At 5:34 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, 2011, just east of the Kansas state line, the sun had disappeared, and the wind had begun to swirl to the strength of a tornado with windspeeds between 65-85 mph in the residential subdivisions of southwest Joplin, Missouri.
Within four minutes at 5:38 p.m., the tornado had quickly gained intensity to become an EF-5 with gusts exceeding 200 mph. Virtually every house and commercial business near McClelland Boulevard and 26th Street was flattened, and some were swept away completely from their foundations. As the tornado continued to track east, it had reached its widest point of nearly 1 mile across, and proceeded to completely destroy a Walmart Supercenter and a Home Depot as well as numerous businesses and restaurants. At some residences, reinforced concrete porches were deformed, or in some cases, completely torn away.
By 6:12 p.m., the winds had subsided as the tornado moved in the rural counties east of Joplin.
The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield determined that the EF-5 toranado had tracked a length of 21.62 miles long, and had lasted for 38 minutes. A total of 161 people were killed, and over 1,150 others were injured. The tornado was the first EF-5 tornado in southwest Missouri since records have been maintained for such events.
And Then The Sky Turned Angry explores the seemingly organized placement of personal effects after an EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri in 2011.
11 archival pigment prints on Canson Prestige II
6 text sheets adapted from remembrance notices published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Springfield News-Leader and Joplin Globe on Canson Rag Photographique
3 text sheets of victims names in memoriam on Canson Rag Photographique
Summary statement, map of Joplin tornado path, colophon and index sheet on Canson Rag Photographique
Chiyogami silkscreened paper covered book binders board with four-flap archival folder
14-3/8 x 11-3/8 x 7/8 inches