Buzzfeed: The Most Powerful Images Of 2011
The website, buzzfeed.com, has come up with its list of the most powerful images of the year and that's exactly what they are: powerful.
There's the awesome power of nature: a dust storm swallowing Phoenix.
The before and after of the massive tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri.
Incredible lightning as a volcano erupts in Chile.
And the year's worst disaster illustrated by a boat on top of a building after Japan's tsunami.
There is heartbreak: Robert Peraza pausing at his son's name at the 9/11 Memorial, and the loyal dog who can't leave his fallen Navy Seal master even in death.
There is victory: the White House Situation Room watching the successful take down of Osama Bin Laden, and Ladder Company 58, which lost seven firefighters on 9/11, perched on a ladder, celebrating Bin Laden's death in Times Square.
And there is remembrance: lights shining where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
Those are the pictures worth more than a thousand words, telling the story of 2011.