Missouri
Located in Tornado Alley, Missouri also receives extreme weather in the form of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. The most recent tornado in the state to cause damage and casualties was the 2011 Joplin tornado, which destroyed roughly one-third of the city of Joplin. The tornado caused an estimated $1–3 billion in damages, killed 159 (+1 non-tornadic), and injured over 1,000 people. It was the first EF5 to hit the state since 1957 and the deadliest in the U.S. since 1947, making it the seventh deadliest tornado in American history and 27th deadliest in the world. St. Louis and its suburbs also have a history of experiencing particularly severe tornadoes, the most recent memorable one being an EF4 tornado that damaged Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on April 22, 2011. One of the worst tornadoes in American history struck St. Louis on May 27, 1896, killing at least 255 and causing $10 mil. damage ($3.9 bil. damage in 2009) or $ in today's dollars.
The Home Depot
In the wake of the 2011 Joplin tornado in which the walls of a Home Depot collapsed after being hit by an EF5 tornado, "The Kansas City Star", citing engineers, criticized Home Depot's practice of using tilt-up construction in hundreds of its big-box stores (other nearby big-box stores in Joplin, including a Walmart and Academy Sports, which had concrete block construction, lost their roofs but the walls remained intact). In tilt-up construction the concrete is poured onsite, lifted into place, and then attached to the roof. The engineers told the "Star" that the practice, while normally safe and efficient, is dangerous in major storms because once the roof is lifted (as happened in Joplin) the walls collapse in a domino effect. Seven people were killed in the front of the store when the 100,000-pound walls collapsed on them, while 28 people in the back of the store survived when those walls collapsed outward. Only two of the slab walls in the Home Depot survived. In contrast, 3 people died in the Walmart but 200 survived. Engineers noted that when concrete block construction fails, structural elements break in pieces and usually not in huge slabs. Home Depot said it fundamentally disagreed with the engineers quoted by the "Star" and said it would use tilt-up construction when it rebuilds the Joplin store.