In the interim, I checked the National Weather Service website: "Startling Statistics" cites the top line, "On March 18, 1925, the Great Tri-State Tornado, measured F5 on the Fujita Scale ...

Most of Gorham and much of Murphysboro had been destroyed just 32 years earlier by the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, the deadliest and longest-tracked tornado in U.S. history. The 21 twisters spawned ...