A year since a tornado destroyed a third of Joplin , Missouri , three iReporters revisit the scenes of destruction they witnessed in May 2011 and reflect on the recovery process . Jennifer Parr had heard the sirens and knew the tornado was coming . The college student barely made it out of town to her parents ' house before the storm touched down that Sunday . She returned the next day to document the wreckage . `` My house is still standing , but all the windows are busted out , and my belongings have been strewn all over the house . The fencing around my yard is destroyed , '' she told iReport . `` My house is located in southwest Joplin , three blocks away from the hospital that took a direct hit and three blocks away from houses that were completely leveled . It 's just unreal . '' May 23 , 2011 : Jennifer Parr talks about the deadly tornado that hit Joplin , Missouri . After spending the past year living with her parents and grandfather , she and her dog will move into a new place next month . Last year , she could n't imagine how the town would recover . Today , she says , Joplin set a standard for disaster recovery . `` The business district looks like almost as if nothing had ever happened there . It 's been really amazing how fast some of the recovery has happened , '' she said . `` It gives you hope for the future . '' Spirit of Joplin . Grant Deardorff was at home with his pregnant wife and year-old son just north of Joplin , hoping the predicted tornado would n't strike . After they knew they were safe , `` I just had a feeling I need to go to town and bring my camera and either be prepared to take pictures or help people , '' he told iReport at the time . Deardorff , a community manager for the American Cancer Society , spent the first weeks after the tornado helping remove debris and assisting friends . On nights and weekends throughout the summer , he documented the aftermath in photos , piecing together the magnitude of what had happened . And then , for a long time , he did n't want to look anymore . `` Quickly , it became a little too much for me emotionally , '' he said . `` After I was done taking the pictures , I did n't want to think about them for a while . There was so much pain and loss . '' Then and now : Grant Deardorff 's photos from the tornado aftermath . By March , as he saw victims rebuilding and looking forward , he felt ready to revisit the area as a photographer . He compiled photos and stories from the Joplin tornado in a digital book called `` The Heart of Joplin . '' He plans to donate $ 5 from the sale of each book to two Joplin nonprofits . Deardorff said the images of the aftermath `` remind us of how much work Joplin has done to rebuild itself over the past year and how the spirit of Joplin overcame such a terrible disaster . '' Hard to go back to work . Zachary Tusinger watched the tornado move in from the roof of his apartment building . A few hours later , he learned that his aunt and uncle were killed . Many friends were without homes . It was hard for the young attorney to go back to work after that . Sitting behind a desk just did n't feel right , he said . Within a few months , Tusinger switched jobs to work exclusively with tornado victims as an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps legal fellow with Legal Aid of Western Missouri . As much as the town has recovered , the tornado still comes up in nearly every conversation . `` Even though we 're a year out , we 're still only a year out . There 's still a lot of shadows or remnants of what happened that day , '' he said on the anniversary of the tornado . `` It 's very hard to go through the day without thinking of the tornado or seeing some sign of the tornado or talking to someone that was affected by the tornado . ''
iReporters revisit the scenes of Joplin destruction . The tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, on April 19, 2011, was one of several tornadoes to strike in recent years -- and it is not uncommon for a storm like this to be blamed for at least some deaths Shadows and remnants of the storm remain .