The Killing Wind - The F5 Tornado in Flint Michigan

[LilDuckie3]

Born and raised in Flint, MI. Never knew all this bruh!

[TrillCoop]

Ummm tornadoes are common in the midwest and michigan is considered a midwestern state.

[Tarron3]

Who cares! old ass shit. R.IP

[HaleLand3]

I was born in 1956 in Mich. but Mom+Dad went to a Demolition Derby outside Detroit that night; rain began; their car water-logged. Dad wanted to taxi home, but mom couldn't see losing the car; he finally started it. 15 minutes into the Derby, it disbanned w/ tornado warnings. They raced home to a relative watching my sibs, 4 and 2 1/2. The PD were there: the huge front yard oak crashed in the house's 2nd story window. Both kids, sound asleep in bed! Still prickles 85 yr old Mom's neck! Us too!

[chittlenyc]

@coldbluerain The original IMA was built in the 1930's I think. They imploded it in 1997 I think. They built a new one in 1969, which is still standing.

[crocks2871]

@coldbluerain I'm pretty sure He was refering to the national guard armory on cesar chavez which was set up as a temporary morgue for the victims..

[crocks2871]

@coldbluerain I'm pretty sure He was refering to the national guard armory on cesar chavez which was set up as a temporary morgue for the victims..

[xXAllThatRemainsxXx]

Its crazy to see my homestate having such a horrific tornado that it would be the 9th worst ever. I live in East Lansing, Michigan and last year a tornado came through my neighborhood and destroyed my uncles house and thankfully him and my cousin was at their friends otherwise they would not be hear today and the tornado just ripped apart my neighborhood it was crazy but thankfully there was no deaths

[jer295]

@coldbluerain The sports arena and the IMA auditorium where two separate buildings. The IMA auditorium was downtown, by the river. I was 6 years old when this when through Flint, my family drove though the beecher district about 2 hours after the twister went through,I remember it like it was yesterday.

[easye46]

I sometimes wonder if a curse was put on flint =)

[thelightningmanify]

scary

[PoppaBlue59]

1953 was a "landmark" year for killer tornados. Worcester Mass, Flint MI, Waco TX, just to name three. There were actually many people who blamed atmospheric atomic testing in Nevada for the severe weather.

[Nightmonkey17]

If I ever build a house in the midwest it's definitely going to have a basement!

[SuperSeptember17]

I am 61 now and I still remember June 8 53. The sky was black and green through

my grand mothers basement window. I did'nt understand what was hapening. In

1956 I lived in Lincoln Park MI and I saw first hand a tornado it damaged our home.

and distroyed a church accross the street. I'll never forget the noise and the terror!

[wilbur265]

is she dead now

[Sunthestun]

I wish they had the alarms those days. Lots of lifes would have been saved.

[Toyeboy89]

wow it just seems soooo weird that an F5 actually hit Flint, wow it was on the ground like the whole county into Lapeer ...the path went about 5 miles north of my current house in Davison...Scary, i hope it never repeats itself!!!

[ChristopherSaindon]

Last tornado to kill over 100 people...to this day. Let's pray it stays

that way!! :-)

[radicalgarbage02]

"The Killing Wind takes you back to 1953, before weather sirens...."

1:07 (a weather siren)

[chittlenyc]

@radicalgarbage02 You are right to point that out, yah, I guess I shouldn't have put that siren in there, in retrospect, but I wanted to create the feeling of a coming tornado, and the siren is what people associate with today.

[tames123]

I thought it was called: "The Thumb of God"

[haloplayer123456]

fuck the intro i wanna see the tornado lol

[SSRR191]

I'm really in shock! I never see a tornado and I pray every night to not happen anything like that! I'm really sad of hear this... I can't imagine the pain and panic! Some people doesn't have the idea of what it is that and don't care about it, because they are not them to see all the destruction and force to leave their homes to save our lives. Let's care of our planet to save many lives like them

[xShadowxPhoenix]

No made up horror story can top this kind

[KBOWLE02]

that was so sade god did not like ugley 360 tornado tankyou

[CloverTheSquirrel]

Hudsonville was apart of this as well... Even though it said the "Flint Tornado". There are so many names, because the weather that day was so jacked up, and there was tornados hitting everywhere in northern/western Michagan. Same date and everything for both towns. In fact, my grandfather knew a couple who only had 1 chair left after it in Hudsonville because the couple brought the chair down for their little boy to sit on in the downstairs. It honestly was really bad.

[Dvoracekmara]

terrible strong....

[rioandashley]

whats a tubafour hahahahaha

[GeorginaO89]

God i wasnt álive at the 50's! I feel so sorry for that women.

[louky264]

sounds like that tornado was the beginning of the end for flint. the 1953 tornado occured at peak prosperity for the city but these days it seems like a forewarning of its current sorry state. with rampant deindustrialization @ ghettoization it looks like several of those F5s have run amok thru Flint recently.

[velvetsnape]

I grew up not to far from Flint. About a 45min drive south on I-75. I moved to Mena AR 2 years ago. I experienced my first tornado on Apr. 9, 2009. Amazingly it only killed 3 people. I was in the little theater here which when the last tornado hit in 1993, took off 23ft off the back end. The building remained in tact this time.

[knotinthestring]

I remember this tornado because of my mother and my older brother. He was born in Flint on June 29, the day after the storm. In his baby book are as many photos of the disaster as there are of a tiny new babe. One of a tree trunk covered with pieces of hay, the straws poked through the back like a coat of hair. Think of the power it must take to push straw into bark and not break the straw! The caption on his album " The day before I hit, *this* hit!" This is just amazing. They were blessed.

[jcisL69]

Iam from East Lansing Mi. I never new that Mi. had a f5 tornado! that scares the crap out off me!!

[OnUIHate]

My ma took me down to flint...There are still ditches filled with debris.

[tornadoguy2006]

I'm a Firefighter from this area. I wasn't alive during this time but I talked with some of the guys on my department who were around for the tornado. I can listen to the stories for hours.

[EasilyWowed]

Hard to believe only weeks before this violent tornado, there was a minor deadly outbreak just east of Flint, in Port Huron.

It crossed the river into Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, where it killed several people; but nothing on the scale of what was to come in Flint weeks later.

[ChevyRiderAMP]

born in the 80's right here in Flint....never even knew of this. Crazy!!! Great video, thanks for the knowledge.

One thing I noticed was the newspaper that said it caused 10 million dollars in damage........ I wonder how much that would be in today's world. That is alot of stuff that twister had to destroy.

[calvtenor]

Reports say it would have been 119 million by todays standard's

[flintmi]

Got the number for you from the US Govt CPI Inflation Calculator.

It's $80 million in today's dollars.

[Legend813a]

I thought that they taught local history in schools.

[Doug19752533]

@ChevyRiderAMP from Flint also, i remember my father (he was 6 at the time of that tornado) and grandparents talking about that storm. My grandfather worked for GM and grandmother was a teacher at Walker school. we still have the original newspaper from the day after that storm!

[JRCollinsfan]

Reminds me of the tornado that hit my area in the spring of '56. Hudsonville/Standale tornado. I remember watching it with my dad on our farm north of Hudsonville. The longest lasting F5 and the Second/last F5 to Ever hit Michigan. 40 miles of distruction. 6:30 to 7:00PM before it was all over. Those woods which we watched it tear through still stand, scared for life. Infact, A few trees still remain, absolute evidence of the tornado. I was only 9 at the time.

[nobodysgirl2008]

He said it was absolutely amazing to find them so far from where it originated. Which is an hour and 47 miles away. My grandmother has some of the papers still packed away somewhere. I cannot believe it took me so long to look this up. I never realized how bad it was, I do not think he did either.

[nobodysgirl2008]

My grandfather who lived 30 minutes NE of Lapeer MI said that he was 6 years old when this happened and he and his father went outside to see the storm dissipate and found school papers from the Flint school system.

[davidallenroth]

that was literally a war zone. unbelievable, i bet many like war vets suffered from ptsd for there entire life

[ecman57]

I grew up in Michigan in the early 60's. I always remember hearing about how bad the Flint tornado had been. I also remember being scared when the tornado sirens went off in my town, google image "flint tornado" & click on the Life Magazine results. There are photo's of people identifying their dead in the city auditorium. the photos will bring you to tears. regardless of the experts this was an F6 not an F5. During an F5 you're safe

in the basement. they were pulling bodies out of basements.

[danreino]

God Bless this woman and the people of Flint Michigan.

[ellesstee]

I knew one of the Medical Examiners in Flint at that time and he told me he never seen so many people with limbs ripped off - some of them even survived . One of the immediate dilemmas though was a shortage of morphine. Many survivors were very severely injured and in shock from the pain - testimony, incidently, to the terrific power of that tornado. The anvils from that storm, lit up pink by the setting sun, were plainly visible in Ann Arbor and Detroit - 60 miles away.

[flintmi]

It was the "Katrina of the 1950's." I say that in quotes because Katrina was much deadlier, but an F5 in 1953 in a northern state? Just as shocking and horrific.

You really sent chills down my spine with your description of the scene, those comments bring new potency of how bad this was to the audience. Thank you.

[beaverboy129]

omg this is sad im actually sad lol i got tears in my eyes my hearts out for everyone that died or even went threw this tornado

[sleepyjean67]

my mom was 7 when that tornado happened and she live on the west side of flint and she said she can still remember going they went outside and they could see the tornado going threw. i live like 3 miles from where it happened i remember on the 50th annivsary there was a big storm with a tornado it was weird.

[p3erf80g4949]

never knew that there was a f5 in michigan i learnd something!

[flintmi]

Well put.

[flintmi]

Thanks. That was our very first video!

[mysteryincninja]

whew i couldnt even begin to imagin what that lady in the video went through!! that had to be devistating in that time especially! nothing could have prepared them for a f5 tornado we still to this day have nothing that can prepare anybody for a force 5 tornado or a catagory 5 hurricane! we do have a better warning system to tell us to get out and/or take shelter but that still doesnt stop the storms. and nursing homes and hospitals are hard to evacuate i couldnt even imagine.

[JPfromFlint]

I grew up in Beecher right off Coldwater Road behind the high school during the 80's and early 90's. It's a siren not far from my old house on the other side of Coldwater by the Beeecher fire station that sounds like the one at 1:20. It would go off everyday at 12 noon. It was used to alert everyone of a severe thunderstorm or a tornado warning. But it was mainly to alert volunteer firemen of a fire. It's too bad they didn't have one back in 1953

[joemyhusband]

Wow never thought of a F5 tornado in my Homestate Michigan.

[neolexington]

i work and live not too far from flint, i still hear about this storm from time to time. Commonly called the Beecher Tornado. Nastiest tornado for the state of michigan.

[Darkgnome7]

yea i live in genise contuiy did u hear about the tornado in fenton michigen i was in it scary :(

[atvmaster321]

when u hear like a train close by when there isnt lol run away@!!!

[soccergirljj]

dont you see how Powerful God is He is amazing he is 999,999,999,999,999 times stronger then that

[ladypoet2006]

yep thats the sound my mom discribed like a freight train from hell comming right at you shes a sirviver of this terrible tornado

[ZeppelinFreak13]

my freakin grandma lived like 3 miles away when that happend!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[54spiritedwill54]

we get some rough storms indeed

[windwmx78]

good video

[foxcloak866]

checkl out my video of how the flint tornado happenedd other tornados

[Mew0493]

michigan weather doesn't bother me i live here in mi anyways. but holy crap i didn't even know that a f5 twister hit in flint like that. O_O a kid like me find this intresting

[elmo4777]

yeah me too thats fucking scary i mean we have had some bad ones in the years but FUCK a t5 holyshit! dude that is just fuckin scary

[xXJcam14Xx]

i live in Grand blanc. we never get hit with tornadoes. however we do get a lot of false alarms. just really bad thunderstorms.

[yendysydneyendys]

I really hate michigan weather. One day, sunny skies and 80 degrees, next day 45 and freezing rain.....it sucks here.

[jpet71]

My parents were both 16 during that tornado. Dad lived in the Beecher district. Mom lived further south in Flint. Mom talks about it. Dad doesn't. I grew up with Mom dragging us down to the basement at every tornado warning, and then yelling for Dad to come back inside. He could never resist standing out in the field to watch for the storm.

[siszam]

You just described my parents too. LOL. My mom would coward in a closet or the hall with us kids while dad stood on the porch watching the storm.

[mamamia1661]

for those who think michigan is too far north for this are so dumb

summers are HOT!!!!!!!!!!! (HOT is flaming)

winters are cold with snow

fall and spring are mild

[buckeyesoprano]

A well-made documentary piece. Kudos to whomever produced it.

Mrs. C.'s accent reminds me so much of my friend's grandmother. She was from the Kalamazoo area and to hear that accent brings back many memories.

[flintmi]

Thank you very much!

[Rune101rune]

NOthing to do with global warming but the coming of Christ back to earth. These are the beginnings or sorrows. Just the tip of the ice berg Math 24

[siszam]

You speak the truth.

[skulldrill]

Rune101rune so christ coming back would involve misery and sorrow? I think not you know it all bible thumpin' irritant. God doesn't control our weather like a puppet. what is is. God is love, love is god. Someone needs to take that bible and shove it up you're ass.

[Rune101rune]

OMG they have just istalled an alarm system here in our town and every time I hear that siren fear comes over me.

[JackieMagenta]

When people live in Michigan, yeah we get our fair share of summer storms, and a few tornados, but generally people who live here think they are safe from things like this. It could happen!

[cskillet2003]

Those sirens remind me of that cypress hill song.

[AzumangaGirl101]

Oh man this made me cry.

[NonRider]

in the early 60s my family lived in BEECHER and the house we lived in was on the same foundation of a another house that was destroyed in 53 in about 60 my dad dug under the house to make a basement and found all the debris from the old house took him all summer to complete.but that tornado did no where near the damage to that area as the ppl of the 70s -80s they have destroyed the school systems and the crime in that area is the worst in the country

[Flinttownmotherfucka]

my god. I grew up hearing those sirens every first saturday. I didn't know the whole story behind it. thank god I wasn't born in Flint until 1971..

[padude64]

Wait until you see what happens in the next few weeks! You republicans should wake up! Catastrophic flooding, Deadly tornadoes yet again! WAKE UP!

[rforry]

Sobering to know that the great city that's dying economically as I write this was almost destroyed by this monster in 1953. Wow!

[padude64]

You guys notice the tornado frequency lately? PAY attention global warming debaters!

[KrystalFrizz]

NO.

[Legend813a]

No and no.

[Pazsacur]

Yea i live in lenawee county michigan, we get some pretty rough storms

[michallekklewin]

1925 this date is big torando F6

[ahuestis]

There is, by definition, no such thing as an 'F6' tornado.

[Snowstar629]

@ahuestis in a way there is a typ so bad it can be a f6,it can be a f1 and still kill lots of ppl,its where there twister is camoed by the clouds and thousands of ppl think they are driving into a strom but its relly a tornado,but rely i say the same 2 there is no f6

[208504]

@ahuestis Yeah there is, but its not on this plant. Its on Jupiter.

[GuinnevereB]

I was four years old at the time, and lived in Lapeer County, east of Flint, which is in Genesee County. My father took the family to view the damage nearest our home, and the memory has given me a profound lifelong dread of tornadoes. That storm must have been the Finger of God, because it truly put the Fear of God in me!

[Porygonseizureman]

@GuinnevereB Such tornadoes have been called the "Finger of God", Michigan hasn't had such a violent storm since 1966, with a tornado that sent a farming irrigation device to fly over 300 yards near St. Johns.

[Gergullishious12]

did u no that they might create an F6? I dont think its true but according to the weather channel,there have been 2 tornados that were so bad, they cant be fit into the F5 catorgry

[batterbee2000]

wow

[Gergullishious12]

i no.

[freespeachrulez]

I can't believe that happened in Michigan no less. I am in Michigan. We have had some pretty bad tornados, but usually not something that big. Wow.. I never new this.. thanks for the video.

[Fatboyslims77]

I live in Michigan as well and this video is interesting. My grandparents both survived the storm and have told stories but this video puts it into prespective.

[ILovestorms]

The very next day on the 9th, an F4 tornado killed 90 people in and around Worcester, Massachussetts.

[BrianMChampion]

My mom also said the sky was a funny color that day -- yellow I think she said.

[BrianMChampion]

It is 1:0o PM. Also, I remember my mom saying that the sky was a funny color, just like this lady said. Yellowish, I think. also, it's interesting that the lady said she worked At "the" Buick. All the old timers said "the" Buick. Finally, while Flint has problems, the Flint "area" is actually a very nice place to live, depending on what part.

[zero2kx]

My mom was just telling me about this the other day. She was young but still remembers it vividly

[kilikblackrose]

F5 tornado is a very powerful and strong storm and I do agree that its the finger of god. More like for f5 to describe to be more of the deadliest (whatever that is spelled) tornadoes than other storms.

[aquateensown]

Powerful tornados are very rare in michigan, We are lucky to even get a f3 tornado, Most tornados that do touchdown in michigan are ususally f0-f2.

[swedishmeatbaII]

you mean thousands...tornados rarely kill many people because they are so small and short lived...there are anamolies such as the flint tornado or the oklahoma torandos in may of 1999. Just know im not trying to degrade the dead, just bringing more awareness and hopefully less fear towards tornados.

[pancakekiller91]

this was not the deadliest of the last 50 years, waco texas had an f5 the same year which killed 119 people, this killed 113

[flintmi]

Flint dead 116, Waco dead 114 according to Wikipedia.

[swmdal]

As somebody mentioned, 1953 was a bad year for tornadoes. A little over a month before the Flint storm, an F5 tornado hit downtown Waco, Texas and killed 114 people. What was then called the Weather Bureau had just started issuing "Tornado Alerts" around that time, but the local TV weatherbabbler decided not to mention it because it might cause "panic."

[pettiecoatlane]

My God, all I can say is how sorry I feel for you and all the other people involved

[BeyondZeGrave]

A tornado in Michigan!? And that kind of damage!? Wow. I'm amazed.

[lovelyladylumps81]

WOW, being only 40 miles from flint I never heard of this. It is a scary thought.

[hootentom]

Very good interview. One clarification however; as an LONG TIME resident of Flint, I know that the Civil Defense sirens are normally tested @ 1PM rather than 11AM on the 1st Saturday of each month. It CAN (and has) been an issue of confusion on some stormy summer afternoons, as many people recall that day in June of '53.

[flintmi]

You are correct. 1PM.

[neolexington]

that is a genesee county test not just for flint. i live in flushing and we hear them at the same time also. it is confusing at times.

[matereymate]

Why call it finger of 'god', when we know now how they form ??!!! *pulls hairs*

[flintmi]

It was an expression from the movie "Twister" -- strictly metaphorical, not anti-science.

[matereymate]

Oh ok thank you for clearing it up.

[YouDummy]

What is this from? Was there ever a longer version of this? Could have done without the "Emergency" series tones in it.

[KrystalFrizz]

Emergency series tones? WTF are you referring to? The tornado warning sirens??

[YouDummy]

The "Emergency tones" are at 2:07. They are from the 70s series "Emergency". Anyone who has seen that show remembers those tones.

[HaleLand3]

@YouDummy wasn't too many years later (early 60's), we were elem grade kids going into Emerson Elem/JrHi basement practicing raid drills with those sirens due to Bay of Pigs with our dog tag necklaces. Those days of seeing loaded tanks crossing 7 + 8 Mile Roads!

[Legend813a]

Yeah that's station 51's tones

[TuR4EtO]

I want see a a very big and powerful tornado.

[BrianMChampion]

Want to (sort of) experience a big tornado, TuR4EtO? If you're ever in Orlando, FL, go to the Twister show at Universal Studios. Everybody cheers and applauds at the end.

[NYCBaby101]

Wow.. how terrible... Another bad thing about Flint.

[Jamnjukebox]

Excellent video! I was raised 2 miles from where the tornado started. Lucky for us in an area before it touched down. I was very small then. I will show this to my parents. They are now in their last 70's.

[BillBrd1]

The next day, June 9th, a devastating F4 tornado struck Worcester, Massachusetts. 94 people were killed.

[hahahauowned]

2053 will be the next finger of god

[JaxieBoy]

But then again, you never know when the next big one will hit now, will you?

[bruce64h]

proof that 1953 was a horrible year for tornadoes.

[ryansheckwannab]

holy.. macaroni i wud piss a fuggin atlantic sea omfg.. ima have nightmares

[samuriry]

Damn, if I where there I`d have pissed a river.

[CHICAGOGUY555]

Good Video

[THELAUNDRYROOM]

this was and is a great video and a great service to our community. My words can not discribe my appreaciatin for the work done here it will forever be in our favorites

[ILOVEMYLAWN]

My dad lived in Beecher and watched this tornado from his street. He has news papers from the day after. Many stories from him about this. No warning at the time. He now lives in Swartz Creek and remembers this as it only happened yesterday.

[RyanEashoo]

You can just tell in Mrs. Chittle's face how terrible that event was. I think they did a good job on this video, very well put together.

Ryan Eashoo

[nintendogamer610]

Close2Postal sorry bout your grandma dude rip wow this is a sad vid completely worse than the category 5 hurricane katrina that covered louisiana 20ft flooding

[ivioivey]

this was so sad to watch, it was devastating, oh and what if they'res a tornado on the first saturday at 11am? do people go to the basement on the testing?

[Close2Postal]

I live in Swartz Creek. Before my grandfather past away, I remember storys he told me about this deadly F5. He was a photographer for the Flint Police Dept. and also for GM.