The Scariest Tornado In History - Greensburg

On the night of May 4th, 2007, a mile-and-a-half-wide wedge tornado dropped out of the darkness just west of Greensburg, Kansas, and within two minutes exploded to peak strength — becoming the first storm ever officially rated EF5 under the brand-new Enhanced Fujita Scale. With winds near 210 mph, it drove straight through the heart of town, sweeping well-built homes clean off their foundations, scouring the ground to bare dirt, debarking trees, and flattening the courthouse, the schools and the entire Main Street business district. When the sun came up, 95% of Greensburg was gone and 11 people were dead — a well-warned town of 1,400 simply erased from the map. It earns the title “scariest tornado in history” not for its body count but for what it proved: that on the right night, no town is safe — and yet Greensburg chose to rise from the slabs and rebuild as one of the greenest towns in America.