School.

This tree had metal & steel wrapped around it .  A very sobering sight!

South Middle School

Another view of South Middle School

One of many, many destroyed homes

Hope High School...how ironic!

Another view of Hope High School