Google Maps: The SCARY reason why this city looks NOTHING like it used to
GOOGLE MAPS footage of this Missouri city is completely different now to how it looks in 2007 – and the reason is both scary and tragic.
Google Maps appears to show car with leg hanging from trunk
Google Maps images show a plethora of sights from all walks of life, thanks to the scope of their cameras.
This includes everything from hilarious shots of couples doing naughty things to cyclists falling off their bikes.
However, some images verge on tragic – especially when they show devastating change in a region.
Such a change can be seen in two images of Joplin, a city in Missouri, taken years apart.
Joplin, Missouri: Two images, taken years apart, show a devastating change
In the first image, taken in 2007, South Joplin Avenue looks like a perfectly normal street corner in the US.
There are power lines overhead, running down the length of the street.
A truck is waiting at a crossing, and above it we can see a green traffic light facing the opposite direction.
There is a large white bungalow on the corner of the street, surrounded by trees.
Joplin: This first image of the city is from 2007
Joplin: The Missouri city looks very different in the most recent image, taken in 2012
Viewed today, it looks very different.
However, viewed today, it looks very different indeed compared to how it used to.
The white bungalow is gone, as well as the tall trees that once surrounded it.
There is no sign of the traffic light either, and the road markings have faded significantly.
The tragic reason for this is a deadly tornado that hit Joplin in 2011, obliterating the infrastructure.
Zoomed out: The surrounding landscape looks bare
Recently, there was a Google Maps murder mystery plot after a “dead body” was spotted in the trunk of a car.
Given the realistic nature of the figure, the police launched an investigation into the image.
However, it turned out it wasn’t human at all – it was actually an Oscar, which is a search and rescue dummy used by US Coast Guards.
The dummy is used for practice drills and meant to simulate the experience of rescuing someone from the sea.