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.
Tornadoes in the United States
On May 3, 1999, a storm produced a violent tornado in the vicinity of Oklahoma City and was a part of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, which also brought many violent storms to the states of Kansas, Arkansas, and Tennessee. In total, the storm produced 66 tornadoes over four states. The strong F5 storm took place near the town of Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, located in Grady County. During the storm, a group of students in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma had chased the storm on a Doppler on Wheels (or DOW), which scans storms while attached to a car. Doppler on Wheels data from the nearby storm revealed winds of , which was over the wind speed in the F5 classification of that time. Though the wind speed was over the F5 maximum, the tornado was not named the first ever F6 storm, as there was no F6 classification. Other scientists reviewed the DOW data taken by the students, and concluded that the estimated wind speed may have been inaccurate, but still over . Also, the wind speed recorded was taken from over above ground level. The National Weather Service also did a damage check, and found that the damage was that of an average F5 tornado.