On May 26, 2011 I was on assignment to evaluate damages for one of our firm's clients. I knew right away this was not going to be a typical assignment.

My job was to assess damages after the EF-5 tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri. My firm was employed to investigate damages to the machinery and electrical in a manufacturing plant. The utter scope of the damages after the tornado was surreal. Everywhere I looked, buildings were flattened to the ground. People were wandering around, rummaging through the rubble, or simply waiting for someone to show up.

The powerful tornado had carved a path of destruction three quarters of a mile wide and six miles long through the heart of the city. Driving into the area from the south, I was immediately struck by the enormous magnitude of the destruction. Although I had followed the news reports extensively over the days prior to my inspection, nothing prepared me for the moment I found myself standing in the middle of it, with wreckage as far as I could see in every direction.

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