Tornado Newsreels

This video is a series of newsreels about tornadoes from the 50s & 60s. Namely tornadoes in Waco, Flint, Cleveland, & Worcester (all 1953). The Palm Sunday outbreak (1965). Kansas City (1957), El Dorado, KS (1958) & southern Minnesota (1965).

First is the Waco, Texas tornado of May 11, 1953. The huge numbers of bricks in the newsreel were due to the collapse of downtown buildings, especially a six-story furniture store. San Angelo was mentioned but scenes from that city probably weren't included. Thirteen people were killed at San Angelo, 159 were injured, and about 120 homes were damaged or destroyed. Credit: National Archives, ripped from The Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics I".

Next are newsreels about a another tornado outbreak in 1953 on June 8th & 9th showing damage from Flint, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio & Worcester, Massachusetts. The Flint tornado moved ENE & E from 2M N of Flushing, devastating the north part of Flint, ending 2M N of Lapeer. The tornado virtually obliterated all homes on both sides of the Coldwater Road for about a mile. It was there that the damage swath was over a mile wide, and most of the deaths occurred. There were multiple deaths in over 20 families. The Flint tornado was the last single tornado in the United States to directly cause 100 deaths. The Worcester tornado touched down in the town of Petersham, near the NE shore of the Quabbin Reservoir. The funnel rapidly intensified and moved to the SE at about 35 MPH through Barre (2 dead), Rutland (2 dead), Holden (6 dead), the north part of Worcester (59 dead), Shrewsbury (12 dead), Westborough (6 dead) and Southborough (3 dead). The funnel turned to the NE for the last few miles. Many of the houses that were nearly leveled were two or three story tenement buildings, built with dozens of interior walls which would add considerable structural strength. About 4,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, hundreds of cars were tossed, and thousands of trees were splintered. Newsreel Credit: National Archives, ripped from Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics I".

Next is The Palm Sunday of April 11, 1965 which changed the course of tornado research and resulted in changes in the design of the Weather Bureau tornado preparedness program. With 19 violent tornadoes, this and the super outbreak of 1974 with 30 stand alone as the two most violent in history. The odd damage patterns in the Palm Sunday tornadoes gave Professor Fujita strong evidence for his suction spot concept. The first half of the film (behind the narration) is damage at Crystal Lake, IL, where 6 people died. Film Credit: National Archives, ripped from Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics I".

Next is footage of the damage on the south side of Kansas City, MO from May 20, 1957. It moved from 2 SW of Williamsburg, KS to 2 NE of Knobtown. MO. In Kansas, the funnel passed 2 S of Ottawa, 5 S of Wellsville, and along the north edge of Spring Hill. It crossed into Missouri about 13 S of downtown Kansas City. In Kansas, 7 people were killed and 31 injured, with many homes leveled and numerous reports of multiple vortices. 2 deaths occurred as a farm was leveled norht of Rantoul. 5 deaths occurred at Spring Hill, 4 in one family who were attempting to flee in a car. A possible break in the path occurred south of Wellsville, Kansas but the last 50 miles of path were unbroken. In Missouri, the tornado produced 37 deaths and at least 500 injuries as it passed through and devastated Kansas City suburbs. Ripped apart were the south side of Martin City and large parts of Ruskin Heights and Hickman Hills. About 842 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. Film credit: National Archives, ripped from Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics II".

Next is damage at El Dorado, KS from June 10, 1958. The tornado moved 7 WNW of El Dorado , passing through and destroying a section of newer homes in the SW part of town. About 200 homes were destroyed as a 45-block area was torn apart. A car was thrown 100 yards in the air, crashing through a roof of a house. Film credit: National Archives, ripped from Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics II". Next is damage at Chicago on March 4, 1961. The funnel passed about 10 blocks from Prof. Fujita's office, at the city's university. Film credit: National Archives, ripped from Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics II".

On May 6, 1965 at least six major tornadoes, four of them killers, hit soutwest, west, & northwest of the Twin Cities, killing 14 people. The NWS reported 24 hook echos on radar. The town of Fridley was hit by three separate tornadoes and had $14 M in damage (over a third to the school system) as 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed. Six people died in homes at Mounds View as 46 homes were destroyed. Total losses for all tornadoes were $51 M. Film credit: National Archives, ripped from Tornado Project's "Tornado Video Classics II".

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Waco
• Flint
• Worcester
• Cleveland
• Chicago
• Twin
• Cities
• Kansas
• City
• Tornado
• Damage
• Newsreel
• Film
• Classic
• F5
• Prof.
• Fujita

[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.

[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".

[spindalis79]

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

[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.

[sp2834aa]

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

[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)

[ILovestorms]

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