Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What was the cost of the damages from the tornado at Joplin?
On May 22, a large, devastating EF5 tornado tracked through Joplin, Missouri, leaving behind catastrophic damage. It was a multiple-vortex tornado in excess of wide. Mainly the southern part of the city was affected with most structures in the area either damaged or destroyed. 162 people were killed along the path through Jasper and Newton counties in Missouri, making it the deadliest U.S. tornado since 1947, and one of the deadliest single tornadoes ever recorded. Among the most heavily damaged structures was St. John's Hospital (pictured right), which later was torn down due to the severity of the structural damage. Damages were estimated at around $2.8 billion (2011 USD).
36 people died in this tornado, and over 8,000 homes were badly damaged or destroyed. The tornado caused $1 billion in damage, making it the second-costliest tornado in U.S. history, and the most costly in history from 1999 to 2011, at which point it was surpassed by the 2011 Tuscaloosa–Birmingham tornado and again by the 2011 Joplin tornado. It was also the deadliest tornado to hit the U.S. since the April 10, 1979 F4 tornado that hit Wichita Falls, Texas, which killed 42 people.
The 2011 Joplin tornado was a catastrophic EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak and reached a maximum width of nearly during its path through the southern part of the city. This particular tornado was unusual in that it intensified in strength and grew larger in size at a very fast rate. The tornado tracked eastward across the city, and then continued eastward across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Jasper County and Newton County. It was the third tornado to strike Joplin since May 1971.
After three years in temporary campuses as a result of the 2011 tornado, Joplin High School opened at 2104 Indiana Ave. on September 2, 2014. The new facility combines a college, career and technology focused education along with Franklin Technology Center. The formal ribbon cutting ceremony was held on October 3, 2014. Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan attended the ceremony and spoke to the crowd. A ribbon representing the destructive path of the 2011 tornado was a part of the ceremony. Joplin High School Student Council President Sadie Wallner cut the ribbon.
In total, this tornado killed 72 people, all in Alabama. This made it the deadliest single tornado ever to strike the state of Alabama as well as (at the time) the deadliest in the United States since the 1955 Udall, Kansas tornado that killed 80 people. This death toll would go on to be exceeded by the Joplin EF5 tornado less than a month later. Damage from the tornado amounted to $1.29 billion, making this one of the costliest tornadoes in U.S. history. This tornado also had the longest track of any tornado in the outbreak, with its path extending across Northern Alabama and into Tennessee.
In the wake of the 2011 Joplin tornado in which seven people were killed in a Home Depot when the panel walls collapsed after the store was hit by an EF5 tornado, engineers in an article published in "The Kansas City Star" criticized the practice. They said that once one wall falls, it creates a domino effect. Twenty-eight people in an un-reinforced training room in the back of the building survived. According to a study of the collapse, the tornado hit the south corner of the store and lifted the roof up causing the west walls to collapse into the store. The walls on the east side (where the people survived) collapsed out. Only two walls remained standing. Engineers said that stronger roof-to-wall connections might have tempered the collapse. Two other big box stores at the corner that had concrete block construction (an Academy Sports and Walmart) lost their roofs but the walls remained intact. Those buildings were not directly hit by the tornado but the Home Depot building suffered a direct hit. Three people died in the Walmart, but 200 survived. The engineers told the Star that when concrete blocks fail they usually break apart, and do not come down in huge slabs. Home Depot, which has hundreds of stores built with tilt-up, said it disagreed with the finding and that it would use tilt-up when it rebuilt the Joplin store.
As of May 2013, the official death toll from National Weather Service was listed at 158 while the City of Joplin listed the death toll at 161 (158 direct). The list was up to 162, until one man's injuries were found to be unrelated to the event. In one indirect fatality, a policeman was struck by lightning and killed while assisting with recovery and cleanup efforts the day after the storm. Shortly after the tornado, authorities had listed 1,300 people as missing, but the number quickly dwindled as they were accounted for. Many people were reported to have been trapped in destroyed houses. Seventeen people were rescued from the rubble the day after the tornado struck.
The Missouri Emergency Management Agency reported more than 990 injured. Of 146 sets of remains recovered from the rubble, 134 victims had been positively identified by June 1. Due to the horrific injuries suffered by some victims, some different sets of remains were from a single person. On June 2 it was announced that four more victims had died.
Overall, the tornado killed 158 people (with an additional three indirect deaths), injured some 1,150 others, and caused damages amounting to a total of $2.8 billion. It was the deadliest tornado to strike the United States since the 1947 Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornadoes, and the seventh-deadliest overall.
This was the deadliest tornado recorded in Oklahoma since an F5 tornado killed 107 people in Woodward on April 9, 1947. It was also the deadliest tornado ever recorded in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area; the previous record was held by an F4 tornado that affected southwestern portions of the city on June 12, 1942, killing 31 people and causing $500,000 in damage ($ million in (2022 USD) when adjusted for inflation). It was the costliest tornado in US history until an EF4 tornado hit Tuscaloosa and northern portions of Birmingham, Alabama on April 27, 2011, causing an estimated $2.45 billion in damage (, the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado is the fourth-costliest tornado, having been surpassed by the EF5 tornadoes that hit Joplin on May 22, 2011, and areas of Moore near the 1999 storm track on May 20, 2013). National Weather Service researchers estimated that the death toll from the storm would likely have exceeded 600 had it not been for the advanced warning through local television and radio stations and exercising proper safety precautions.
On May 22, 2011, a tornado that killed 161 people in Joplin extensively damaged the high school and Franklin Tech. The high school's graduation ceremonies had just taken place about three miles away on the Missouri Southern State University campus shortly before the tornado struck.
According to principal Kerry Sachetta, "You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like. I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw." In the weeks after the tornado, it was determined that the campus was irreparable and would need to be completely rebuilt. 
Planning for a temporary school began four days after the May 22 tornado. School officials announced in June 2011 that juniors and seniors in the 2011-12 class (and possibly later) would attend classes in a section of Northpark Mall. Classes began in the renovated former Shopko location as scheduled on August 17, 2011.
In 2012, she released "Heartland: A Portrait of Survival." The film documents the effects of the 2011 Joplin tornado which destroyed a quarter of the city and caused about $2.8 billion worth of damage. Tremblay, who was living in Los Angeles at the time but had previously lived in Joplin, had relatives still living in her hometown. She traveled to the town with a film crew and documented the aftermath for a four-week period. The film, which features several stories like the Joplin Found Photos project, was shown at the Omaha Film Festival, and at St. Louis International Film Festival.
There were no building codes requiring tornado shelters nor specifically designed to prevent tornado damage until the 2011 Joplin tornado prompted a local ordinance requiring hurricane ties or similar fasteners. The state of Oklahoma adopted the minimum U.S. standard that year for the first time, but did not add high-wind protections like those in Florida designed to protect against hurricanes. Other states in Tornado Alley have no statewide building codes. The chance of any given location in Tornado Alley getting hit by an F-2 tornado (strong enough to do major structural damage and exceeding the 90 mph guideline for straightline winds) is about 1 every 4,000-5,000 years; in other areas the annual probability is one in several million. The most stringent building codes only require earthquake strengthening for a 1 in every 500-1,000 year probability.
Though Andrew was a small tropical cyclone for most of its lifespan, it caused extreme damage, especially in the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. The vast majority of the damage was as a result of extremely high winds, although a few tornadoes spawned by Andrew caused considerable damage in Louisiana. Throughout the areas affected, almost 177,000 people were left homeless. Outside of the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana, effects were widespread, although damage was minimal. Overall, $27.3 billion in losses and 65 fatalities were attributed to Andrew, with some estimates ranging as high as $34 billion. Andrew was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history at the time, but is now seventh following hurricanes Katrina (2005), Ike (2008), Sandy (2012), Harvey (2017), Irma (2017), and Maria (2017).
Overall, Andrew caused about $25.3 billion in damage in Florida, making it the costliest hurricane to hit the state at the time. Some estimates in Florida put the damage as high as $32 billion (1992 USD, $  USD). Almost all of the damage in Florida was caused by strong winds. Of the 44 deaths attributed to the storm, 15 were direct fatalities, while 29 were indirectly caused by the storm. It was later noted that if Andrew had been slightly larger or had made landfall a few miles further north, it would have significantly affected Miami and Fort Lauderdale, which would have resulted in an even higher damage and death toll. An analysis by the American Meteorological Society indicated that unlike most hurricanes, wind damage from Andrew was mostly north of the geometric center and occurred primarily on the eastern edge of the storm. Some officials in Florida considered Andrew the worst storm in the state since the Labor Day hurricane in 1935. The storm surge from Andrew caused more than $500 million in losses to boats and buildings. At the height of the storm, more than 1.4 million people lost electricity and another 150,000 were without telephone service. It is estimated that throughout Florida, the storm damaged 101,241 homes and destroyed approximately 63,000 others – the vast majority in Dade County – with about 175,000 people rendered homeless. In addition to homes, the storm damaged or destroyed 82,000 businesses, of farmland, 31 public schools, 59 health facilities/hospitals, 9,500 traffic signals, of power lines, and 3,000 watermains. Approximately 20 million cubic yards (15 million m) of debris left by the storm were disposed of.
In the Bahamas, Andrew brought high tides, hurricane-force winds, and tornadoes, which caused significant damage in the archipelago, especially on Cat Cays. At least 800 houses were destroyed and left damage to the transport, communications, water, sanitation, agriculture, and fishing sectors. Overall, Andrew caused four fatalities and $250 million in damage in the Bahamas. Throughout the southern portions of Florida, Andrew brought very high winds; a wind gust of was reported at a house in Perrine, Florida. High winds caused catastrophic damage in Florida, especially in Miami-Dade County, where approximately 117,000 houses were either severely damaged or destroyed. In the Everglades, 70,000 acres (280 km) of trees were knocked down and about 182 million fish were killed. Rainfall in Florida was moderate, peaking at in western Miami-Dade County. Significant damage to oil platforms was reported, with one company losing 13 platforms, had 104 structures damaged, and five drilling wells blown off course. In Louisiana, Andrew produced hurricane-force winds along its path, damaging 23,000 homes and destroying 985 homes and 1,951 mobile homes. An F3 tornado in St. John the Baptist Parish damaged or destroyed 163 structures. 17 fatalities were reported in Louisiana, six of which were drowning victims offshore. Elsewhere, the storm spawned at least 28 tornadoes, especially in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Overall, Andrew caused 65 fatalities and $27.3 billion (1992 USD) in damage, making it the eighth-costliest hurricane in U.S. history, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Ike in 2008, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria in 2017, and Hurricane Florence in 2018.
In mid-September, a tropical low detached from a cold front and developed into Tropical Depression Four late on September 17, while located about east-northeast of Bermuda. Early on the following day, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Bonnie. Due to light vertical wind shear, Bonnie quickly strengthened, and became a hurricane late on September 18. Further deepening occurred, and at 1800 UTC on September 21, Bonnie peaked as a Category 2 hurricane. Thereafter, Bonnie became nearly stationary for almost 24 hours. Satellite images indicated that the low-level center became exposed, indicating that Bonnie was significantly weakening while tracking southward. It is estimated that Bonnie weakened to a tropical storm by late on September 24. Bonnie further deteriorated to tropical depression status on September 26, but re-strengthened to a tropical storm later that day.
Joplin's death in October 1970 at age 27 stunned her fans and shocked the music world, especially when coupled with the death just 16 days earlier of another rock icon, Jimi Hendrix, also at age 27. (This would later cause some people to attribute significance to the death of musicians at the age of 27, as celebrated in the notional '27 Club'.) Music historian Tom Moon wrote that Joplin had "a devastatingly original voice", music columnist Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" wrote that Joplin as an artist was "overpowering and deeply vulnerable", and author Megan Terry said that Joplin was the female version of Elvis Presley in her ability to captivate an audience.
It is estimated that at least 100 people lost their lives, mostly due to mudslides, including five persons in Havana. However, reports range as high as 700. Initial estimates of the financial damage caused by the storm were in the millions of dollars, including losses of $1 million in Havana, largely from the destruction of Customs House sheds there, which were filled with many valuable goods. Some of these buildings were swept away, and the winds tore the roof off the main warehouse. In the aftermath—while the hurricane was still widely considered to be two separate storms—rumors arose "of the approach of a third storm", although in actuality no additional storms were known to have occurred in the 1910 season.
In North Carolina, the hurricane produced winds of up to in Manteo. Described as one of the worst hurricanes in record in Hatteras, the storm resulted in $25,000 in damage (1936 USD, $360,000 2006 USD) to roads and bridges and $30,000 in damage (1936 USD, $440,000 2006 USD) to buildings and piers. Very high tides were reported along the Outer Banks, with Nags Head losing about of beach. The hurricane destroyed the highway bridge along the Currituck Sound, and resulted in heavy crop damage in northeastern North Carolina. The hurricane was also considered among the worst hurricanes on record in the Norfolk, Virginia, area. Winds of up to at Cape Henry destroyed windows, roofs, and some entire buildings, resulting in around $500,000 in damage (1936 USD, $7.3 million 2006 USD). The hurricane produced a storm tide of in Sewell's Point, Virginia, the second highest on record at that location. Two locations along the James River experienced record crest levels of over . Rough seas washed several boats ashore, and shipping was cancelled in and out of Norfolk. The hurricane resulted in cancelled train service and increased traffic. The hurricane was indirectly responsible for two casualties. The first fatality occurred when debris from the hurricane struck a person in the head and later died. Another person drowned in the Elizabeth River in an effort to recover a rowboat blown adrift. Though hurricane warnings were posted for the northeast United States and hurricane-force winds occurred there, damage, if any, is unknown.
Strong winds from the hurricane significantly affected four counties in the state, which damaged or destroyed over 730,000 houses and buildings, while leaving more than 1 million without power. The storm surge impacted portions of Miami-Dade County, peaking at around 16.9 feet (5.2 m) just north of Homestead near the Burger King International Headquarters; the surge caused significant damage to boats and to the Charles Deering Estate. The nationwide maximum rainfall total from the hurricane was 13.98 inches (355 mm) in the western portion of Miami-Dade County. No major flooding was reported in the state. The hurricane caused about $25.3 billion (1992 USD) in damage and 44 deaths in the state—15 directly from the storm's effects and 29 indirectly related. Many other sources, however, estimated that Andrew caused more than $32 billion in damage in the state. Andrew was, at the time, the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States; it was surpassed in subsequent years by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Ike in 2008, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017.
New Orleans was catastrophically affected by what Raymond B. Seed called "the worst engineering disaster in the world since Chernobyl", when the Federal levee system failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. By the time the hurricane approached the city at the end of August 2005, most residents had evacuated. As the hurricane passed through the Gulf Coast region, the city's federal flood protection system failed, resulting in the worst civil engineering disaster in American history. Floodwalls and levees constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers failed below design specifications and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of residents who had remained were rescued or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at the Louisiana Superdome or the New Orleans Morial Convention Center. More than 1,500 people were recorded as having died in Louisiana, most in New Orleans, while others remain unaccounted for. Before Hurricane Katrina, the city called for the first mandatory evacuation in its history, to be followed by another mandatory evacuation three years later with Hurricane Gustav.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornado strength from weakest, an EF0 tornado, to strongest, an EF5 tornado, by the damage the tornado caused to property and infrastructure. An EF0 tornado has winds from 65–85 MPH (105–137 KPH), may take off a roof or damage gutters, and can bring down tree limbs. If a tornado causes no damage because it did not occur in a populated area, it is always classed as EF0. An EF5 tornado has winds over 200 MPH (322 KPH) and can totally destroy reinforced concrete structures, even throwing rail cars a considerable distance.
St. John's Regional Medical Center was damaged, and demolished in 2012. The Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team temporarily replaced the demolished St. John's Regional Medical Center with a mobile hospital until the permanent hospital was rebuilt. The local high school, Joplin High School, was totally destroyed, as well. A total of 161 people died from tornado-related injuries as of the end of July 2011. Communications were lost and power was knocked out to many areas. An official statement from the National Weather Service has categorized the tornado as an EF5. On Sunday, May 29, President Barack Obama, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, and Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate visited and toured Joplin to see what the damage looked like and attended a memorial service for the deceased. Later that day, the city held a moment of silence at 5:41 pm, to mark the time the tornado struck. The area was declared a federal disaster area.
The $2.8 billion in damage is the largest amount for a tornado since 1950.
The "Joplin Globe" reported that 54 percent of the people died in their residences, 32 percent died in non-residential areas and 14 percent died in vehicles or outdoors. Joplin officials after the tornado announced plans to require hurricane ties or other fasteners between the houses and their foundations (devices add about $600 US to the construction costs). Officials rejected a proposal to require concrete basements in new houses. Officials noted that only 28 percent of Joplin's new homes had basements as of 2009 compared with 38 percent two decades before.
In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers published a study disputing the tornado's initial EF5 rating, based on surveying damage on over 150 structures within a six mile segment of the storm's path. According to the report, over 83 percent of the damage was caused by wind speeds of 135 miles per hour or less, the maximum wind speed of an EF2 tornado. An additional 13 percent was caused by EF3 wind speeds, and 3 percent was consistent with EF4 winds. The study found no damage consistent with wind speeds over 200 miles per hour, the minimum threshold of an EF5 tornado. Researchers concluded that the inability to find EF5 damage was due to the absence of construction standards that were able to determine the necessary wind speeds. Bill Colbourne, a member of the engineering team that surveyed the damage, declared that "a relatively large number of buildings could have survived in Joplin if they had been built to sustain hurricane winds."