1957 Ruskin Heights tornado

In the evening hours of May 20, 1957, a large, long-tracked and deadly tornado moved through portions of eastern Kansas and western Missouri, killing forty-four people and injuring over five hundred. The tornado is the deadliest to strike the Kansas City metropolitan area, and was the deadliest worldwide in 1957. The tornado was rated F5 on the Fujita scale, the first of three worldwide to receive this rating in 1957.

The tornado touched down near Williamsburg at 7:15 p.m., headed northeast. As the tornado neared Homewood, it took on a multi-vortex shape and lofted gravestones in the air. As it passed near Spring Hill, the tornado leveled numerous buildings and killed seven people before crossing state lines into Missouri, where the worst damage was observed in the Martin City area. The tornado left an estimated eighty-five percent of Martin City "uninhabitable", and killed another thirty-seven people before dissipating at 8:53 p.m., over an hour after touching down.