San Justo tornado

The San Justo tornado was a powerful tornado which struck San Justo, a town in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, on January 10, 1973. At least 63 people were reported dead and 350 were reported injured as it cut a 300 yard wide swath through the town. It was the most violent tornado ever recorded in South America, and also the entire Southern Hemisphere. Multiple factories and upwards of 500 homes were destroyed or damaged, and some homes were said to have vanished with little or no trace. Vehicles were thrown hundreds of yards and mangled beyond recognition, and grass was reportedly ripped from the ground. A newspaper image showed a vehicle motor that was embedded into a concrete wall by the tornado. A tractor was found in a wooded area 500 meters away from the dealership where it originated, and a pond outside of town was reportedly sucked dry by the tornado. The tornado is widely considered to have been an F5 on the Fujita Scale. This tornado was the most violent ever reported in Argentina and Southern Hemisphere, and had an economic cost of about $60,000.