The torrid conditions don't seem to bother it, nor does the presence of a fully armed and operational immune system. Once comfortably ensconced in the human body, it wastes no time in taking over the place. That rulebook gets tossed out, however, when an object traveling in excess of 200 miles per hour injects the fungus directly into human flesh. Under normal conditions, Apophysomyces scavanges dead plants and can no more infect a human than order a pizza. Many zygomycetes are saprobes that make a living eating dead plants. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. " Zygo1003" by Jon Houseman - Jon Houseman and Matthew Ford. Fungal filaments artificially stained blue here. It looks like a big dark nut created at the junction where two fungal filaments of opposite mating type (i.e. Zygomycetes get their name from the special reproductive structure in which they have sex and make sexual spores: the zygosporangium.
This time, the fungus would go on to kill or contribute to the deaths of five of the 13.Īpophysomyces is a zygomycete, one of the five major groups of fungi. Their wounds were blackening, infected by fungi so aggressive that the flesh actually sprouted fuzzy white mold, as if they were a forgotten orange or loaf of bread.ĭoctors sampled the wounds, grew the fungus in the lab, and were astonished to find 13 people had all become infected by a single fungus rarely seen in humans: Apophysomyces trapeziformis. In the weeks after, doctors started to notice something strange among a few of those injured. 158 people died and more than 1,100 were injured in this single storm almost half the town was destroyed. The people of Joplin endured a maelstrom of metal, wood, and rock hurled at over 200 miles per hour. The mile-wide tornado touched down just to the west of Joplin that day and rampaged through town. It may, in fact, have been the only beneficiary. Some members of the survey team suggested that an EF4 rating would be more appropriate, due to poor house construction.The most unexpected beneficiary of the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, on was a fungus named Apophysomyces. and was the worst since the Woodward, Oklahoma tornado in 1947. The Joplin total ranks 7th on the all-time US killer tornado list. A check of the information in the non-government Significant Tornadoes, would have shown six killer tornadoes in the Joplin area, and many others in adjacent Cherokee County, Kansas prior to 1950. The extensive government report noted no previous tornado deaths in the Joplin area, using only official government data back to 1950. Most of the deaths were in buildings that recorded EF3 or above damage. A total of about 7,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed with a record three billion dollars in damage. Eleven died in churches, but only two in mobile homes, which are generally not permitted as residences within the city limits. A Wal-Mart, with about 200 people, was ripped in half, but with just three deaths. At a Home Depot, 30 people survived as one wall collapsed outward, 8 died as another wall collapsed inward. Nineteen people died in a nursing home Four died in the ICU of a hospital. Fatalities occurred in 59 different homes.
The result was deaths in a wide variety of buildings. The deaths can be attributed to poor house construction, the size and intensity of the path, confusion as sirens went on, went off, then back on again, the lack of basements and below ground shelters, and general belief that Joplin was somehow made immune from tornadoes by local topography.
Joplin missouri tornado deaths plus#
The result was the loss of 158 lives (not including plus three "indirect" deaths), the most since tornado forecasting began in 1953. On Sunday, an EF5 tornado cut a mile wide path across the unprepared city of Joplin, Missouri with catastrophic results. Descriptions of the Top Ten US Killer Tornadoes #7: The Joplin Tornado Counties: Newton / Jasper / Newton, MO
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