Joplin area sustained noticeable damage from confirmed tornado

Trees were uprooted and branches were snapped. Billboards were toppled and tossed. Fences were blown down and property was damaged.

But one thing is clear, we were lucky.

Joplin and its surrounding communities were hit hard with severe weather Monday night into Tuesday morning.

“We did suffer a weather event in our community last night,” Joplin Mayor Keenan Cortez said. “Our first responders and all of our utility companies are aware of that and have been out in full force all night long. We did open the Emergency Operation Center last night, which was manned until the wee hours of this morning. We are still in the process of accessing damage and getting all the reports necessary in order to make sure we have a full and accurate assessment of the damage that has happened in our community.”

Joplin-Jasper County Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Holden told NewsTalk KZRG it is wise to have multiple alert systems in place for emergency weather.

“The sirens are actually outdoor warning sirens,” he said. “They’re meant for people who are outdoors and not for people who are inside or to be heard inside. It’s great to have more than one way to be notified. Whether you have a cell phone to go off, a number to the weather station that will notify you through email or a good old-fashioned weather radio is what we recommend.”   

It was later confirmed on Tuesday by the National Weather Service that an EF-0/EF-1 tornado touched down in Southeast Joplin and East Joplin.

Joplin Fire Chief Gerald Ezell confirmed the city received a tornado warning at approximately 11:30 p.m. from the National Weather Service that a tornado was in Carterville. 

“Storm sirens are activated when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning or a trained spotter reports a tornado … that includes the path of Joplin.”

After that, the reports of damage around Joplin started to roll in and the first responders got to work. 

The good news is while there was damage and many without power, there were no reported casualties or major injuries. 

“We went to roughly 81 locations to assess damage last night,” Ezell said. “With power lines down all over the place, a decision was made around three o'clock this morning to shut things down and start over again this morning in the daylight. 

“Assessment is still ongoing out there. The one thing I can tell you, and I am very happy and happy and pleased to say this, we had no injuries. That’s ambulance reported. They did not transport anybody last night due to the damage that was done.”

An estimated 50 utility poles will have to be replaced in the Joplin area, according to Liberty Utilities, which is already underway. Nearly 17,000 Liberty Customers in the area were without power at the peak of the emergency. Joplin had roughly 7,200 customers without electricity.

Liberty asks customers to ignore wait times on the outage map and instead to check the website and social media for updates on power restoration. It believes the majority of customers without power will have theirs restored by time darkness falls on Tuesday. 

In terms of structural damage around Joplin, the Rangeline and 13th Street area saw the worst of the storm’s intensity. Several businesses and residential areas had roof damage, while billboards were bent or knocked over completely and awnings ripped off buildings.

“We had four units right at the onset on the east side of town working separately,” Ezell said. “The west units were responding to medical calls and what-have-you in the rest of the city. We also had two units from Carl Junction Fire that came in and provided assistance to us. As soon as I got to the station, we immediately called in two more call-in crews, so we had two additional crews on the street as well.”

“They did incredible work. We covered a lot of ground over a short amount of time. Like I said, by the Grace of God, we didn’t have any injuries at all from the damage.”