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				Tornado Towns
				Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:32 pm
				by HurricaneBill
				Sometimes a tornado will hit a city or town so bad, that the name of the town will for a long time be associated with with the tonado. In other words, a relatively unknown town might be thrusted into the national headlines and the town will be known by the public as the town that was hit by a bad tornado.
What towns would you consider to be "tornado towns"?
I'll start off with a few:
Murphysboro, Illinois (1925)
Gainesville, Georgia (1936)
Woodward, Oklahoma (1947)
Udall, Kansas (1955)
Belvidere, Illinois (1967)
Xenia, Ohio (1974)
Saragosa, Texas (1987)
Jarrell, Texas (1997)
Newbern, Tennessee (2006)
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:06 pm
				by spinfan4eva
				Here is a tiny town that has been repeatedly hit by tornadoes (some deadly) with 3 touchdowns in the past 8 years.
Camilla, Ga in Mitchell County
Lets start in 1998 No deaths with this one, made the news though-or at least the storm system that caused it did! Oddly enough, I happenned to be visiting family in Bainbridge just south of Camilla the weekend before this and remember the advisories coming across on TWC during the weekend.
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0505 AM    CAMILLA                   GA   TORNADO
09/29/98   MITCHELL                       SEVERAL LARGE TREES
                                          DOWNED. TWO STRUCTURES
                                          DAMAGED. TRUCK BLOWN OFF
                                          HWY 262
0515 AM    CAMILLA                   GA   TORNADO
09/29/98   MITCHELL                       NUMEROUS PECAN TREES
                                          DOWNED 8 MILES NORTH OF
                                          CAMILLA ON US 19.
Then again in 2000
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1142-1203 AM    CAMILLA                   GA   TORNADO
02/13/00   MITCHELL                       *** 11 DEAD ***
                                          MAJOR DAMAGE TO TWO
                                          SUBDIVISIONS AND FOUR
                                          MOBILE HOME PARKS.
                                          11 DEATHS CONFIRMED BY
                                          GEMA. NUMEROUS INJURIES.   
                                          REPORTED BY EMERGENCY      
                                          MANAGEMENT.
Then again in 2003
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0505 AM    5 SW CAMILLA-6 N SALE CITYGA   TORNADO
03/20/03   MITCHELL                       EXTENSIVE DAMAGE. MANY
                                          HOMES DAMAGED AND          
                                          DESTROYED. THOUSANDS OF    
                                          DOWNED TREES AND POWER     
                                          LINES ALONG A 19 MILE      
                                          DAMAGE PATH. TIME DURATION 
                                          25 MINUTES. REPORTED BY    
                                          EMA AND CAP/NWS AERIAL     
                                          SURVEY.
0505 AM    CAMILLA                   GA   TORNADO
03/20/03   MITCHELL                       *** 4 FATALITIES ***
                                          *** OVER 200 INJ ***
                                          MORE THAN 50 HOMES AND
                                          MOBILE HOMES DESTROYED.
                                          150 HOMES DAMAGED. SEVERAL
                                          BUSINESSES DESTROYED.
                                          REPORTED BY EMA AND CAP/NWS
                                          AERIAL SURVEY. 
NWS report on Camilla Tornado 2003 
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tlh/mar20event/
Residents were fed up and fled 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nati ... truck.html
Actual death toll in 2003 ended up being 6
 
			
					
				
				Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:37 pm
				by Gorky
				Both Caruthersville and Sedalia have sprung to mind this year. both in Missouri and both been hit on 2 separate occasions by 2 tornadoes. I feel especially bad for Caruthersville, as half the town was flattened by an 800 yard wide F3, then an 300 yard wide F1 goes through town on a parallel line half a mile south. If I lived in the strip of land between those two tornado paths, I'd be worried next time a storm comes through as Mother Nature might try to finish the town off! 

 
			
					
				
				Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:13 pm
				by wxmann_91
				Marmaduke, AR, as you all know, has been hit this year, but it was hit also in 1999.
Springfield, IL has been hit multiple times this year, as has been Springfield, MO.
Jackson, TN has been hit too many times for me to name.
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:19 pm
				by MiamiensisWx
				Brimingham, Alabama, has been brushed and hit by tornadoes on it's outer edges and suburbs many times, including in 1996 or 1998 by an F-5 (I think). Moore, Oklahoma, also comes to mind as the site of the 1999 F-5 tornado.
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:25 pm
				by wxmann_91
				Moore, Oklahoma, also comes to mind as the site of the 1999 F-5 tornado.
How could I forget Moore? There were areas that were hit both on May 3, 1999, and May 8, 2003.
Much of OKC and the surrounding areas are hot spots, such as Stroud and El Reno.
 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 6:52 am
				by Miss Mary
				Xenia, Ohio has had a string of tornado touchdowns since 1974. Of course none as severe as then- 75% of the town destroyed, the high school auditorium had just been filled with the entire student body for an assembly, less than an hour after the tornado hit, if I remember correctly. Students had a chance to get home. That auditorium was destroyed. They could have lost hundreds of children, in one strike. But if you google the town, they've had plenty more tornado's hit, which is more than a coindence. Xenia is a small town north of Cincinnati. You say Xenia to anyone down here and they immediately think - tornado.
http://columbusoh.about.com/od/weather/a/xenia.htm
Mary
 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 9:28 am
				by wxmann_91
				Miss Mary wrote:Xenia, Ohio has had a string of tornado touchdowns since 1974. Of course none as severe as then- 75% of the town destroyed, the high school auditorium had just been filled with the entire student body for an assembly, less than an hour after the tornado hit, if I remember correctly. Students had a chance to get home. That auditorium was destroyed. They could have lost hundreds of children, in one strike. But if you google the town, they've had plenty more tornado's hit, which is more than a coindence. Xenia is a small town north of Cincinnati. You say Xenia to anyone down here and they immediately think - tornado.
http://columbusoh.about.com/od/weather/a/xenia.htmMary
 
Not just in Ohio, say the word Xenia to pretty much every weather buff and they would think of tornado.
 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 9:56 am
				by WaitingForSiren
				Well, theres St Peter, MN which was hit hard in march 29 1998. The video from that tornado was pretty popular.
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:48 am
				by Aquawind
				St Peter was a cool town before the Tornado changed the landscape.. That was sucha shame I loved driving through the Valley and stopped at Taco Johns almost everytime..lol Heck I could barely recogize where it was after the storm..
This question is probably relative to age but the all time imeadiate slam dunk to me would be.. Xenia, Ohio (1974)
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 1:41 pm
				by HurricaneBill
				St. Louis has been hit numerous times. The worst being 1896.
Huntsville, Alabama 1989
La Plata, Maryland
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:05 pm
				by tidesong
				Barneveld, Wisconsin (F5, 1984)
http://www.wx-fx.com/barnevld.htm
Photos: 
http://www.wx-fx.com/bphotos.htm
Hit in the middle of the night with virtually no warning.  
Final statistics: 9 dead; 200 injured; path width 400 yards; length 36 miles; damage over 40 million dollars.  Rated F5 by the National Weather Service.  Survey done by Dr Ted Fujita.
 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:09 pm
				by CrazyC83
				I'm trying to think myself of areas hit multiple times. Xenia is the first that comes to my mind.
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 4:25 pm
				by SamSagnella
				The Sedalia MO area has gotten hit at least three times this year.
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 4:28 pm
				by Windy
				Hallam, Nebraska is known, at least in Nebraska, as being a town remembered primarily because it was hit by a tornado.  A few years back, a 2.5 mile wide F4 tornado more or less erased the place.
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:27 pm
				by george_r_1961
				Natchez Mississippi and Moore Oklahoma come to mind here 

 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:55 pm
				by 6SpeedTA95
				Oklahoma City and surrounding areas...by surrounding areas I mean the entire state 

 
			
					
				
				Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:11 pm
				by HurricaneBill
				Andover, Kansas 1991
Lake Pomona, Kansas 1978 (The Whippoorwill(sp?) Tragedy)
Albion, Pennsylvania 1985
Plainfield, Illinois 1990
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 12:25 pm
				by simplykristi
				The Ruskin Heights area of KC..  1957 and 1977.
The metro KC area..  worst outbreak in recent memory May 4, 2003.  
Kristi
			 
			
					
				
				Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:03 am
				by mempho
				Tupelo, MS (my hometown) (the famed Tupelo-Gainesville long-track outbreak in 1936)