© 2026 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Joplin Kids Face Long Recovery from Tornado's Trauma

It used to bother Tiffany Stout when her three-year-old daughter Allie played \"Tornado.\"
photo: Frank Morris/KCUR
It used to bother Tiffany Stout when her three-year-old daughter Allie played \"Tornado.\"

By Frank Morris

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-984029.mp3

Kansas City, MO – The Joplin tornado killed 160 people and sent thousands to area hospitals. Now most of the victim's physical injuries are healed, but the mental wounds are, in some cases, as fresh as they were the day after the storm. Children will likely suffer the most long-term repercussions, which traumatized many of them directly, and also laid a foundation for future trouble.

I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org.
KCUR is here for Kansas City, because Kansas City is here for KCUR.

Your support makes KCUR's work possible — from reporting that keeps officials accountable, to storytelling that connects our community. You can make sure the future of local journalism is strong.