1927 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado


The 1927 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado was a powerful and devastating tornado that struck St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday, September 29, 1927, at 1:00pm. The tornado is estimated to have reach at least F3 and possible F4 intensity on the Fujita scale. The 2nd deadliest tornado to occur in the St. Louis metropolitan area, it caused at minimum 72–79 deaths and injured more than 550 people all within a seven-to-twelve-mile long, 100–600 yard wide path. At one time it was the 2nd costliest tornado in US history. More than 200 city blocks were destroyed. It is one of four tornadoes that have tore through Downtown St. Louis with the others coming in 1871, 1896, and 1959. St. Louis University High School was hit hard. The student chapel's roof collapsed, the gym's roof was damaged, an entire classroom caved in on a class, and other classrooms were damaged. All the windows were smashed. Luckily, no one was killed or majorly injured. The tornado caused $150,000 in damage to the school.

Tornado outbreak

The tornado was a part of a larger outbreak of at least 11 significant tornadoes, that included two F3 tornadoes that killed at least 3 more people in Illinois and Arkansas. The outbreak affected a rather huge area of the Midwestern and Southern United States; the tornadoes impacted at least 6 states: Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.