April 5, 1936, 216 killed
The residential areas of Tupelo, Miss., experienced the worst of this tornado. More than 200 homes — including high-end homes on the west of town and low-rent structures on the east side — were hit hard. A movie theater morphed into a makeshift hospital to care for the injured. The official death toll, as with many historic counts, didn’t reflect the extent of the destruction, as only the names of white residents were recorded.