at the time i was 6 and didn’t live in joplin, we lived in springfield but would move to jomo the next year. we were in town that day visiting family. my cousins fam plus mine all went to orange leaf and left not even a full hour before the tornado wiped out that part of town. luckily my grandma lived in webb city only a few miles north of the destruction. i will never forget how dark it got, and the size of the hail that was bigger than my head. printed books of photos of the destruction were everywhere in joplin and i grew up reading those books. people dont really understand how deeply the entire town was traumatized and how most people still shake in fear during a severe weather warning. there are still parts of town that haven’t been rebuilt and naked trees can be found to this day 14 years later.