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.
March 1997 tornado outbreak
Another supercell north of the main storm produced several tornadoes north of Little Rock and Jonesboro. Among the towns affected was Marmaduke, which was also affected by an F3 tornado during the April 2, 2006 tornado outbreak.
11 counties across Arkansas were declared federal disaster areas by then-US President Bill Clinton for tornadoes while two others in were for flooding. Seven other counties in Tennessee were also declared disaster areas due to tornadoes. It was considered the worst tornado outbreak since the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1994, which killed 42 across Alabama and Georgia. In Kentucky, then-governor Paul E. Patton had initially declared 120 counties a state of emergency and deployed about 1100 National Guard troops to the flood-stricken regions. In Indiana, the Ohio River overflow its banks due to record rains. All 13 counties along the river between Evansville and Cincinnati were also declared disaster areas. In West Virginia, then-Governor Cecil Underwood declared state of emergencies for 14 counties, and 16 were later declared disaster areas as over 4 000 homes and other structures were damaged by the flooding.