St. Joseph man recalls close call with Joplin tornado 15 years later

EDITOR'S NOTE: AI was used to help write this article.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- Fifteen years ago, on May 22, 2011, an EF5 tornado brought death, destruction and devastation to the city of Joplin, Missouri.

Now, St. Joseph resident and KQ2 Creative Services Producer, Jim Ridenour, narrowly escaped being in the direct path of the natural disaster due to a series of seemingly unrelated circumstances.

Ridenour had planned to have a late dinner with his boss and friend at an IHOP restaurant, which was directly in the tornado's projected path. His avoidance of the restaurant involved a sequence of three unplanned events.

Ridenour recounted his original plans for that day.

"You know, sunny day. We knew storms were going to be coming in, but Missouri's the Ozarks, you know, and I was going to go to a late dinner with my boss and buddy," said Ridenour. "We'd known each other for years and we were going to go to IHOP and that happened to be right where the tornado was going to go through."

Ridenour's colleague ended up canceling the dinner plans, citing a sore throat. Ridenour considered staying home, but decided to still get food anyway.

While preparing to leave, he discovered an expiring coupon for another restaurant, which was located approximately eight or nine blocks north of the IHOP.

"When I was going out the door, I said, 'You know what? That's a good idea. I do want to go to that restaurant because it was close to a bookstore,' and that kind of delayed me getting home or getting out of the restaurant later, because I went in there and shopped around," Ridenour explained.

By the time he left the bookstore, rain had begun and hail started falling as he sprinted to the restaurant, where, upon entering, the situation quickly escalated.

"I had just sat down, literally just sat down. I was getting my napkin out when this person came charging in there, panicked, but he started screaming, 'There's a tornado coming down the street. There's a tornado coming down the street,' and babbling about some other stuff," described Ridenour. "Then the power goes out, and the manager comes out, says, 'Folks, we have a tornado on the ground in Joplin.'"

Ridenour said when he looked south through the restaurant's doors, he observed a mass of black debris, indicating the tornado's close proximity.

While he wasn't directly in the tornado's path, Ridenour said the phenomenon isn't something he's going to forget anytime soon.

"When I did witness what I saw of that destruction, it's, you know, that's those those things that just get embedded in your mind, and the picture is always there, so…" he said.

The EF-5 tornado struck Joplin, reaching a maximum width of over one mile with winds peaking at more than 200 miles per hour. The tornado destroyed virtually everything in its six-mile path.

The tornado claimed 161 lives and destroyed 8,000 homes and buildings. According to Missouri Storm Aware, it is the second EF-5 tornado to strike Missouri since 1957, when an EF-5 killed 44 and injured over 500 in Ruskin Heights, Missouri.

It was the seventh deadliest tornado in U.S. history and the 27th deadliest in world history.