I live just north of Columbus AFB so I live between Smithville and Philadelphia (two of the four F5s that day). I know the town well, and it's heartbreaking seeing the damage. My sons have played football for 10 years so we always played the Smithville peewee teams when they had one. You're right - it still hasn't fully recovered all these years later. That was an absolutely terrifying and tragic day. I'm sorry for your family's neighbors, but I'm glad they were okay!
If I remember correctly there were several tornado warnings all along the eastern counties that day. It would have been catastrophic if it had been Columbus or one of the larger cities that was in the bullseye that day. I’m very appreciative of all the help that the local communities provided for Smithville.
I lived in Smithville and Amory almost thirty years and Starkville for thirteen before moving to Texas. It really seemed like those counties right along the Alabama line were always in the crosshairs for tornadoes to form and roll into Bama. That’s one of the few things I don’t miss living here in the hill country. We don’t have any where near the amount of tornado warnings that we had over there. Now big hail storms are another matter