Tornado Towns

[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)

[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

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[wxmann_91]

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

Not just in Ohio, say the word Xenia to pretty much every weather buff and they would think of tornado.

[WaitingForSiren]

Well, theres St Peter, MN which was hit hard in march 29 1998. The video from that tornado was pretty popular.

[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)

[HurricaneBill]

St. Louis has been hit numerous times. The worst being 1896.

Huntsville, Alabama 1989

La Plata, Maryland

[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.

[CrazyC83]

I'm trying to think myself of areas hit multiple times. Xenia is the first that comes to my mind.

[SamSagnella]

The Sedalia MO area has gotten hit at least three times this year.

[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.

[george_r_1961]

Natchez Mississippi and Moore Oklahoma come to mind here

[6SpeedTA95]

Oklahoma City and surrounding areas...by surrounding areas I mean the entire state

[HurricaneBill]

Andover, Kansas 1991

Lake Pomona, Kansas 1978 (The Whippoorwill(sp?) Tragedy)

Albion, Pennsylvania 1985

Plainfield, Illinois 1990

[simplykristi]

The Ruskin Heights area of KC.. 1957 and 1977.

The metro KC area.. worst outbreak in recent memory May 4, 2003.

Kristi

[mempho]

Tupelo, MS (my hometown) (the famed Tupelo-Gainesville long-track outbreak in 1936)