The Waco Tornado
The Waco Tornado was a tornado measuring F5 on the Fujita scale that struck Waco, Texas on May 11, 1953. It was part of a tornado outbreak that occurred from May 9 to May 11, 1953 across the central plains.
According to local legend, tornadoes could not touch down in Waco. Most storms in the area travel from west to east and split around the Waco area, making tornadoes and extreme weather relatively rare and mild in the city. The 1953 storm, however, traveled against the prevailing winds, and the tornado approached Waco from the south-southwest.
The Waco Tornado struck at 4:36 p.m. The funnel cloud, over two blocks wide, hit the downtown area. Many people on the streets crowded into local businesses for shelter. However, few of the buildings were constructed sturdily enough to withstand the winds, and they collapsed almost immediately. The best-known example was the six-story R.T. Dennis furniture store, which crumbled to the ground and killed 30 people inside. Newer buildings with steel reinforcement, including the 22-story Amicable office building (now called the ALICO Building) just across the street, weathered the storm.
Five people were killed in two cars crushed in the street, one of which was crushed by a traffic light to only 18 inches in height. The Dr Pepper bottling plant, today the Dr Pepper Museum, was severely damaged.
Bricks from the collapsed structures piled up in the street to a depth of five feet. Some survivors were trapped under rubble for 14 hours, and it took several days to remove the bodies from the rubble. Over 250 homes and 2,000 cars were damaged or destroyed.
114 people were killed in the Waco area, with 597 injured and up to $50 million in property damage. Over half the dead - 61 - were in a single city block bounded by 4th and 5th streets and Austin and Franklin avenues.
The Waco Tornado remains tied with the 1902 Goliad Tornado as the deadliest in Texas history and the tenth-deadliest in US history. No deadlier single tornado has struck the US since then, making it the worst storm of the last 50 years. The storm was one of the primary factors spurring development of a nationwide severe weather warning system.
The tornado had long-lasting effects on the Waco economy. Waco's population was approximately 85,000 in 1953, but failed to grow substantially in subsequent years while nearby cities like Austin boomed tremendously in size.
The Flint Tornado
The Flint-Worcester Tornadoes were two tornadoes, one occurring in Flint, Michigan on June 8, 1953, the other in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 9, 1953. These tornadoes are among the deadliest in United States history and were caused by the same storm system that moved eastward across the nation. The tornadoes are also related together in the public mind because, for a brief period following the Worcester Tornado, it was debated in the U.S. Congress whether recent atomic bomb testing in the upper atmosphere had caused the tornadoes. 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.
The Flint-Worcester Tornadoes were the most infamous storms produced by a larger outbreak of severe weather that began in Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin, before moving across the Great Lakes states, and then into New York and New England. Other F3 and F4 tornadoes struck other locations in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and Ohio.
An F5 tornado hit Flint, Michigan on June 8, 1953 . The tornado moved east-northeast 2 miles north of Flushing, Michigan and devastated the north side of Flint and Beecher. The tornado first descended about 8:30 p.m. on a humid evening near a drive-in movie theater that was flickering to life at twilight time. Motorists in the drive-in began to flee in panic, creating many auto accidents on nearby roads. The tornado dissipated near Lapeer, Michigan. Nearly every home was destroyed on both sides of Coldwater Road. Multiple deaths were reported in 20 families. It is, as of March 2007, the last single tornado to kill more than 100 people in the United States. One hundred and sixteen were killed, making it the ninth deadliest tornado in U.S. history. It is also one of only three F5 tornadoes ever to hit in Michigan. Another F5 would hit in Hudsonville on April 3, 1956.
The storm system that created the Flint tornado moved eastward over southern Ontario and Lake Erie during the early morning hours of June 9. As radar was still relatively primitive in 1953, inadequate severe weather predictions resulted: the Weather Bureau in Buffalo, New York merely predicted thunderstorms and said that "a tornado may occur." As early as 10 A.M., the Weather Bureau in Boston anticipated the likelihood of tornadic conditions that afternoon but feared that the word "tornado" would strike panic in the public, and refrained from using it. Instead, as a compromise, they issued New England's first-ever severe thunderstorm watch. Several hours later and virtually without warning (to the public at least), a strong F4 tornado struck central Massachusetts in the late afternoon hours on June 9, 1953. The tornado descended over the Quabbin Reservoir in Petersham, Massachusetts at 4:25 P.M., and was witnessed by boaters on the reservoir. It then slammed into the rural towns of Barre and Rutland, followed by suburban Holden, before killing 60 in heavily populated northern Worcester. The towns of Shrewsbury and Westborough each suffered numerous fatalities. The tornado did its final destruction at the Fayville post office on Route 9 in Southborough, and dissipated nearby over the Sudbury Reservoir (in the Framingham area), 84 minutes after it formed.
Ninety-four people were killed.
Ironically, residents of central Massachusetts were coming home from work in the minutes before impact and picked up their evening newspapers to read the front-page headlines of the tornado that had just struck Flint, Michigan the previous evening. Some wondered if it was exactly the same tornado that was now bearing down on them.
The massive Worcester funnel was on the ground for nearly an hour and a half. In that period it traveled 46 miles, reached 1 mile in width and injured 1,300 people. Barre suffered the first 2 fatalities. The tornado then renewed its vigor in Rutland center with 2 more deaths, and widened to 1/2 mile in Holden, where 9 were killed, the worst-hit areas being Winthrop Oaks & Brentwood.
At 5:08 P.M., the tornado entered Worcester and grew to an unprecedented width of 1 mile. Damage was phenomenal in Worcester (at that time the second largest city in New England) and in some areas equaled the worst damage seen in the history of U.S. tornadoes. Hard-hit areas included the old Assumption College (which is now Quinsigamond Community College), where a priest and 2 nuns among the faculty were killed. The nearby Burncoat Hill neighborhood saw heavy devastation, but it was the Great Brook Valley neighborhood that was utterly leveled, with houses simply vanishing and debris swept clean from their original sites. Forty people died in this particular area. A bus was picked up, rolled over several times and thrown against an apartment building, resulting in the deaths of 2 passengers. The Brookside Home Farm, a city-operated dairy facility and laundry, sustained total damage, with 6 men and most of its 80 Holstein cows killed. Wrecked houses and bodies were blown into Lake Quinsigamond. One victim reportedly perished when suction from the tornado ripped open his chest due to rapid lung expansion.
The funnel maintained a 1-mile width throughout much of Shrewsbury, and was still doing maximum damage when it moved through downtown Westborough, where it began curving towards the northeast in its final leg. Coincidentally, around the time it ended in Southborough at 5:45 P.M., a tornado warning was issued, although by then it was too late. A separate F2 tornado also struck about the same time the warning was issued, in the nearby communities of Sutton, Northbridge, Mendon, Bellingham, Franklin, Wrentham & Mansfield in Massachusetts, injuring 17 persons. Another tornado did minor damage and caused several injuries in Fremont & Exeter in Rockingham County, New Hampshire; other smaller tornadoes occurred in Colrain, Mass. & Rollinsford, N.H.
Baseball-size hail was reported in a score of communities affected by the Worcester supercell. Airborne debris was strewn eastward, reaching the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory 35 mi (56 km) away, and even out over Massachusetts Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The farthest documented distance of tornado debris was an item that blew from Holden to Eastham (on Cape Cod), a distance of 110 miles. This is one of the greatest such instances in a U.S. tornado.
The Worcester Tornado was a milestone in many regards, not only because of its enormous size and unusual geographic location. It was also the nation's costliest tornado in raw dollars at the time, and its 1,300 injuries still stand as the 4th worst in U.S. history. However, its greatest legacy to the nation at large was that it was the catalyst for the Storm Prediction Center's reorganization on June 17, 1953, and subsequent implementation of a nationwide radar system. In terms of fatalities, it is the last tornado (as of April 2007) to kill more than 90 people, making it the 19th worst on record.
The severity of this epic storm remained in dispute for a long period within the meteorological community. Official observations classified this tornado as F4, but damage was consistent with an F5 tornado in 5 of the affected towns (Rutland, Holden, Worcester, Shrewsbury & Westborough). As a result of this debate, the National Weather Service took an unprecedented step and convened a panel of weather experts during the spring of 2005 to study the latest evidence on the wind strength of the Worcester Tornado. The panel considered whether or not to raise the designation of the storm to F5, but finally decided during the summer of 2005 to keep the official rating as a strong F4. The reasoning for this was that the anchoring techniques used in many of the destroyed or vanished homes could never now be ascertained with certainty, and some of these structures (many of recent postwar construction) were possibly more vulnerable to high winds than older homes. Without a proper engineering qualification, it would be nearly impossible to determine with 100% accuracy which damage was F5 and which was F4, as appearances would be similar.
Even though the 1953 tornado season only saw 422 tornadoes (which is half the nationwide average), the year saw some of the deadliest tornadoes, which included the Waco Tornado that hit on May 11.
The New Richmond Tornado
The New Richmond Tornado was an unprecedented disaster in the northern Great Plains. It nearly destroyed the village of New Richmond, Wisconsin on June 12, 1899, killing 117 and injuring 125 people. More than $300,000 ($7 million 2005 USD) in damage was reported.
June 12 was the day of the Gollmar Brothers Circus, drawing hundreds of visitors in addition to the bustling village's 2500 inhabitants. Around 3 pm, clouds began to build, and the sky became quite dark. As the circus ended for the day around 4:30, a heavy rain, with some hail, began to fall. The rain let up around 5:00, and people began to head home for the day. By 6:00, the streets of New Richmond were full of tourists, travelers, and residents alike.
Meanwhile, the tornado began as a waterspout on Lake St. Croix, about 15 miles (24.1 km) southwest of New Richmond, at around 5:30. It began as a boiling cloud, which seemed to skirt the hills to the east of Lake St. Croix, and then head straight for New Richmond. Passing over mostly open country, it destroyed several farm buildings near Burkhardt and Boardman as it traveled northeast. Three people were killed there.
There was little or no warning in New Richmond. Within minutes, homes and businesses were splintered and torn from their foundations, flying debris filled the air, and people were swept to their deaths. The tornado was completely illuminated by lightning, so everyone in town saw the vortex approach. Some barely had time to scramble for shelter in storm cellars, but many were caught in the streets. Some who did take refuge found it was not enough. Many people ran into the O.J. Williams dry goods store, which turned out to be a death trap. The store was swept away, and the people taking shelter in the basement were pelted to death by flying bricks and timbers.
Most people who could not find shelter were killed. Debris of all sorts flew through the air at tremendous speeds. A 3,000 pound safe was flung a block from its original location. Trees and timbers were hurled "like javelins" through the air, and the intense winds swept people up and threw them against walls or the ground.
After the tornado left town, another storm with strong winds swept through, sending people back into their shelters. It is likely that some died in fires while potential help was hiding from the possibility of another tornado.
All but the extreme west end of the town was obliterated by the tornado and subsequent fires. More than 500 buildings were destroyed, and the only significant surviving structures were the Catholic and Baptist churches. The town's electrical plant and water facilities were destroyed, so fires ran rampant through the scattered debris. Many bodies found in the aftermath were burnt beyond recognitionit was impossible to tell if they died from the tornado or from being trapped and burned alive.
Twenty-six families experienced multiple deaths, and six reported 4 or more deaths in the family. After order was restored, authorities determined that a total of 117 people had been killed (114 in the village) and more than 200 injured. This is the 8th highest death toll for any single tornado in American history.
The town was so completely damaged, the town had to be essentially rebuilt. Damage claims exceeded $300,000 ($7 million in 2006 USD), however, it may have been as high as $600,000 ($14 million 2006 USD).
The Amite-Pine-Purvis Tornado
The Amite-Pine-Purvis Tornadoes collectively are one of the worst tornado disasters in United States history. It struck on April 24, 1908 and left 143 people dead in its wake, making it one of the top 10 deadliest tornadoes in American history. Many of these deaths occurred in Purvis, Mississippi, where the casualties were: 83 dead, 340 injured, and 1,935 homeless. In the rural Washington Parish community of Pine, Louisiana, 9 people died in this tornado. The parishes/counties affected by this string of tornadoes were: Livingston Parish, St. Helena Parish, Tangipahoa Parish, Washington Parish, Marion County, Lamar County, Forrest County, Perry County, and Wayne County.
The Woodward Tornado
The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes were a system of related tornadoes that swept through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas on April 9, 1947. The event was similar to the Tri-State Tornado two decades before, in that it appeared to observers to be a single, very long-lived tornado. Later analysis suggests that it was actually a multiple-tornado outbreak. These tornadoes, although deadly, did not match the astounding death toll of the earlier event, nor did they match the record speed of that tornado, although at over 40 mph (64 km/h), they qualified as a fast tracking storm.
The tornadoes began in Texas. Just after the White Deer tornado dissipated, the first tornado of this event formed five miles northwest of Pampa, Texas. The series of tornadoes would cut a path of destruction through three states, ending near St. Leo, Kansas. In Texas, the funnel passed northwest of Canadian. When it struck the tiny town of Glazier, it may have been as much as two miles wide. Press reports told of two people who were known to be together in Glazier before the tornado struck were found three miles apart afterward. Glazier was considered completely destroyed, with 17 dead, a major percentage of the populace. Much of Higgins, Texas, on the Texas-Oklahoma border, was also destroyed--the accepted death toll here was 51; again, a major fraction of the residents of the town were killed or injured.
The tornadoes were at their worst in Oklahoma--this was the deadliest storm in that state's tornado-troubled history. Six more people were killed when the tornado passed south of Shattuck, Gage, and Fargo. The tornado then moved into Woodward, where it killed an estimated 107 people. The damage track in Woodward was two miles wide and destroyed 100 city blocks.
As the storm moved into Kansas, it weakened, although serious damage was reported in Barber County before it finally dissipated north of Kingman County. Cleanup in the region was made more difficult because of cold and snow that followed the tornado. The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes were the 6th deadliest in U.S. history, killing 181 and injuring 970.
The Gainesville Tornado
The Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak was an outbreak of seventeen tornadoes that struck the Southeastern United States from April 5th to 6th, 1936. Approximately 436 people were killed by these tornadoes. Although the outbreak was centered around Tupelo, Mississippi and Gainesville, Georgia, other destructive tornadoes associated with the outbreak struck Columbia, Tennessee, Anderson, South Carolina and Acworth, Georgia. Severe flash floods from the associated storms also produced millions in damage across the region.
The Tupelo Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history, slammed into Tupelo, Mississippi at around 8:30 P.M. It was an F5 on the Fujita scale, causing total destruction along its path. Fortunately, the tornado missed the downtown business district. The tornado moved through the residential areas of Tupelo, destroying many homes, and killing whole families who had little or no warning. A very young Elvis Presley and his mother were two of the survivors.
When the death toll of 216 was announced, over 100 people had been hospitalized in three states. The final death toll was set at 233 (not necessarily including African-American deaths, who were frequently excluded from death tolls until the 1950s).
The Tupelo Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history, slammed into Tupelo, Mississippi at around 8:30 P.M. It was an F5 on the Fujita scale, causing total destruction along its path. Fortunately, the tornado missed the downtown business district. The tornado moved through the residential areas of Tupelo, destroying many homes, and killing whole families who had little or no warning. A very young Elvis Presley and his mother were two of the survivors.
When the death toll of 216 was announced, over 100 people had been hospitalized in three states. The final death toll was set at 233 (not necessarily including African-American deaths, who were frequently excluded from death tolls until the 1950s).
The Tupelo Tornado
The Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak was an outbreak of seventeen tornadoes that struck the Southeastern United States from April 5th to 6th, 1936. Approximately 436 people were killed by these tornadoes. Although the outbreak was centered around Tupelo, Mississippi and Gainesville, Georgia, other destructive tornadoes associated with the outbreak struck Columbia, Tennessee, Anderson, South Carolina and Acworth, Georgia. Severe flash floods from the associated storms also produced millions in damage across the region.
The Tupelo Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history, slammed into Tupelo, Mississippi at around 8:30 P.M. It was an F5 on the Fujita scale, causing total destruction along its path. Fortunately, the tornado missed the downtown business district. The tornado moved through the residential areas of Tupelo, destroying many homes, and killing whole families who had little or no warning. A very young Elvis Presley and his mother were two of the survivors.
When the death toll of 216 was announced, over 100 people had been hospitalized in three states. The final death toll was set at 233 (not necessarily including African-American deaths, who were frequently excluded from death tolls until the 1950s).
The Tupelo Tornado, the fourth deadliest tornado in United States history, slammed into Tupelo, Mississippi at around 8:30 P.M. It was an F5 on the Fujita scale, causing total destruction along its path. Fortunately, the tornado missed the downtown business district. The tornado moved through the residential areas of Tupelo, destroying many homes, and killing whole families who had little or no warning. A very young Elvis Presley and his mother were two of the survivors.
When the death toll of 216 was announced, over 100 people had been hospitalized in three states. The final death toll was set at 233 (not necessarily including African-American deaths, who were frequently excluded from death tolls until the 1950s).
The St. Louis Tornado
The "St. Louis - East St. Louis Tornado" is a historic tornado event that occurred on Monday, May 27, 1896, as part of a major tornado outbreak across the Central United States on the 27th, continuing across the Eastern United States on the 28th. It is among the first tornadoes with actual damage photographs. It is one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history. This very large, long-track, and violent tornado was the most notable the outbreak which produced other large, long-track, violent, killer tornadoes.
The first significant tornado of the day formed near Bellflower, Missouri and killed a woman. Three students died and sixteen were injured when the Dye School in Audrain County, Missouri was hit at around 6:15 P.M. The same tornado killed one student and injured 19 others at the Bean Creek school a few minutes later. At 6:30, two supercell thunderstorms produced two tornadoes. One decimated farms in New Minden, Hoyleton, Richview, and Irvington, Illinois.
Twenty-seven more people died in the other Illinois tornadoes of this outbreak.
The tornado spawned from the other supercell became the third deadliest and the most costly tornado in United States history. It touched down in St. Louis, Missouri, then one of the largest and most influential cities in the country. 137 people died as the tornado traversed the core of the city leaving a mile wide (1.6 km) continuous swath of destroyed homes, schools, saloons, factories, mills, churches, parks, and railroad yards. More people probably died on boats on the Mississippi River as the bodies may have gone downriver. When the tornado crossed the river and hit East Saint Louis, Illinois, it was smaller but more intense. An additional 118 people were killed. The confirmed death toll is 255, with some estimates above 400. More than 1,000 were injured. The tornado was later rated F4 on the Fujita scale. Adjusted for wealth and inflation (1997 USD), it is the costliest tornado in U.S. history at an estimated $2.9 billion.
It is somewhat rare for the core of a large city to be hit directly by a tornado (due to their relatively small area and the relative lack of large cities in the highest tornado threat region)--especially a large intense tornado--yet several other tornadoes have tracked through the City of St. Louis and several of these tornadoes were also very deadly and destructive. Among these events are: 1871 (9 killed), 1890 (4 killed), 1904 (3 killed, 100 injured), 1927 (79 killed, 550 injured, 2nd costliest in US history), 1959 (21 killed, 345 injured)., 2007 (Late-March 2007 Tornado Outbreak). This makes St. Louis the worst tornado afflicted urban area in the U.S. Additionally, the Greater St. Louis area is the scene of even more historically destructive and deadly tornadoes.
Other major tornado outbreaks occurred on May 15, May 17, and May 24-25, with other smaller outbreaks during the month as well. The middle to end of May was extremely active but sparse records preclude knowing much detail. Tom Grazulis has stated that the week of May 24-28 was "perhaps the most violent single week of tornado activity in US history".
The 1896 tornado season has the distinction of being the deadliest in United States history. There were at least 40 killer tornadoes spanning from April 11 to November 26; including this one, the only one to kill more than 100 people in two separate cities.
The Natchez Tornado
The Great Natchez Tornado was a tornado that hit Natchez, Mississippi on May 7, 1840. It is the second deadliest single tornado in United States history, killing 317 people (the only tornado in the United States to have killed more people was the Tri-State Tornado). It is also one of the few tornadoes to have killed more people than it injured: only 109 were injured.
The tornado formed southwest of Natchez and moved northeast along the Mississippi River. It then moved into the town of Natchez and destroyed many buildings. The final death toll was 48 on land and 269 on the river, mostly from the sinking of flatboats. The death toll is slightly disputed because of the land death toll of 48. It is believed that people died on plantations, and since this was pre-Civil War Mississippi, slave deaths weren't usually counted. The Fujita scale rating of this tornado is almost certainly an F5 but since there was no Fujita scale at the time, this tornado remains uncategorized.
There was nothing else of a similar magnitude until the Camanche, Iowa tornado of June 3, 1860.
The Tri-State Tornado
The Great Tri-State Tornado of Wednesday, March 18, 1925, crossed from south eastern Missouri, through southern Illinois, then into southwestern Indiana, and was the deadliest tornado in U.S. history. With 695 confirmed fatalities, the tornado killed more than twice as many as the second deadliest, the 1840 Great Natchez Tornado. The continuous ?219 mile (?352 km) track left by the tornado was the longest ever recorded in the world. Historians would recognize it as an example of the maximum issued rating of an F5 on the Fujita scale.
The tornado was part of a larger tornado outbreak with several other destructive tornadoes in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana, as well as other tornadoes in Alabama and Kansas. Including other tornadoes that day, at least 747 were killed and 2,298 were injured during this unusually intense and early spring outbreak. There were undoubtedly many other smaller tornadoes that have been lost to history.
There has long been discussion as to whether the event was a single continuous tornado or a tornado family. Quality of data because of distance in the past and lack of other tornadoes approaching this path length and duration raised doubts, and theory on tornadoes and supercell morphology suggested such duration was exceedingly improbable. Thorough new and continuing research, however, has found no break in the path and also that the tornado touchdown occurred approximately 15 miles (24 km) before previously thought (Doswell et al).
The vortex was first sighted around 1:01 p.m., north-north-west of Ellington, Missouri. The tornado sped to the northeast, killing two and causing $500,000 worth of property damage and the near annihilation of Annapolis, then struck the mining town of Leadanna. In Bollinger County 32 children were injured when two schools were damaged. Redford, Cornwall, Biehle, and Frohna also were hit by the tornado. At least eleven died altogether in Missouri.
The tornado crossed the Mississippi River into southern Illinois, hitting the town of Gorham, at 2:30 p.m., essentially obliterating the entire town, killing 34. Continuing to the northeast at an average speed of 62 miles per hour (100 km/h) (and up to 73 miles per hour [117 km/h]), the tornado cut a swath almost a mile (1.6 km) wide through Murphysboro, De Soto, Hurst-Bush, and West Frankfort. Also afflicted were Zeigler, Eighteen, and Crossville. Within 40 minutes, 541 lives were lost and 1,423 were seriously injured. The village of Parrish was completely destroyed, killing 22. In Murphysboro, 234 were killed, the most in a single city in U.S. history. The tornado proceeded to decimate rural areas across Hamilton and White Counties, claiming 65 more residents. In Illinois, at least 613 were killed, the most in a single state in U.S. history.
Crossing the Wabash River into Indiana, the tornado struck and nearly totally demolished Griffin, devastated rural areas, impacted Owensville, then roared into Princeton, destroying half the town. The tornado traveled ten more miles (16 km) to the northeast before finally dissipating at about 4:30 p.m. around three miles (5 km) southwest of Petersburg. In Indiana, at least 71 perished.
In all, at least 695 died and 2027 were injured, mostly in southern Illinois. Three states, thirteen counties, and more than nineteen communities, four of which were essentially effaced (several of these and others never recovered), were in the path of the record 3.5 hour duration tornado. Total damage was estimated at $16.5 million; adjusted for wealth and inflation the toll is approximately $1.4 billion (1997 USD), surpassed in history only by two extremely destructive tornadoes in the City of St. Louis. These three events in terms of destruction, inferred by normalized monetary losses, are by far the most destructive (and expensive) tornadoes ever in the United States. Over 15,000 homes were destroyed by the Tri-State Tornado.
Nine schools across three states were destroyed in which 69 students were killed, more schools destroyed and more students killed (as well as the single school record of 33 deaths in De Soto, Illinois) than any other tornado in U.S. history.
The unusual appearance (due to its size) of the very fast moving tornado, best described by the witnesses along most of its path as an amorphous rolling fog or boiling clouds on the ground, fooled normally weather wise farm owners (and people in general) who did not sense the danger until the storm was upon them. The tornado was accompanied by extreme downburst winds generally throughout the entirety of its course; the tornado and accompanying downbursts increased the width of damage from an average of 3/4-mile (1.2 km) (though at times over a mile [1.6 km] wide) to an area three miles (5 km) wide at times.
In addition to the dead and injured, thousands were left without shelter or food. Fires erupted, exacerbating the damage. Looting and theft, notably of the property of the dead, was reported. Recovery was generally slow with the event leaving a lasting blow to the region.