Tornado Newsreels

[spindalis79]

How times had changed. Impressive and emotional news stories (newsreels) had a live orchestra playing dramatic music.

[TBirdSCIL]

Is the Chicago footage from the TVC videos? I own all of them and don't remember this seeing this. I never saw any newsreels regarding the 1961 Chicago tornado. Cool shit.

[cbehr91]

@TBirdSCIL These are from the two-hour versions of both TVC I and II. The 90-minute versions didn't have these.

[basenjilover]

well this is around the time they learned that tornadoes sirens usefully everywhere or no? but this is why these sirens help>:o so we dont end up with as many dead people as there was back then

[cbehr91]

@basenjilover There were sirens but they rarely went off more than a few minutes in advance of a tornado because warnings systems were so rudimentary back then. Tornado Warnings were often put into effect for an area where the tornado had already swept through.

[ILovestorms]

@basenjilover What cbehr91 said is correct because my mom was in a tornado in May 1968 in NE Iowa and the sirens then only went off for a few seconds and only the people in the downtown portion of the town she lived in could hear them and the tornado cut them off when it knocked out power.

[xxcurnuxx]

my dad's friend said that his grand parents survived the Ruskin Hights tornado (Kansas City 1957)

[sp2834aa]

@xxcurnuxx Thats a good thing.So did I,but barly.

[royalfuzziness]

My father had been staying with some friends on a farm outside Worcester MA but he had gone home to his mothers home in Maine for easter. He had no idea what had happened until he came back and saw his friends house and barn gone, they were all right because they saw it coming and took shelter. This is an area of the country where twisters are rare. So there is much greater risk of deaths from these storms, then in TX or KS.

[jalex11]

I was surprised to hear references to "warning sirens" in this old video! I wouldn't have assumed sirens were used to warn of tornadoes during the cold war era...how long have tornado sirens been in use? Does anyone know?

[cbehr91]

I believe that nearly every community had "civil defense" sirens to warn when the Luftwaffe came over the hill or if the Commies set off a bomb nearby. And if a city only had a volunteer fire department they would sound when there was a fire nearby. These sirens probably also served as warning sirens for tornadoes, but maybe only in so-called "tornado areas".

[streetwiserecords]

In fact, what I'd like to know is the proper documentary title where the Worcester footage is shown in the video. Thanks .

[cbehr91]

I don't know. I was not aware that the Worcester tornado was on film.

[ChinChecka254]

Today marks the 56th anniversary of the F5 in this video that tore up Waco,Tx ! It actually started around 2:10pm in San Angelo , Tx (F2) .Once the storm got closer to here ( Waco) , it dropped off the most violent F5 in our history around 4:35pm ! May 11, 1953 around 4:35pm in Waco, Texas has made the intire nation develop a storm tracking system to prevent this kind of loss again !

[streetwiserecords]

What is the title of this documentary?

[cbehr91]

Tornado Video Classics I and II. They don't have the Worcester footage you're looking for but these newsreels are. And there is alot of other tornado footage from over the years.

[1988diesel]

Texas is in the middle of tornado alley.

[ILovestorms]

And, Texas has more than any other state, in total numbers of storms.

[ColonelAngus75]

There's supposedly footage of the Worcester tornado in existence. Have you ever heard of or perhaps seen this footage?

[cbehr91]

No, I have not.

[ColonelAngus75]

@cbehr91

I just bought a DVD that purports to have footage of the Worcester tornado but the claim is a bit dubious. The footage consists of a guy filming the storm from inside his barn and you see what looks like RFD winds and then his house starts to fly apart. At the end of the clip there appears to be a few frames of something swirling which may be the tornado itself but it's hard to tell.

[cbehr91]

I think this video wins an unofficial YouTube award for 'Longest Description'.

[ChaseTheSky]

"Tornado winds twist at an estimated 500 mph" LOL! (@6:46)

[cbehr91]

Hey, they didn't know better. They still thought that if you open your windows it would equalize the pressure and your house wouldn't get damaged.

[shayno18]

cool post... i grew up in shrewsbury massachusetts and we learned about that tornado in school when i was a kid...

[nigger606]

liar i grew up in shrewsbury and you was no where in sight