The Joplin, MO, tornado struck one year ago today.

One year ago today an EF5 tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri.  The loss of life and property was devastating!

The St. John's Hospital in Joplin suffered significant damage from the tornado.  The hospital is shown in the background.  Most of the windows were blown out, and there was massive damage.  Yes, that's a helicopter in the foreground, possible a medivac rescue helicopter.

This is a closer view of one wall of the hospital showing the windows that blew out when the tornado hit.

This video footage is from a security camera inside the St. John's Hospital, and it captured what it would have been like to be in that waiting room when the tornado hit.  This video was posted today, one year after the tornado struck, by the Huffington Post (Huffington Post Joplin, Missouri, Hospital video footage, 22 May 2011).

For more info on this tornado and why tornados tend to form in the Great Plains and Midwest you can check out a posting I made a few days after the tornado struck back in 2011.  You can see it at Thoughts on the Joplin, MO, and Longdale, OK, tornadoes.