On April 24, 1908 a handful of tornadoes ripped across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. While the exact number of tornadoes that day is debatable, generally 10 of the tornadoes are blamed for a vast majority of the damage and deaths.
The deadliest was the Purvis tornado. While it started in Louisiana and ended in Alabama, the F4 tornado did the most damage in Purvis. It is still ranked as the seventh-deadliest tornado on record by the Storm Prediction Center
A look back
There aren’t many newspaper clipping from the tornado, but here is one from the Salt Lake Herald th day after the event.
From history.com
A single tornado travels 150 miles through Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving 143 dead in its wake. In total, 311 people lost their lives to twisters during the deadly month of April 1908 in the southeastern United States. Another 1,600 were seriously injured.
Two of the locations worst hit by the single extraordinary tornado on this day were Amite, Louisiana, and Purvis, Mississippi. In Amite, the tornado was 2.5 miles wide as it touched the ground, killing 29 residents. In Purvis, 55 people were killed and 400 were injured.
From the New Orleans National Weather Service Top Five Severe Weather Events of the 20th Century page:
Excerpt from “The Tornado Project” (credit to Thomas Grazulis) — “This major tornadic event touched down near “Weiss” in NW Livingston Parish, and moved ENE. Two people were killed at “Dennis Springs”. In St. Helena Parish, two were killed near Montpelier. The worst damage in Louisiana took place in Amite, Tangipahoa Parish, where the path was said to have been over two miles wide. At least 29 people were killed in the town of Amite, and four others died south of Wilmer. Eleven people were injured in the Aurora-Franklinton area of Washington Parish, and nine people were killed near Pine. Crossing into Mississippi near Balltown, the tornado killed two people in Marion County…continuing onward into Forest County 8 miles south of Hattiesburg.” Fifty-five people were killed in the town of Purvis as most of the town was leveled to the ground. In all 143 people were killed and 770 injured making this the seventh deadliest tornado event in United States history.
The damage
The damage in Mississippi that day was extensive.
More info
To read more newspaper clippings from the days after the tornadoes in 1908 head here: https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/tornado.html.
For information about pictures from that day from the library at the University of Southern Mississippi, head here: http://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m252.
To read more from meteorologists in 1908 about the tornadoes that day, head here: https://journals.ametsoc.org/toc/mwre/36/5.
