In 1973…three F4 tornadoes across Georgia and South Carolina. First storm cut a thirty three mile path though Georgia, killing one person and causing $75 million in Conyers. Second tornado touched down near where the first twister dissipated and roared NE for 35 miles. Heavy damage at Athens and 2 people were killed by this twister. The two storms caused $113 million in total damage, the most expensive natural disaster in the history of Georgia. Seven people were killed by the third tornado, which touched down in South Carolina, including 4 people who were killed when in a motel just east of Calhoun Falls SC was blown across a highway and strewn across a field.
In 1982…The Sierra Nevada Mountains were in the midst of their longest continuous snowstorm. Between March 27th and April 8th, as much as fifteen and a half feet of snow fell in the Sierras. California’s Donner Pass was closed to rail traffic for eight days. The avalanche danger was extreme and ski areas were forced to close. As a blizzard raged during the afternoon, a massive thirty foot wall of snow let loose and roared down the mountain at eighty miles per hour. 65,000 tons of snow buried the Alpine Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe, CA, trapping several employees and killing seven of them. It remains the worst ski area disaster in U.S. history. On average, three hundred skiers are caught in avalanches in the U.S. and Canada each year. Twenty of them do not survive.
