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🌪️ Tornado Talk Updates!

Still on this road this week! Have made some great progress with tornado history stops in a few Texas towns including Dublin, Groesbeck and Denton. Heading back east early this week, dodging active weather as I do so. Because of the severe threat, will be ending the trip a little early and getting home to start organizing everything!

We are still on task to finish the Guin narrative by April 15. We then dive more into the virtual tornado memorial!

Thanks to everyone for your support!!

🌪️ This Week In Tornado History

March 31, 1973 - South Carolina: An F4 tornado struck Abbeville, SC just after dark damaging and destroying several homes. It plowed into a motel about three miles east of Calhoun Falls. “The entire building, its furnishings and occupants from the foundation upward were carried across the highway toward the south and spread over a large field.” Seven people were killed, four of them in the motel.

April 1, 1929 - PA/NJ:  An F2 tornado moved from one mile southwest of Portland, PA, passing just east of the town. It destroyed a bridge over the Delaware River and ended west of Blairstown, NJ. There was a total of eight injuries and one man was killed. Boyd Titman of Polkville was struck by heavy timbers from the wreckage of his barn.

April 2, 1880 - Kansas: An estimated F3 tornado crossed 20 miles through Crawford County, KS. It moved from seven miles SW of Girard, passing one mile south of town. Several farms were leveled. “Two children and two adults were killed in four separate homes.”

April 3-4, 1974 - The Super Outbreak: 148 Twisters in 24 Hours. 95 were rated F2 or stronger on the Fujita scale and 30 were F4 or F5. 15 Tornadoes occurring simultaneously at the height of the event. 13 states affected across the Eastern US, from the Great Lakes region to the Deep South. Over 2500 miles of damage path. 335 fatalities. More than 6000 injuries.

April 5, 1936 - Mississippi: “Despite the swiftness of the blow, the frightful loss of life, the staggering destruction of property, the people of that city have lifted their heads from grief to face the future in an unconquerable determination to rebuild a better, greater, and fairer city. Such an unquenchable spirit makes them neighbors to the rest of the world.” Those words were penned by William Clifford Morse, Ph.D, Mississippi State Geologist in his bulletin about the devastating Tupelo, MS tornado of April 5, 1936. This significant tornado was part of a larger two-day outbreak. It occurred on Palm Sunday during the evening. There were 700 injuries and 216 fatalities. One very young survivor of this horrific tornado was Elvis Presley along with his parents Gladys and Vernon. Elvis was only 15 months old.

April 6, 1919 - Nebraska:  Thomas Grazulis documents four tornadoes in Nebraska on this day, all assigned an F2 rating. On was well-photographed as it moved west of Elmwood. The town was spared but many farms south of the railroad tracks were hit. Debris from demolished buildings were carried aloft and were seen by many. Another F2 hit southeast of Madison and then another hit NE of that town. The last struck Southwest Omaha, “just west of the area where the 1913 tornado entered the city.”

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