St. Louis Tornado

I suppose it's not surprising that Missouri, as part of what's commonly called "tornado alley," has suffered more than its share of deadly tornadoes over the years. In fact, three of the top ten deadliest tornadoes in US history happened in Missouri, and five of the top twenty. I've written previously about the Tri-State Tornado of 1925 that started around Shannon County, Missouri, swept across Illinois, and tore into Indiana before finally losing steam. It claimed the lives of 695 people and is, by far, the deadliest tornado in US history. Another tornado that makes the top 10 list is one with which I'm intimately familiar, the Joplin Tornado of 2011. It killed about 160 people, and sits 7th on the list of the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history. (I think it still ranks first in terms of property destruction, but I'm not completely sure about that.)
The third deadliest tornado in US history also happened in Missouri--the 1896 St. Louis Tornado, which claimed 255 lives. Over 1,000 people suffered injuries, and the storm did over 10 million dollars in actual damages (an estimated 4.5 billion in today's dollars). Over, 5,000 people were left homeless.
Although bad weather had been predicted for late May 1896, citizens in St. Louis weren't especially concerned until skies started darkening and temperatures rapidly dropping in the late afternoon of May 27. As the storm approached the western outskirts of the city, winds quickly increased from about 37 miles an hour to almost 80 miles an hour. About 5 p.m., a tornado cell, approaching from the southwest, touched down in the Compton Heights area southwest of the downtown area. From Compton Heights, the storm followed Mill Creek Valley toward the Mississippi River, destroying countless homes along its path. At the river, the tornado destroyed steamboats and other vessels and even badly damaged the Eads Bridge, which was considered "tornado proof," because it had been built of true steel, the first major bridge so constructed. The central portion of the city was also badly damaged, as numerous factories, mills, railroad yards, hospitals, churches, saloons, and stores were destroyed, along with the many residences. The tornado also uprooted trees and tore down electric, telegraph, and telephone wires.
The St. Louis tornado was one of a whole outbreak of violent storms across Missouri on May 27, 1896, but the St. Louis storm was by far the worst in terms of lives lost and damage done.