On April 12, 1945, Antlers was devastated by a powerful tornado. Moving southwest to northeast, it destroyed stores and homes in a wide swath, including stores and shops at the south end of High Street. Sixty-seven residents were killed, and more than 300 injured. Antlers High School was adapted as a makeshift morgue to receive bodies. In the 300 block of East Main Street, the large and historic St. Agnes Academy for Choctaw Indians was destroyed. Two nuns were killed but all the students survived. Reporting of the destructive tornado was superseded by coverage of the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which also occurred that day. But the federal government dispatched U.S. Army troops to Antlers from Camp Maxey, Texas, a World War II-era Army base located between Paris and Arthur City, Texas. The troops assisted with rescue, maintaining law and order, and clearing rubble. Another, similarly serious tornado struck Antlers in April 1954 resulting in 40 fatalities.