April 5th in Elvis History

It's April 5th, and on this day in 1936, one-year-old Elvis Presley and his mother Gladys took refuge in the home of Elvis’s great-uncle, Noah Presley, as a devastating tornado struck Tupelo, Mississippi. The tornado obliterated fifteen blocks of the town, leaving a path of destruction four miles long and a mile wide. The storm claimed the lives of 213 people and left hundreds more injured, with the Tupelo City Hospital among the many buildings destroyed. For days, bodies were found floating in the bog along Commerce Street, and the rain helped to contain fires that had broken out in the town. The tornado’s destructive path didn’t stop there, as it continued eastward across the South, causing further devastation in other towns.