Missouri
Located in Tornado Alley, Missouri also receives extreme weather in the form of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. The most recent tornado in the state to cause damage and casualties was the 2011 Joplin tornado, which destroyed roughly one-third of the city of Joplin. The tornado caused an estimated $1–3 billion in damages, killed 159 (+1 non-tornadic), and injured over 1,000 people. It was the first EF5 to hit the state since 1957 and the deadliest in the U.S. since 1947, making it the seventh deadliest tornado in American history and 27th deadliest in the world. St. Louis and its suburbs also have a history of experiencing particularly severe tornadoes, the most recent memorable one being an EF4 tornado that damaged Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on April 22, 2011. One of the worst tornadoes in American history struck St. Louis on May 27, 1896, killing at least 255 and causing $10 mil. damage ($3.9 bil. damage in 2009) or $ in today's dollars.
Tornadoes of 1973
A small but significant tornado outbreak on March 31 produced its most severe damage in Georgia and South Carolina, though other tornadoes struck Missouri and Illinois. An extremely destructive, long-tracked tornado caused the costliest natural disaster in Georgia history up to that time, though officially it only produced F2 damage. A survey by Ted Fujita concluded that the tornado produced F4 damage and was two distinct events in a family, not a single tornado. At least two people died and 100 were injured in Georgia, mainly near Conyers and Athens, though Grazulis mentioned a third death that is not officially documented. An F4 tornado killed seven people, mostly in a motel, in the Calhoun Falls–Abbeville area of South Carolina, where it affected well over 100 homes and injured 30 people. At the time, Fujita assigned an F5 rating to the tornado in South Carolina, but it was later downgraded to F4.