Storm survivors: Remembering Joplin's tornado

AAA??May. 22, 2012?8:42 PM ET
Storm survivors: Remembering Joplin's tornado
AP

Freeman Hospital employees, from left, Nova Beyersdorfer, billing clerk, Dale Stiver, housekeeping manager, and Nancy Long, director of nursing for Freeman Neosho, release a lantern Tuesday, May 22, 2012 in memory of May 22, 2011 tornado victims, at Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Mo. The tornado killed 161 people and destroyed one-third of the city, making it the nation's deadliest single tornado in six decades. (AP Photo/The Joplin Globe, Roger Nomer)

Freeman Hospital employees, from left, Nova Beyersdorfer, billing clerk, Dale Stiver, housekeeping manager, and Nancy Long, director of nursing for Freeman Neosho, release a lantern Tuesday, May 22, 2012 in memory of May 22, 2011 tornado victims, at Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Mo. The tornado killed 161 people and destroyed one-third of the city, making it the nation's deadliest single tornado in six decades. (AP Photo/The Joplin Globe, Roger Nomer)

Dignitaries wait to turn dirt during a groundbreaking for the new Irving Elementary School near the ruins of St. John's Regional Medical Center Tuesday, May 22, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. The ceremony is the first of three groundbreakings for new schools to replace buildings destroyed by an EF-5 tornado that killed 161 people as it cut a wide swath through Joplin a year ago today. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Second grader Logan Foglesong, age 7, turns dirt during a groundbreaking for the new Irving Elementary School near the ruins of St. John's Regional Medical Center Tuesday, May 22, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. The ceremony is the first of three groundbreakings for new schools to replace buildings destroyed by an EF-5 tornado that killed 161 people as it cut a wide swath through Joplin a year ago today. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Shovels and hard hats stand prepared on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 for the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Irving Elementary School to be located near the former St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. The old school, located nine blocks east of the new site, was completely destroyed by the May 22, 2011 tornado. The groundbreaking was one of a number of events taking place on the anniversary of the Joplin tornado. (AP Photo/The Joplin Globe, Roger Nomer)

A sign remembering a tornado victim is seen on a street corner Tuesday, May 22, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. The community is marking the anniversary of an EF-5 tornado that killed 161 people as it cut a wide swath through Joplin a year ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) ? From dawn to dusk, residents who lived through the tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., last year are remembering the storm and celebrating their survival.

The storm that hit the city on the afternoon of May 22, 2011, wiped clean entire neighborhoods, devastated a hospital and flattened schools. A year later, the debris is cleared from the city of 50,000, and residents are continuing the work of rebuilding their community.

A year after the storm ripped through the city, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon opened the day of remembrances with a sunrise ceremony where balloons were lifted into the air. Officials broke ground on schools that will replace the ones that were destroyed. Survivors are walking the path of the storm. And at 5:41 p.m. ? the precise moment the tornado struck ? residents will fall silent to remember the 161 lives lost.

Associated Press Photographer Charlie Riedel and photographers from The Joplin Globe show, from sunrise to sunset, how the day of memorials unfolds in Joplin.

Associated Press

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