1920 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak - Georgia

Georgia

Tornadic activity began in Georgia around at 2:00 pm, when the first tornado descended from the sky in Pike County. This storm affected the areas to the west of Zebulon, only injuring a few people on local farms. However, the worst was yet to come 45 miles (72 km) to the west in Troup County.

Just after 3:15 pm, a severe thunderstorm producing tennis-ball-sized hail moved across the state line from Alabama, bringing with it a very large and violent F4 tornado. The community of West Point, suffered major damage, as the tornado flattened a four-block area, killing nine people. The storm quickly moved off into rural parts of the county causing more deaths and destruction before lifting, which accounted for half of the deaths across the state.

Another highly destructive tornado (possibly an F4) struck the southeast side of LaGrange at 5:45 pm, destroying the industrial area of the city. Several factories and a cotton mill were reduced to knee-high rubble by a fast moving storm that was .5 miles (1 km) wide and moving along the ground at 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). After heading out of the manufacturing area, the tornado would completely destroy 40 frail houses before moving off to the east-northeast.

According to Troup County historian Forest Clark Johnson, III, these two tornadoes claimed well over 100 lives in LaGrange alone, and another 100+ victims in Troup County, bringing the death to well over 200. Likewise, the number of those injured completely overwhelmed the local medical facilities, which had to summon assistance from other areas of the state, including Atlanta.