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GWEN IFILL: Now, the city of Joplin, Mo., rebuilds and remembers one year after it was leveled by a deadly twister.
This was Joplin one year ago, after a tornado packing 200-an-hour winds tore through town. It killed 161 people, injured hundreds more, and destroyed 8,000 buildings, many of them homes. This is how the city of 50,000 looks today. Three million cubic yards of debris have been hauled away. Damaged homes have been torn down, leaving empty foundations.
Others have been rebuilt, but at a cost. The storm caused $2.8 billion in damage, the costliest tornado since 1950. And emotional, physical and psychological scars remain.
RANDY STEELE, Joplin School Board president: Normal is not normal for Joplin, Missouri, but one day, it will be.
GWEN IFILL: Joplin High School was severely damaged in the storm, as were 10 other public schools in the area. Classes moved to a nearby mall. With donations from the United Arab Emirates, students received new laptops and state-of-the-art equipment. But life after the storm continues to be an adjustment.
DANIELLE CAMPBELL, student: We don't have books anymore, laptops now. Everything's been different. Nothing's been the same, except that it's school. We call it school.
GWEN IFILL: Last night, President Obama told graduating seniors they would always carry the experience of the past year with them.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Some of life's strongest bonds are the ones we forge when everything around us seems broken. And even though I expect that some of you will ultimately end up leaving Joplin, I'm pretty confident that Joplin will never leave you.
GWEN IFILL: Today, city leaders broke ground on Joplin High's new building, as well as for two other new schools. Joplin High principal Kerry Sachetta spoke recently of the importance of providing students with some sense of normalcy.
He was interviewed by Ozarks Public Broadcasting as part of a documentary about life in Joplin now.
KERRY SACHETTA, principal, Joplin High School: We wanted them to be able to say, you know what? I was in this club, I was in this organization, I was on this team, I was in this concert or whatever activity, and not to have—not to be able to look back and say, this tornado not only destroyed our town, but it also wiped out everything I can remember about what was important to me growing up.
GWEN IFILL: The city has had to make other big adjustments, as well. The tornado reduced Saint John's Regional Medical Center to a shell. Since then, a smaller interim facility, Mercy Hospital, has been built down the road, while work on a permanent replacement continues. But demand often outpaces resources.
GARY PULSIPHER, president and CEO, Mercy Hospital Joplin: The availability of beds is just difficult, so if somebody needs to be hospitalized—let's say that an elderly patient comes in and has pneumonia,and we always keep these for a couple of days to make sure we can get them well—many times, we have to go to as far as Kansas City to find a bed to be able to put them in.
GWEN IFILL: Aaron Brown is lead pastor of Saint Paul's United Church, which lost its sanctuary in the storm. He says, for many, the trials brought on by the storm made them stronger.
AARON BROWN, lead pastor, Saint Paul's United Church: Being a person of faith doesn't ever insulate you from tragedy or harm. What God's promise is clearly in Scripture and what Jesus conveys is that: "I will be with you through the storm. I will be with you when the tragedy hits. I will be with you as you pick through rubble. I will be with you as you stand at the grave site of the person that you love. I will be with you."
GWEN IFILL: Commemorations continued this afternoon with a walk of unity, including Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and many of the city's residents.
Now we get a firsthand account about life in Joplin today from Jane Cage. She's a longtime businesswoman and she leads the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team.
Welcome.
JANE CAGE, Joplin Citizens Advisory Recovery Team: Thank you. Thanks for being interested in Joplin today.
GWEN IFILL: I see you wearing that T-shirt with a one on it. Explain where you have been and what that T-shirt mean.
JANE CAGE: Sure.
This T-shirt means one year, one community, one direction. And today is the one-year anniversary of the tornado. And I have just come from the Walk of Unity, where there are literally thousands of people walking across Joplin. The mile must have—the parade must have stretched half a mile or more. It's incredible.
GWEN IFILL: In the year of Joplin's recovery, what has been the most difficult part?
JANE CAGE: I think the immensity of it. When you look at how long the destruction was and how wide it was, there's just so much to do. There are so many houses to rebuild. There's so much to think our way through. There's just a lot going on, but I think we're making great progress.
GWEN IFILL: And as you look back over these past 12 months, what would you say is the greatest accomplishment so far?
JANE CAGE: I think the greatest accomplishment so far is, number one, the number of people that we have been able to bring back home and probably, number two, the fact that we opened school on time and have had great attendance all year long, even in very trying circumstances.
GWEN IFILL: Now, I should tell our viewers that the Chamber of Commerce named you citizen of the year in 2012.
