A Correction About the Joplin Tornado

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Around the internet there are several lists of "worst" tornadoes of the decade we are wrapping up.

I have seen comments on one list to the effect the Joplin Tornado's death toll (an incredible horror of 161) could have been "much worse" if the high school graduation had not ended before the tornado destroyed the school. This is factually incorrect.

Because of the huge crowd projected, the graduation ceremony had been moved to Missouri Southern University which was outside of the path of the tornado. The graduation ceremony's timing had no appreciable effect on the death toll. That story, and the entire story of the Joplin Tornado, is told here.

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