Death tolls vary widely depending on where the tornado hits, how wide the path of destruction is, and how well-prepared the people are. The deadliest tornado that is known to have been an F4 killed at least 255 people as it swept through St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois in 1896. Many more dead may not have been counted as their bodies were washed down the Mississippi River. On the other hand, many F4 tornadoes have gone without killing anyone, and modern warnings and medical advances have cut fatalities to less than half of what they were a century ago.
Since 1950 there have been 564 F4 and EF4 tornadoes resulting in 2357 deaths, or an average of about 4 deaths per tornado. The deadliest of these had a death toll of 94, but its rating is in dispute; it might have been an F5.
On May 4, 1960 an F4 tornado destroyed a large portion of Soper, but did not kill anyone. An EF0 tornado tocuhed down near Soper on April 9, 2008 and did not result in any deaths either.
Most people who experience a tornado survive it. An F4 tornado will level most houses but in many cases a basement provides adequate protection. Even then, Only the strongest part of an F4 tornado has the power to produce F4 damage, so you have a good chance of being spared the worst of the tornado. On rare, and I put emphasis or rare, occasions people have even been carried by F4 tornadoes and lived. Even an F5 tornado is survivable, partly because most buildings aren't hit by the full force of F5 winds. As to the weaker categories mentioned in the first answer, An F3 tornado will usually leave at least a few interior walls standing so it is possible take shelter in a central room if you don't have a basement. An F2 will tear the roof off a house and so, will probably is unlikely to kill or seriously hurt someone in a substantial structure. However, an F2 can completely destroy a trailer home which is a weak structure. A significant portion of tornado deaths are in trailers. F1 tornadoes rarely kill, many deaths from tornadoes result from fallen trees and overturned trailers. F0 tornadoes are even less likely to kill but they can still bring down trees. Most tornadoes are weak and are not killers. Consider the statistics; the United States gets more than 1000 tornadoes every year that usually kill a total of 60-80 people
The Goliad, Texas tornado was an F4.
An F4 or higher tornado (the only higher rating being F5) is classified as violent.
The F4 tornado that hit Hamden, Connecticut in 1989 struck on July 10.
The Hallam, Nebraska tornado was rated F4
The deadliest tornado in Nebraska history was the Omaha tornado of March 23, 1913. This F4 tornado killed 101 people in Nebraska and 2 in Iowa. More than 90 of the deaths were in Omaha.
Yes. F4 is the second strongest category on the Fujita scale, indicating an extremely powerful tornado that can completely level well-built homes.
An F4 tornado moved along the northern part of the San Antonio area on April 28, 1953, killing one person.
There have been a number of tornadoes that have stuck St. Louis including a few F4 tornadoes. The most significant tornado to strike the city, which occurred on May 27, 1896 and killed 255 was an F4.
F4 and F5 are the two strongest categories of tornado on the Fujita scale. A damage based scale which rates tornadoes from F0 to F5. An F4 tornado will reduce most houses to piles of rubble. An F5 tornado will completely annihilate almost any house and wipe it clean off its foundation. Winds in an F5 can exceed 300 mph.
The estimated wind range for an F4 tornado is 207-260 mph. On the Enhanced Fujita scale this was change to 166-200 mph for an EF4 tornado.