Today marks 77 years since a 1944 F4 tornado rolled a path of destruction from Barnum through Fort Dodge with one death reported.

A recent rediscovery of photos of the aftermath show flattened vehicles and destroyed homes and buildings.

Local KVFD broadcaster, Ed Breen, recapped the events in his World War II letter to servicemen “Your Letter From Home — Written Every Friday — May 26, 1944,” stating, “Across the river it smashed the water tank on the soybean plant and demolished the three-story brick building. But the worst of it turned and struck at 11th Avenue Southwest with the same fury it had shown on the Barnum road. No one died, no one was seriously injured, but every line went down, trees were uprooted, houses were tossed upon each other, crushed like eggshells for a distance of three or four blocks.”