Rebuilding Joplin could take two years, according to UMKC professor who helped rebuild New Orleans

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Greensburg, Kansas lost half its population after an EF5 tornado wiped out the city in 2007.  New Orleans lost about 30 percent of its population after Hurricane Katrina.

Now, all eyes are on Joplin.  How many of the 50,000 people will decide to stay after last month's tornado?  When will the city be rebuilt?  What will it look like?

UMKC Urban Planning and Design Associate Professor, Michael Frisch expects the rebuild to take two very hard years.

"I think you are going to see some houses built in a couple of months but I think it's going to take two years to get a sense of what the neighborhoods are going to be like and if people are rebuilding the way it used to look like or building better or are there some structural problems?  Did the tornado hit a part of Joplin where people were not well insured?"

If that's the case, those homeowners will have to go through FEMA and the process will take much longer.

The people of Joplin are likely considering three big questions as they make the decision to stay or leave:

- Did they lose someone in the tornado and can't bare to stay in Joplin?

- Are there work opportunities?

- Are there resources to keep them comfortable today and throughout their rebuild?

Frisch said Greensburg faced an uphill battle because the city lost the majority of its resources and was already facing a decline in work opportunities before the tornado.

He said New Orleans dealt with a major power struggle between the Mayor and the City Council which made it tough for the city to come up with a coherent vision.  A recent New York Times article also points to the fact that there were fewer low-income homes rebuilt after Katrina, forcing many people to move elsewhere.

But Frisch says Joplin could be in a better position to keep its residents.  The city still has resources and businesses that weren't damaged by the tornado.  There will be plenty of work opportunities if people are willing to get involved in the rebuilding process.  In fact, he said the New Orleans job market was better than the national average after Hurricane Katrina.

In order to turn the economy around, Frisch says local, state and federal officials need to pay special attention to the manufacturing industry in Joplin.  As long as that is on line, there will be jobs.  He says leaders also need to focus on small business owners who potentially lost their home, store and bank.   National chains like Home Depot on the other hand have outside support to get started again.

Right now, Frisch says Joplin is at the beginning of its Restoration Phase.  During this time, which will likely take weeks, debris will be removed, streets will be cleaned and utilities restored.  He says the hope is by the end of the Restoration Phase, people will have an idea how much and when they will get their insurance payments.

Frisch says the big question at this stage of the clean-up:  does Joplin rebuild what was there before or does Joplin rebuild better and differently?  Greensburg for example built an all-green city with the help of Kansas City architectural firm BNIM.

Frisch says Joplin could consider re-building in a denser fashion which could change the future of the whole city.

8,000 structures were destroyed in the tornado.  Joplin's power company, Empire District, estimates about $20 million in damage to its infrastructure.