‘Tri-State Tornado’ leaves 695 dead

Dubbed the deadliest tornado in U.S history by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the “Tri-State Tornado” tears through Missouri, Southern Illinois, and Indiana. The F5 tornado travels for 300 miles, leaving 695 people dead and 2,027 injured. A description of the storm from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dated two days after the event:

All morning, before the tornado, it had rained. The day was dark and gloomy. The air was heavy. There was no wind. Then the drizzle increased. The heavens seemed to open, pouring down a flood. The day grew black…

Then the air was filled with 10,000 things. Boards, poles, cans, garments, stoves, whole sides of the little frame houses, in some cases the houses themselves, were picked up and smashed to earth. And living beings, too. A baby was blown from its mother’s arms. A cow, picked up by the wind, was hurled into the village restaurant.