Tornado outbreak sequence of May 4–10, 1933

From May 4–10, 1933, a tornado outbreak sequence produced at least 33 tornadoes. Among them was the Beaty Swamp tornado, a violent F4 that struck shortly after midnight CST on May 11, 1933, in Overton County, Tennessee, killing 35 people, injuring 150 others, and devastating the unincorporated communities of Beaty Swamp and Bethsaida. The storm was the second-deadliest tornado in the history of Middle Tennessee, even though it struck a sparsely populated, rural area. The community of Beaty Swamp ceased to exist and does not appear on any current maps. The only landmark that alludes to the former community is Beaty Swamp Road, which intersects Highway 111 in the northeast corner of Overton County. The severe weather event that generated the tornado also produced others, including long-tracked, intense tornadoes or tornado families that devastated portions of Alabama, South Carolina, and Kentucky, killing a combined total of 76 people.

Tompkinsville–Sewell–Cundiff–Russell Springs, Kentucky
A tornado family killed 16 people and destroyed 60 homes in Tompkinsville, striking the southern portion of the city and devastating African-American communities. Bodies were found 100 yd away, and the swath of damage was 1/4 mi wide. Farther northeast, the tornado killed two more people, at Sewell. Across Monroe County 50 injuries were reported. The tornado may have weakened as it headed northeastward, causing two injuries in Cumberland County and two more deaths near Cundiff in Adair County. Afterward, the tornado restrengthened and widened to 1 mi as it neared Russell Springs. The tornado passed within 1/2 mi of downtown Russell Springs, leveling 100 or more homes on the southeastern edge of town. At least 14 and possibly as many as 20 fatalities occurred in or near Russell Springs. Outside Russell Springs, chickens were reportedly left featherless. At least 87 people were injured and losses totaled $245,000. As many as 100 injuries may have occurred in Russell County alone. At that time, this tornado was the third-deadliest on record in the Commonwealth of Kentucky after the Louisville tornado of 1890, which took 76 lives, and the Fulton County-Bondurant tornado of 1917 when 65 people were killed. However, after 58 people were killed during the Western Kentucky tornado of 2021, this tornado would become the fourth-deadliest on record.

Beaty Swamp–Bethsaida, Tennessee
Around midnight local time, a violent tornado touched down approximately 6 mi north of Livingston and headed northeast, paralleling Big Eagle Creek and passing northwest of Bethsaida. The tornado subsequently struck the small settlement of Beaty Swamp, obliterating every home and causing 33 fatalities there, including an entire family of nine. Little debris was left in the vicinity, a reaper-binder was thrown 500 yd, and cars were moved hundreds of feet. Almost everyone in Beaty Swamp was either injured or killed. After devastating Beaty Swamp, the tornado continued through Bethsaida and past West Fork before dissipating near Byrdstown. In Pickett County the tornado caused only minor damage to properties and trees. Estimates of the path length vary from 11 to 20 mi. Heavy rainfall, suggestive of a high-precipitation supercell, immediately preceded the tornado. Another violent tornado did not hit the area until April 3, 1974.