![]() “You had many more people potentially in the path, in vulnerable locations,” said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. The Joplin tornado hit on a Sunday afternoon, as people were out and about, including hundreds who had just left the high school’s graduation ceremony. It was on the ground for 22 miles and 38 terrifying minutes, tearing through one-third of the town. But the Joplin tornado was a rarely seen monster, an EF-5 with winds in excess of 200 mph. The Jefferson City twister was a big one, an EF-3 with winds estimated at 160 mph. ![]() “He kept us and our home safe when the tornado was going on.” “I always tell my kids, ‘Keep God first,’ because God was there for us,” Gary said Friday. But several factors created completely different scenarios - factors that worked against Joplin and helped spare the lives of Jefferson City residents like Debra Gary, who along with her husband, mother and four kids hunkered down in the basement before emerging to find their home badly damage. And they both ravaged residential neighborhoods and business districts. The two storms hit Missouri cities roughly the same size on the same day of the year, May 22. ![]() Eight years to the day after a devastating tornado killed 161 people and injured more than 1,100 others in Joplin, another big twister ripped through Missouri - this time the capital of Jefferson City - but with a far different result: no deaths or serious injuries.
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