the most devastating forces - tornadoes. top 5

Tornadoes start as offshoots of thunderstorms but can end up as devastating forces in their own right, carving a path of destruction scores of miles long and more than a mile wide.

#5

The "Gainesville Tornado" was actually a pair of tornadoes that converged April 6, 1936, in Gainesville, Georgia. The F4-rated twisters killed 203 people and injured 1,600, and destroyed four city blocks and 750 houses. Shown here, past the train tracks, are some of the buildings in the north Georgia town that were damaged by the tornado.

#4

The F5-rated "Tupelo Tornado" killed 216 people and injured 700 on April 5, 1936, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Emergency officials turned a movie theater into a makeshift hospital and sterilized instruments with its popcorn machine, according to FEMA. This photo shows the destruction the twister left in the northeastern Mississippi city.

#3

The F4-rated "St. Louis Tornado" killed 255 people and injured 1,000 on May 27, 1896, in Missouri and Illinois. In this photo, tornado survivors survey wreckage at the Union Depot Railway Co. in St. Louis, Missouri.

#2

The "Natchez Tornado" killed 317 people and injured 109 on May 7, 1840, along the Mississippi River in Louisiana and Mississippi. The twister moved along the water before making its biggest impact in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, and Adams County, Mississippi. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the official death toll may not include slaves.

#1 !!

The F5-rated "Tri-State Tornado" killed 695 people and injured 2,027 on March 18, 1925. The longest-running tornado on record, it traveled more than 300 miles between Missouri and Indiana. In this photo, engineers examine a board that the tornado's high-speed winds drove through a larger plank.

/cnn.com/