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.
2013 Moore tornado
On the morning of May 21, the medical examiner's office incorrectly stated that 91 bodies of tornado victims had been received. This number was up from the earlier report of 51 bodies that were incorrectly stated as having been received. Upon the office's discovery that some victims were mistakenly counted twice due to communication errors made by Moore rescue response units that the bodies were admitted to area funeral homes (nearly all of the deceased were actually transported to the examiner's office in Oklahoma City), the actual number was revised downward and later confirmed at 24 tornado victims and two indirect victims. The first two deaths occurred in a house east of Briarwood Elementary School; one occurred near Santa Fe Avenue; seven occurred following a wall collapse at Plaza Towers Elementary; nine occurred within the neighborhoods mainly south of Plaza Towers Elementary; one occurred just east of Interstate 35; and one occurred in a home between Eastern Avenue and Bryant Avenue. A 90-year-old woman who suffered a fractured skull during the tornado later suffered a pair of strokes and died on August 5. On May 6, 2018, nearly five years after the tornado, a 14-year-old survivor who suffered posttraumatic stress disorder after losing seven of his friends at Plaza Towers Elementary School committed suicide. The 2013 Moore tornado was the deadliest tornado recorded in the U.S. since the Joplin, Missouri tornado that killed 158 people in May 2011.