Tornadoes Offer Lessons in Disaster Response and Planning

In a year marked by a high number of severe and devastating natural catastrophes, one thing is evident — while rare, some situations are not survivable. For instance, if people or structures happen to be located directly in the path of tornado rated EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, one with the capacity to do the most damage, the tornado to some extent is going to win. The twister that hit Joplin, Mo., in May was that kind of tornado. Rated an EF-5, it was wide, slow and traveled 22 miles on the ground.