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. In some cases the tornado wiped out entire families. The official death toll stands at , although other estimates put it higher.
This is due in part to differences between counting white vs. The scene in St. Louis following the F-4 tornado there in The St. The tornado struck the core of downtown St. Louis, damaging or destroying factories, hospitals, homes, railroad yards, churches and other facilities.
About 35 people were killed at the Vandalia railroad freight yards in East St. Considering how many more people live in St. Louis and East St. Louis today, and how much more developed it is than years ago, if the same tornado struck today, the numbers of fatalities and damage would, in all likelihood, skyrocket. According to the Tornado Project , which maintains an extensive database of U. The funnel grew to a mile wide, and it moved along the Mississippi River, rather than crossing it quickly.
This allowed it to sink numerous river-going vessels. In fact, the death toll was higher on the river than on land. A piece of a steamboat window was reportedly carried for 30 miles. Damage in Murphysboro, Ill. The tornado killed in this town as it traversed across three states.
The deadliest tornado on record in the U. The tornado killed , and was estimated to be about three-quarters of a mile wide at times. The tornado traveled at an extraordinary speed — making it more difficult for people to seek shelter. At times its forward speed was clocked at more than 70 mph. The Tri-State Tornado caused the largest death toll on record in a single U. At just one school — the De Soto school — 33 children were killed. The tornado remained on the ground for a remarkable three and a half hours, during which time it destroyed 15, homes and injured more than 2,, according to a National Weather Service website about this historic event.
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Two Joplin residents died at a Carthage, Missouri, nursing home one suffered brain damage sustained during the storm, and the other suffered a spinal injury when a wall fell on the victim. One tornado victim died in Miami, Oklahoma, and another person in Duquesne, Missouri, from injuries sustained in the Joplin tornado Joplin Globe b. Apparently, both died because of emotional trauma Kennedy The other victim, a police officer, was struck by lightning and killed while assisting with recovery and cleanup efforts the day after the tornado.
Additionally, some of the out-of-town deaths occurred more than a month later Paul and Stimers However, exclusion of such deaths is often discouraged because of incompleteness of such relatively unambiguous data Kelman and Jonkman Accordingly, this study considered as tornado fatalities both immediate and delayed deaths i. The number of deaths systematically decreases with increasing distance from the central catastrophic zone.
The second highest number of fatalities 17 occurred in the two extensive damage zones located on either side of the central zone. Ten deaths occurred in the limited zone and five in the moderate zone Table 2. A similar spatial pattern is also evident when death rate is expressed per residents of the four zones Table 2. Estimated populations in each of the four damage zones and death rate per residents are included in the table.
As expected, the catastrophic zone has the highest death rate 21 per persons , followed by extensive 8 per persons , limited 3 per persons , and moderate 1 per persons zones. The death rate for the entire damage zone is calculated as 4 per persons. Using the number of deaths by damage zone and the respective proportion of population, a goodness-of-fit chi-square test was performed. The chi-square value suggests that the damage zones differ significantly in number of deaths caused by the Joplin tornado.
Deaths per square mile are also shown in Table 2. The density of deaths, expressed as deaths per square mile, by damage zone reveals a higher value in the catastrophic zone Information presented in Table 2 clearly supports the key hypothesis of this study that the number of tornado fatalities in Joplin differs by damage zone. In addition to absolute number of deaths, the table also presents death rates in terms of per residents and per square mile of damage zones.
Despite variations in estimated population and area of damage zones, the number of deaths and death rates consistently decrease outward from the central zone. However, this finding should be treated with caution because not all of the Joplin tornado deaths occurred within the four damage zones.
Table 3 indicates that of all the deaths caused by the 22 May tornado, Of these , 11 7. The first five of these 13 cities are in Kansas, and the rest are in Missouri. Two rural residents of Jasper County and one rural resident of Newton County also died from the tornado. Both of these counties are in Missouri and are adjacent to one another Fig.
All 24 out-of-town victims were in one of the four damaged zones when the tornado passed through. It lies near borders of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Because the tornado occurred on a Sunday, many Joplin residents were away from their homes attending church or high school graduations, visiting friends, shopping, or dining out, among other activities. People came into Joplin that day from neighboring communities for similar reasons, including work.
The Center itself was not in the damage path, but the high school was destroyed. A considerable number of Joplin residents from outside the damage zone were visiting the homes of friends and relatives located in the damage zone; some died, and many others sustained injuries.
The field survey also revealed that an unspecified number of residents left before tornado touch down, moving from within the damage zone to outside the damage zone, either to visit friends or to attend churches or the high school graduation. None of these individuals suffered injuries or death. One respondent reported that he escaped death or injury only because he was visiting a friend, whose house was outside the tornado path; he was renting a house at 15th Street and Range Line Road and lived there with his landlord.
Unfortunately, his landlord died when the house was demolished by the tornado. Table 4 provides information on gender and age of tornado victims by the damage zone.
The table shows that of the deaths, 78 Although slightly more females died than males, in reality, the Joplin tornado fatalities are considered to be reasonably balanced between the sexes because females accounted for Thus, the number of female deaths attributable to the Joplin tornado is proportional to the female population of Joplin. Information presented in Table 4 shows that persons 65 yr and older accounted for the highest number—more than a third—of tornado fatalities in Joplin.
According to the census, residents 65 and older represented only Similarly, the 45—64 age cohort experienced 1. Consistent with this study, Curtis and Fagan also report that the number of elderly fatalities in Joplin was significantly higher than other cohorts. They died in care facilities, churches, residential dwellings, and apartment complexes. Conversations with Joplin residents and others reveal that parents assumed considerable risk to their lives in order to save the lives of their children.
The Joplin Globe published several such reports in the newspaper Joplin Globe a. Like the youngest age cohort, the second youngest age cohort 18—44 also experienced relatively fewer deaths compared to their share in the total population. Tornado deaths by age support the claim of Simmons and Sutter that elderly are most vulnerable to tornado death in the United States see also Schmidlin and King Because many cells containing age group data in Table 4 have values less than 5, no chi-square test was performed.
Consistent with deaths by damage zone Table 2 , for both male and female Joplin tornado victims, the highest number of deaths occurred in the central or catastrophic damage zone. The number of deaths consistently decreases with increasing distance from the central zone. The second highest number of fatalities for both sexes occurred in the extensive zone Table 4. 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. Introduction The number of deaths and the extent of destruction caused by tornadoes are directly associated with their track length or path and their magnitude Paul ; Simmons and Sutter , The Joplin, Missouri, tornado A deadly tornado touched down at the southwest edge of the city of Joplin, Missouri, on the evening of 22 May Fig.
Download Figure Download figure as PowerPoint slide. Table 1. Methods Fatality data used in this study were drawn from several secondary sources. Deaths by damage zone Table 2 presents the distribution of Joplin tornado deaths by four damage zones see also Fig. Table 2. Deaths by damage zone. Table 3.
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