Google Maps: Joplin Tornado Damage

[Brendon Lindsey]

Well I was on google maps today, and the satellite view of Joplin is a new version. The damage to Joplin is clear as day. This new satellite image must have been taken within a month of the tornado occuring. I live in Joplin now, and it doesnt look as bad as this google sat image is.

It is interesting so I figured I would post it. You may have to zoom in a couple clicks.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.176,-94.31&spn=0.021372,0.032830&t=k&hl=en


Well the URL pulls up Carthage,MO. Joplin isn't to far from there.

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

I zoomed into the EF4/5 damage area where there was a street view... doing a split-screen of the new satellite imagery with the pre-tornado street view is a little unnerving.

 

[Adam Atkins]

This is a better link. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Jopli...src=6&hnear=Joplin,+Jasper,+Missouri&t=k&z=13

 

[Wes Carter]

Someone made a split screen video driving around Joplin then retraced their route after the tornado. Many of you have probably seen this, but those who haven't it is pretty heart wrenching.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all...

I downloaded and annotated the google maps of Joplin below. Pretty incredible damage as seen from the air / space - In a disturbing sense that is.

In the annotated graphic above, taken from both aerial and satellite photography (courtesy of Google Earth), the sobering and chilling path of destruction can be seen arching from left (west) to right (east and southeast), as if someone simply "erased" the image with a large eraser. The tornado pretty much decimated everything during peak intensity, leaving pretty much nothing standing. The path goes through St John's Hospital and towards the ENE, then East across the residential areas southwest of Joplin proper. Notably, many of the deaths occurred near Range Line Road, close to a Wal-Mart and shopping center, with cars and heavy debris hurled nearly a mile across the landscape.

The path continues east, and then turns southeast in response to the FFD (Forward Flank Downdraft surge) of the parent supercell is it merged with another thunderstorm to its south. The tornado turned right (moving towards the Southeast) and weakened to EF-2 strength near I-44 and Highway 71 before dissipating after that. Some lighter debris was carried nearly 100 miles and reached altitudes of over 18,000 feet. In the graphic above, an interesting area is marked with a yellow box, and is enlarged in an annotated image below, near the edge of maximum destruction.

The annotated image above is an enlargement of the first image (that shows the damage path as a whole), showing the individual houses across a distance of about 3/4 of a mile in a square, just southeast of Joplin High School. The interesting feature is the rapid progression from total devastation to the upper-left (Northwest) to almost NO damage as one progresses to the lower-right (Southeast). The blue color in the image is from the tarps that cover many of the roofs that were torn-off homes and businesses that were not completely disintegrated. To the far upper-left, and across from a very short gradient from lesser damage to the Southeast, the main damage was complete (disintegration).