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N0KFQ > TODAY 05.04.08 14:00l 41 Lines 1771 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 5
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@ALLUS
April 5, 1936
Tornadoes devastate Tupelo and Gainesville
On this day in 1936, two small towns in Mississippi and Georgia
are devastated by tornadoes, killing 200 people in one of the
deadliest spates of tornadoes in United States history. A total
of 466 people were killed over four days of nearly continuous
twisters. Another 3,500 people were injured.
The storms and accompanying tornadoes hit Mississippi, Georgia,
Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee on April 5. At about 8:30 a.m.,
the first twister touched down in Coffeeville, Mississippi,
before moving northeast and devastating Tupelo, Mississippi. The
Gum Pond area of Tupelo was worst hit. Homes along the pond were
completely swept away. A majority of the bodies of the 216 people
killed in Tupelo were found in the pond. One notable survivor of
this deadly tornado was one-year-old Elvis Presley, who was born
in Tupelo.
The Tupelo twister was estimated to be an F5, the most
destructive class of tornado, with winds in excess of 261 miles
per hour. Some reports noted that the wind was so strong that it
embedded pine needles into the trunks of trees that managed to
stay standing.
In Gainesville, Georgia, the following morning, three separate
tornadoes continued the destruction. In the single worst tornado
incident in the United States in the 20th century, 70 workers at
the Cooper Pants factory were killed when the building collapsed
on them. Twenty more people were killed in a department store
collapse. Debris was piled high throughout Gainesville.
Hospitals all over the Southeast were pressed into service to
help survivors. Better weather forecasting and warning systems
helped prevent tragedies of this scale in the years that
followed.
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