While most of the tornado's went through rural farmland, most of the devastation was concentrated in the Beecher district. 113 of the 116 fatalities from the tornado occurred in Beecher, including 54 children under the age of 18 with multiple deaths occurring in 20 families. The two greatest losses were exacted to the families of Pedro Gatica and Thomas Gensel; both men survived, but lost their entire families. Gatica, a worker at General Motors, had been at work when the tornado struck, while his small home was directly in the path of the storm. His wife Cecilia, who was eight months pregnant with their third child, was killed, as were their two small children and a niece who lived with them. Gensel had been at home with his wife Vanessa and their four children when their home was blown apart; only Thomas survived. Eight area hospitals, including three in Saginaw, were involved in treating victims. Some accounts recalled employees of Flint's automobile industry leaving factories to head to the site to discover whether or not their families had survived. Large sections of neighborhoods were completely destroyed. It was the last tornado to kill more than 100 people until it was surpassed by the Joplin, Missouri, tornado on May 22, 2011. The last F5 tornado in Michigan was the Hudsonville-Standale tornado of April 3, 1956. It was debated in the U.S. Congress at the time whether recent atomic bomb testing in the upper atmosphere had caused tornadoes including this one. Congressman James E. Van Zandt (R-Penn.) was among several members of Congress who expressed their belief that the June 4th bomb testing created the tornadoes, which occurred far outside the traditional tornado alley. They demanded a response from the government. Meteorologists quickly dispelled such an assertion, and Congressman Van Zandt later retracted his statement.