In the immediate aftermath of the tornado, LIFE’s John Dominis and correspondent Scot Leavitt, who had just recently moved to Texas, made their way to the devastated city. It remains one of the deadliest tornados in American history. (On the scale for rating rotational intensity created by storm researcher Ted Fujita, an F5 twister is capable of “incredible damage.”) In a matter of minutes, in the face of cyclonic winds that likely topped 300 mph, hundreds of homes and businesses were utterly destroyed thousands of cars were damaged or totaled almost 600 people were injured and 114 were killed. On the afternoon of May 11, 1953, an F5 tornado made a direct hit on Waco, Texas.