March 18th marks the 100-year anniversary of the Tri-state Tornado. The storm swept across Southeast Missouri through southern Illinois and ended up in southern Indiana. The Jackson County Historical Society is commemorating the event with a series of presentations. To get some background and find out more about the tornado, WSIU spoke with Christine Wielgos from the National Weather Service. We also talked with Brent Nausley and Jim Bullar. They're cousins from DeSoto, whose parents survived the storm but lost their grandmother. The F5 tornado touched down about 1pm northwest of Ellington, Missouri, and finally dissipated several hours later near Petersburg, IN. Wielgos explains just how bad the tornado was:
“The tornado is really considered to be one of the worst tornadoes in history. Because it killed so many people, and it was on the ground for such a long period of time. The Tri-state Tornado was on the ground for 219 miles. That is continuous as far as we can tell, and unfortunately it killed 695 people. And injured thousands.”
Here's a few of the unfortunate records that were set that. 234 people lost their lives in Murfphysboro alone, making it the largest loss of life for a single community. Nearly 15,000 homes were destroyed along the path. Although they didn't collect the same weather data as they do now, Wielgoss explains how the storm grew into the monster it became.
“I think the forecast said something like rain and shifting. That was the forecast that they had in southern Illinois back in 1925. And as it occurred, we saw what we call a warm front that lifted north and that allowed some very warm, moist air to search northward. Into the tri-state region, temperatures reached into the 60s over most of the area by about 1:00 pm. We know that the tornado traveled probably nearly 60 to 70 miles an hour. That means there was a lot of wind shear in the atmosphere, and it had to be to, you know, help initiate this storm's rotation. And obviously such a strong tornado.”
Better understanding of weather and technology has allowed forecasters and communities to be better prepared when it comes to destructive storms like this.
“The tornado itself is just kind of like one of those things you look at and go wow, you know. Everything was in place perfectly for that tornado to occur. We've learned a lot over the last 100 years, obviously about meteorology, about the way the atmosphere works, and we're still learning. We have, you know, weather models now that are very sophisticated and allow us to see a lot of different things that obviously allow us to get that. Out and a lot more accuracy,” Wielgos explained.
One of the towns that suffered was De Soto. Just a little more than 5 miles northeast of Murphysboro. De Soto school was on that path. 33 people died at the school that day.
Cousins Brent Nausley and Jim Bullar are lifelong residents of DeSoto. Their parents and grandparents told them about living through the storm that day. Brent’s mom was only four months old, but he explains how she survived, “Mom was obviously at home. Her mother was taking care of another lady, a neighbor who was close to giving birth and she was in bed. She couldn't get out and she was over there at her house taking care of her when the storm came through. And Grandma had asked Aunt Lala to take care of Mom while she was taking care of the lady when the storm hit. And Lala was holding mom. And they were blown out of the house. And the story I got is that Aunt Lala dropped mom. A neighbor lady came out and found mom in the street.”
Jim's dad, the brother of Brent's mom, was at the De Soto School. Jim says his dad was nearly left for dead, “He said he saw that storm. He was at the school, and he said there's a barbed wire fence there and he held onto that to keep from blowing him away, tore his hands all up. The storm blew him into the school and the school fell on him. My uncle Andy dug him out, picked him up, and was carrying him to home. He said my dad got real stiff and he thought he died. He put him under a sheet of tin that was laying there and propped it up over him so it wouldn't rain or hail on him. He went on home and his mom was in bad shape. Somebody found my dad and got him to the hospital. My Uncle Andy went back looking for him but he was gone. The whole thing, they all ended up in one one place.”
Jim’s grandfather was there at the hospital and didn’t think his son would survive. But they did all they could while waiting for his son, “Well, they thought he's gonna die. And my grandpa prayed for him there and he was instantly almost healed."
Although Jim’s dad survived, their grandmother died at the hospital in Duquoin.
From the stories they've heard, Brent says the tornado is a tragedy carried by the whole community, “It affected everybody. I mean, there were very few houses that survived the storm. Looked looked like a bomb. went off.”
The events commemorating the tornado begin Thursday and run through the anniversary on Tuesday. Saturday features presentations from the National Weather Service, authors, emergency service personnel and area weather broadcasters.
If you'd like to know more about these events or find more details about the tornado follow the links below.
LINKS
Jackson County Historical Society Event Schedule Page: https://www.jchsil.com/index.php/25-centennial
NWS Tri-state Tornado Event Page: https://www.weather.gov/pah/Tri-StateTornadoEvent
NWS 1925 Tri-state Tornado Information: https://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado
NWS Story about the Tri-state Tornado: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/77b66b04bc214c669ec8ccad42f10005
