Tornado outbreak sequence of May 21–26, 2011
The tornado outbreak sequence of May 21–26, 2011 was one of the largest tornado outbreaks on record which affected the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States. Most of the tornadoes developed in a corridor from Lake Superior southwest to central Texas; isolated tornadoes occurred in other areas. An especially destructive tornado destroyed one-third of Joplin, Missouri, resulting in 158 deaths and over 1,000 injuries. The Joplin tornado is the deadliest in the U.S. since April 9, 1947, when an intense tornado killed 181 in the Woodward, Oklahoma area. Tornado-related deaths also occurred in Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. Overall, the tornado outbreak resulted in 184 deaths, 6 of those non-tornadic, making it second only to the 2011 Super Outbreak as the deadliest since 1974, and the second costliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history behind that same April 2011 outbreak, with insured damage estimated at $4–7 billion.
March 1997 tornado outbreak
Another supercell north of the main storm produced several tornadoes north of Little Rock and Jonesboro. Among the towns affected was Marmaduke, which was also affected by an F3 tornado during the April 2, 2006 tornado outbreak.
11 counties across Arkansas were declared federal disaster areas by then-US President Bill Clinton for tornadoes while two others in were for flooding. Seven other counties in Tennessee were also declared disaster areas due to tornadoes. It was considered the worst tornado outbreak since the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1994, which killed 42 across Alabama and Georgia. In Kentucky, then-governor Paul E. Patton had initially declared 120 counties a state of emergency and deployed about 1100 National Guard troops to the flood-stricken regions. In Indiana, the Ohio River overflow its banks due to record rains. All 13 counties along the river between Evansville and Cincinnati were also declared disaster areas. In West Virginia, then-Governor Cecil Underwood declared state of emergencies for 14 counties, and 16 were later declared disaster areas as over 4 000 homes and other structures were damaged by the flooding.