Netflix is prepping America for storm season with its newly released documentary, “The Twister: Caught In The Storm,” featuring previously unseen amateur storm footage of the 2011 Joplin tornado. The killer tornado claimed more than 150 lives, destroying more than 4,000 homes, as it ripped and roared across the city, leaving unprecedented damage. While more than 12 years have passed since the storm, residents recount the EF5 tornado with stunning accuracy and brevity – the grainy footage builds ominous foreboding as darkened chaos befalls high school seniors on graduation night.
While online streaming platforms give insights to true crimes, natural disasters, and perplexing capers, Netflix’s 2011 Joplin tornado documentary brings viewers uncomfortably close to the action. Even with time and distance, the visceral dashboard and amateur compilation videos surpass storm chaser footage with an unguided humanism bridled by innate faith and palpable fear. Although the storm was one of the first killer tornadoes to be so widely documented, survivors retell the brazen brush with death with twinges of PTSD and optimism moving forward.
Why Did Netflix Produce a 2011 Joplin Tornado Documentary?
Ratings and views drive online streaming. Drama-addicted viewers binge-watch the latest crime series with unhinged joy – who doesn’t like spilling the tea as long as it’s not on your sofa? Living vicariously through sordid tales distracts people from more mundane and trivial worries. Recovering from a messy breakup? Relieve a lousy test or botched job interview with a WWII in-color documentary or a crazed stalker series. The Joplin tornado fit Netflix’s disaster archetype, so why the deep dive into the disaster baggage? Programming, scheduling, and source material likely contributed to the delay. Sifting through countless interviews and sporadic news coverage is time-consuming. How else can we follow the disaster that was ‘Baby Reindeer’ rather than one of the nation’s most destructive tornadoes?
Why Was the Joplin Tornado So Devastating?
The Joplin tornado measured more than one mile during its peak. The tornado also hit a reasonably dense population center, culminating in a worst-case scenario as the hurricane-forced winds tossed around more than 15,000 cars and buses. Missouri is also located on the eastern flank of Tornado Alley, where volatile atmospheres produce bidirectional winds at cold and warm air intersections. An overall flat, continuous topography also gave the twister ample room to traverse unabetted. More than 30 minutes into Netflix’s 2011 tornado documentary, a meteorologist panning the tower cam from the studio remarks on the twister’s eerie absence, contradicting the Doppler radar signature, before realizing the wind-wrapped tornado – masquerading as a rain burst – is barreling toward the unsuspecting community.
Unfazed diners, sipping coffee and chewing over the town’s fatty gossip, nonchalantly react to another “false” tornado siren before realizing the gravitas. A wannabe teen meteorologist, eyeing his phone’s weather alert, jerks his mom to reality, and complementary pogo-sticking camera footage from other nearby novice storm chasers scurry for cover before venturing closer to the funnel cloud while misjudging the tornado’s trajectory. All hell breaks loose moving forward as posterity becomes an afterthought in a mad dash for safety. Many caught-off-guard residents make peace with the imminent danger while lifting prayers for salvation. The documentary captures the full spectrum of grief-denial emotional processing with whirlwind speed while testifying to humanity’s indomitable spirit and will to survive. (Pardon the Trauma Dump).
What’s the Most Dangerous Tornado in US History?
Although the 2011 Joplin was massive in damage and destruction, it doesn’t even crack the nation’s Top 5. The March 18, 1925 Tri-State Tornado was the nation’s deadliest tornado, killing 695 people. The May 1840 Natchez, MS twister is ranked second with 317 fatalities, followed by the May 1896 St. Louis and April 1936 Tupelo twisters, killing 255 and 216 people, respectively. With the advent of advanced forecasting and electronic siren technologies, killer twisters began precipitously declining soon after television’s arrival. Joplin remains the country’s most deadly tornado during the last several decades. While Netflix’s 2011 Joplin tornado documentary is riveting true crime TV, the show also raises storm awareness. Tornado Season has arrived, and the Midwest and Southeast have forecasted an above-average tornado total. US Safe Room’s panelized tornado shelter kits can protect small families and large businesses from 250-mile-per-hour winds and flying debris. Click over to our catalog for perennial steel protection following a night of Doom Scrolling and binging – your frayed nerves might welcome the steel reassurance.
