As a breeze flows through Jefferson City, the blue plastic sheets covering the roofs and walls of Hawthorne Park Apartments flutter and flap.
All around the property, signs of the devastation that struck the area are visible, from the plastic sheets to boarded-up windows and exposed wooden beams. Hawthorne Park stands as one of the most visible symbols of damage that remains even as the city reaches the one-year anniversary of the May 2019 tornado.
The EF-3 tornado cut a path through the city from the south, traveling northeast from outside city limits to the Missouri River. First reports of damage came in the final hour of May 22.
One year later, progress has erased much of the destruction. New buildings have replaced piles of rubble. Windows and walls have been repaired. But some areas within the path still show signs of damage.
Although it's been slow to come, Hawthorne Park property manager Chris Finley said, the site should start to look different soon. Crews are expected to start reconstruction next week.
Of the complex's 30 buildings, 18 received the most damage, for a total of 144 affected units. Eight buildings have already been demolished.
"There's going to be 10 buildings they're going to be renovating - outside, inside, and with pretty much all new everything," Finley said.
The large amount of damage to so many units is what has caused the delay in recovery. Haley Residential, the Nebraska-based company that owns the buildings, has spent the last year inspecting the buildings.
"It was just a lot of damage, so they just wanted to make sure they did everything they needed to do," Finely said. "They wanted to walk them properly, inside and out. They wanted to gut every building all the way down to the studs, check every single corner of every building, of every unit."
Jefferson City Planning Manager Eric Barron said the apartment complex has been one of his biggest concerns from day one.
"The tornado had a wide range of economic, social and housing impacts," Barron said. "The housing impact and what that meant for the housing market in our community floated to the top in my mind, in terms of what the real, long-term impact could be. It's still my largest concern."
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Nearby on Christy Drive, the city's former bowling alley remains in a mid-progress limbo. White plastic sheeting covers one side of the building, and a pile of bricks and other debris sits in the parking lot.
On a hot summer morning in late June, crews from KMB Construction and BELFOR Property Restoration started repairs at Capital Bowl.
The building's walls and roof had been heavily damaged, and the inside was hit with large amounts of water. Work included demolition of damaged walls, construction of a temporary wall on one side and temporary repairs to the damaged roof. When that was done, crews would work to dry out the building and repair the inside.
In mid-October, Capital Bowl announced it would not reopen. Tom Mendenhall, whose ownership group bought the bowling center in 2007, said the repair work was too much for them to tackle.
"Right now, we have it offered for sale," Mendenhall said. "If somebody wanted to restore it, it's restorable. With everything else that's going on right now, we're not going to do it."
Mendenhall said they had some interest in the property until concerns around the new coronavirus started.
"I hope, once we get past all this stuff, maybe somebody will want to do it," Mendenhall said. "We're just not in a position to want to do it now."
Down the road, the former site of the Missouri Career Center at 1716 Four Seasons Drive remains essentially in its post-tornado state, while just behind it Jefferson City Winsupply has been rebuilt and reopened.
In November, 1716 Four Seasons Drive became the first tornado-damaged property to be added to the city's dangerous buildings list. It has since been removed from the list after owner Darin Revermann was able to clean up and secure the property.
When the city contacted Revermann to clean up the property, he was surprised it had gotten to that point with no progress.
"We didn't think we'd be at that point," Revermann said. "We thought there would be no boarding up. There would be taking it down, replacing it and being back in business."
The city held off on enforcing code violations in the tornado-affected area for several months following the storm to allow residents time to clean up.
Dave Helmick, Jefferson City's housing and property inspector, said they resumed enforcing violations for properties that were dangerous or nuisances, but are still being lenient in the tornado-affected area. As the one-year anniversary passes, that will change.
"The directive we were given was to hold off until after the anniversary date of the tornado - basically give everybody a full year to get those permits and the insurance money," Helmick said. "Once we pass that date, what we'll start doing is going out and treating them the same as any other dangerous or deteriorated property.
"Some of the properties were on the abandoned list before the tornado, but we're just giving them all a fair year to try and do something on their own without us having to get involved."
Starting in late May and June, the city will start looking at buildings that still have structural damage and find those that qualify under the city's dangerous building code.
The city's dangerous building ordinance helps provide a method for repairing, vacating or demolishing buildings that may endanger the life, health or safety of occupants or the general public, according to information on the city's website.
If a building is determined to be dangerous, the city will give the owner 15 days to comply and make some progress, whether cleaning up the property, securing it, or acquiring needed permits for demolition or repair.
If no action is taken in those 15 days, the city will clean up the property, post "No Trespassing" signs, and board the doors and windows. The building will stay that way until an administrative hearing is held to determine the future of the property.
If the hearing officer agrees with the city that the property remains a danger and the city followed the proper procedures, they will order the owner to do something with the property. The city would also apply a tax lien to the property.
Now boarded-up windows and broken pieces of the former career center's roof and walls continue to show the damage the building suffered.
Revermann said they've been delayed far more than they hoped by ongoing negotiations with their insurance company.
"When it happened last May, we were thinking by the end of the year, we'd have hoped to have been back, reconstructed," Revermann said. "But it took so long for adjusters to get there. They had one adjuster trying to work the whole area. The whole thing is just a lot longer process than we ever expected."
Until things are settled with the insurance company, Revermann is making sure to maintain the property, despite not living in the area. He's still hopeful for a future repair or rebuild.
"We've been as patient as we could, but our hands our tied," Revermann said. "If we could've been done and rebuilding by last June or July, that would've been great. The longer we wait, the harder it is - the more expensive things are getting, too."
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As the tornado continued its cut through the city, it made its way to the area of East Miller and Jackson streets. Some properties there remain in disrepair.
"There's still quite a few structures that have made minimal progress or no progress," Helmick said.
City building official Larry Burkhardt said there are properties around the neighborhood that still need repaired.
"We're slowly rebuilding where we can, but we still have very highly visible structures like Simonsen," Burkhardt said.
Standing tall on the hill at East Miller and Jackson streets, the exterior walls of Simonsen 9th Grade Center are a checkerboard of brick and boarded-up windows. The tornado also tore off most of the roof, just hours after school released for the summer.
The Jefferson City School District was no longer planning to use Simonsen as a school following the August opening of Capital City High School.
Originally constructed in 1926, the 96,800-square-foot building at 501 E. Miller St. is tied for the oldest owned by the school district.
Shortly after the storm, crews from ServiceMaster patched the roof to stop the rain from coming in, Frank Underwood, JC Schools director of facilities and transportation, and safety and security coordinator, previously told the News Tribune.
At the time, Underwood also said the building remained structurally sound despite the damage.
In October, the JC Schools Board of Education approved a declaration to make Simonsen surplus property to allow the district to enter into conversations with possible buyers, said Jason Hoffman, JC Schools chief financial and operating officer.
The next step is to solicit bids.
"We have spoken to several interested parties and developers since declaring the property surplus," Hoffman said. "We expect to hear from them again, and possibly others, as we move forward with the next steps."
The district received $3.5 million in insurance funds from tornado damage, according to an amended budget approved in October.
As of May 13, the district has spent almost $2.7 million on tornado repairs between four buildings that were damaged. Repairs at Simonsen totaled $802,433.
Other than securing the roof of the building and maintaining building temperatures to preserve the integrity of the structure, the district has not made any further repairs to the building since the tornado.
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While there are obvious and visible signs of progress still to be made, Jefferson City has largely recovered from the storm.
The city has issued 236 building permits relating to the tornado, Burkhardt said. New permits for tornado damage are rare these days.
Notable sites including Braun Storage, the Riley car dealerships and the Special Olympics Training for Life campus have made strides in recovery over the last year.
"It's getting there, slowly but surely," Burkhardt said. "It just takes money and time."