Today, we remember the Tornadoes of '36, which hit Gainesville on the morning of April 6, 1936 — 80 years ago today.
The video above, titled "A City Laid Waste," was produced five years ago by the staff of AccessWDUN.com.
The storms hit Gainesville at around 8:30 a.m. This early-morning storm was actually a double tornado event: one tornado moved in from the Atlanta highway, while the other moved in from the Dawsonville highway.
The twisters merged near Grove Street and destroyed much of the downtown areas.
The worst tornado-caused death toll in a single building in U.S. history was at the Cooper Pants Factory. The multiple-story building was then filled with young workers, mainly female, who had just arrived for work.
In addition to the complete destruction that occurred throughout downtown Gainesville, residential areas throughout the city were devastated as well, where 750 homes were destroyed, and 254 others were badly damaged.
A total of 203 people were killed, making it the fifth deadliest tornado in U.S. history. The storm has been rated as an F4 on the Fujita scale It caused nearly $13 million in damage, equivalent to over $200 million today. Letters from Gainesville were blown about 70 miles away to Anderson, South Carolina.
Gainesville was also the site of another deadly F4 on June 1, 1903, which killed 98 people.
