Grand Island, Nebraska Tornado Outbreak

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Costliest tornadoes in United States history
Rank	Area affected	Date	Damage¹	Adj. damage²
1	North-central Georgia	March 31, 1973	1,250,000	5,175,000
2	Topeka, Kansas Tornado	June 8, 1966	250,000	1,420,000
3	Lubbock, Texas Tornado	May 11, 1970	250,000	1,185,000
4	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	May 3, 1999	1,000,000	1,100,000
5	Xenia, Ohio	April 3, 1974	250,000	932,500
6	Omaha, Nebraska	May 6, 1975	250,603	857,062
7	Wichita Falls, Texas	April 10, 1979	277,841	702,938
8	Grand Island, Nebraska	June 3, 1980	285,050	635,662
9	Windsor Locks, Connecticut	October 3, 1979	250,000	632,500
10	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	May 8, 2003	370,000	370,000
Source: Storm Prediction Center
1. These are the unadjusted damage totals in thousands of US dollars. Prior to 1994, official records used categories for "Damage class", so these values represent inflation-adjusted medians for a given damage class. If better numbers are available, a source is indicated. 2. Raw damage totals adjusted for inflation, in thousands of 2003 USD.

The Grand Island, Nebraska Tornado Outbreak of June 3, 1980 is also known as "The Night of the Twisters". This name is more associated with this event, as it was semi-fictionalized by the book of the same name by author Ivy Ruckman and inspired a 1996 made-for-TV movie seen on ABC Family.

A total of seven tornadoes struck the city that night, three of which were anti-cyclonic. Ninety-nine percent of tornadoes in the Northern Hemisphere spin cyclonic, or counter-clockwise. It is thus rare for any tornado to spin anticyclonic, or clockwise, and for three such tornadoes in the same system (nearly half the total) is exceedingly rare.

Five people died and about 200 people were injured as a result of the storms. Tornado warnings allowed people to get to safety in time, which prevented a higher death toll. The area of Grand Island that was hit the hardest was South Locust Street, which was struck by the fifth tornado of the night (an F4 tornado). The outbreak caused more than $600 million in damage, in 2003 USD.