The massive F-5 tornado cut a six-mile swath through the southwest Missouri city just as residents were sitting down to Sunday dinner. It was the deadliest single tornado in the United States since 1947.

Tornadoes have battered the country this spring, killing more than 500 people, mostly in the south. A twister even struck Massachusetts, where tornadoes are rare, last week, killing four people.

2011 Joplin Tornado

The 2011 Joplin tornado was a large, extremely powerful, and fast-moving EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, USA, at about 5:41 p.m. CDT (2241 UTC) on Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak sequence and reached a maximum width of in excess of 0.75 miles (1.21 km) during its path through the southern part of the city. It rapidly intensified and tracked eastward across the city, and then continued eastward across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Jasper County. This was the third significant tornado to strike Joplin since May 1971. Along with the Tri-State Tornado and the 1896 St. Louis-East St. Louis tornado, it ranks as one of Missouri's and America's deadliest tornadoes, and is likely to be one of the costliest; the cost to rebuild Joplin could reach $3 billion. The May 2011 tornado was the deadliest tornado to hit the United States since 1947 and the eighth-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. As of June 5, officials reported that 141 people were killed by the tornado.

Casualties

Damage in Joplin one day after the tornado.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety announced, with all missing persons accounted for, a death toll of 141 people. Shortly after the tornado, authorities had listed 1,300 people as missing but the number quickly dwindled as they were accounted for. The Missouri Emergency Management Agency reported more than 990 injured. Out of 146 sets of remains recovered from the rubble, 134 victims had been positively identified on June 1st. Due to the horrific injuries suffered by some victims, it is possible that some different sets of remains are from a single person. On June 2 it was announced that four more victims had died, bringing the total death toll to 138 people. The figure of 138 deaths makes it the deadliest U.S. tornado since that of April 9, 1947 in Woodward, Oklahoma and surrounding locations, and the eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history. This would also make it the first single tornado since the June 8, 1953 tornado in Flint, Michigan, to have 100 or more associated fatalities.

Six deaths occurred at the hospital. Five of those deaths were patients on ventilators who died after the building lost power and a backup generator did not work. The sixth fatality was a hospital visitor.

In addition to the deaths directly attributed to the tornado a Riverside, Missouri police officer assisting in the response was killed on May 23 a day after when he was struck by lightning.

Officials said they rescued 944 pets and reunited 292 with owners.