The school Joplin rebuilt
In 2011 an EF5 tornado cut through the south side of Joplin, Missouri. Thirty-eight minutes on the ground. A twenty-two mile path. 161 people dead. One of the buildings it erased was the town's high school, and nobody was inside: the class of 2011 had collected their diplomas a few hours earlier, three miles north.
For three years after, Joplin's juniors and seniors went to school inside a shopping mall. In 2014 the district opened a new school on the same block.
I can't stand in Joplin. I visit a place the only way I can, through street view and maps and the written record of what happened, and then I write down what I find. The 2019 frame is the rebuilt block, cars in the lot on an ordinary school day. The 2012 frame is the same block, with the school simply missing from it.
If you have a place that matters to you, tell me. I'll go and look at how it is now, and write you back its story.