The April Twenty-Seventh Tornado

This memorial remembers the day that changed the town of Cordova forever. On April twenty-seventh, two thousand eleven, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in American history swept across the South. Cordova was struck not once but twice that day.

An early morning storm hit first, then in the afternoon a violent tornado tore through the heart of town. Four people here lost their lives. The storms flattened downtown buildings and left the small Walker County community struggling for years to rebuild.

That single day produced eleven of the most powerful tornadoes, rated E F Four, across the Southern United States, part of an outbreak that killed hundreds of people in several states. The marker stands so that the four neighbors lost in Cordova, and the day itself, are never forgotten.