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Joplin tornado: Will it be one of the Top 5 costliest?

1. Topeka, Kan., 1966 – $2.2 billion

Courtesy of NOAA/NWS/File
This rendering of the 1966 tornado in Topeka, Kan., emphasizes the relatively low death toll for a tornado of that magnitude. The Topeka tornado's path was 22 miles long.

  • By Mary Helen Miller Correspondent

The most financially destructive tornado on record struck Topeka, Kan., at about 7 p.m. on June 8, 1966. The tornado blasted through the city, moving at about 30 miles per hour, leaving a path destruction about 22 miles long. The F5 storm was about half a mile wide. But for all its destruction to property, the twister was blamed for only 16 fatalities and injuries to about 500 people.

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