Dictionary.com defines resiliency as “the power or ability to return to the original form … after being bent, compressed, or stretched.” True devastation takes a while to bounce back from. But Joplin is showing us how it is done every day.

Above is a video from CBS, which calls the fact that kids in the ravaged Missouri town “simply having a school to attend this fall is nothing short of remarkable.” According to the report, 10 of the town’s 19 schools were destroyed by the storm that killed 160 people. But by setting up classrooms in warehouses and using other creative methods, officials expect 90% of the students to be back in school.

Joplin East Middle School Principal Bud Sexton is happy about that, noting that “getting students back to school on [August] 17th was paramount. It was what drove all of us all summer.”

Mission accomplished. Now they just need to rebuild.

As you can see from one of the nine amazing before-and-after shots MSNBC featured from Joplin, they still have plenty of work to do.