Joplin High School
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.
Buffalo Ridge
On the weekend of June 13, 1992 a large storm developed over the Northern Great Plains, resulting in severe weather in western South Dakota. On June 16, another storm struck eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota destroying over one hundred homes and businesses. These supercells created many large damaging tornadoes. The first tornado formed in Charles Mix County and moved toward Mitchell, South Dakota. The second formed in Miner County, South Dakota and the third formed south of Pierre, South Dakota both causing considerable property damage. The fourth tornado formed near the unincorporated town of Leota in southwest Minnesota, spawning a "maxi" tornado that stayed on the ground for almost an hour and a half and did substantial damage to the cities of Chandler and Lake Wilson, Minnesota. In Chandler, the property damage was estimated at over fifteen million dollars. This tornado was classified as an F5 tornado on the Fujita Scale and turned out to be the only F5 tornado documented in the United States in 1992. Another tornado formed in South Dakota later in the day and made its way to Minnesota where it struck the town of Chandler for the second time, along with Colton and Dell Rapids.