America's Deadliest Tornado - A Brief History of The Tri-State Tornado

The single largest, fastest, most destructive tornado of all time hit the USA on March 18th 1925. Known as the Tri State tornado, this "super tornado" carved a path of destruction across three US states. It remains as the highest death toll ever recorded for a single tornado, an event we hope we never have to witness again.....
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[@RagingMoon1987]

Fun fact: the cow that was thrown into Gorham's restaurant lived. After the storm she was bruised, but a survivor said that she just got up and ambled away like nothing had happened. Not everyone in that restaurant made it, unfortunately.

[@macaylacayton2915]

I knew cows are bulky but wtf?!

[@PrezVeto]

Wow. She must've hit just the right sequence of materials to slow her down gradually. Talk about luck. If only that cow could've talked!

[@MedicMain9]

@@PrezVeto She reportedly said: "moo!" Haunting words if you ask me

[@gary1961]

The 'steaks' were high for that cow and it was lucky to escape with just an injured 'calf,' no bull.

[@St.Linguini_of_Pesto]

@@macaylacayton2915 🐂🐄🐃 : we work out. Moo.

[@skeletalrust8757]

I'm from one of the towns destroyed by this tornado. A brick wall rebuilt in the following year contains as a pattern within the brick "1925," the wall still stands. The town truly never recovered - industries never returned, structures were never rebuilt, entire resources and even the main depot for the railway line ended up elsewhere. There weren't any pieces to be picked up. One surviving and still used school in the town predates the tornado - the other, built afterwards, is a low and sturdy thing hidden between low hills. I'm not sure how many people walk by that wall and notice the numbers, or know what they mean, but it shaped the town more than anything else. Thank you for this thoroughly researched and well edited video. Good job

[@theravenseye9443]

That's sad to hear. Understandable though, when you look at those photographs. There was just nothing left standing in some of those places.... Hard to "rebuild" when literally everything is gone.

[@skeletalrust8757]

@@awesomeone2979 yes indeed. didn't hit too hard in this area - the worst of it was in western KY. Thanks for asking.

[@B3Band]

It's almost like shitty midwest towns aren't worth the effort once they're put out of their misery

[@mauricedavis2160]

🙏😢

[@matty6848]

What gets me in these towns in Tornado alley why do people build their houses with wood? At least with brick built houses can take a battering and despite the roof being ripped off a good solid brick wall, will withstand a tornado. So at least you have something to build upon, not a wood house that is totally ripped apart.

[@localcryptid740]

I just want to stress how insane the moving speed of this tornado was. Most tornadoes that happen during the typical season only move at about 30-40 mph, and that's still considered pretty dangerous. 75 mph is pretty much unfathomable.

[@ShortArmOfGod]

Stress away

[@fahrenheit2530]

There have been faster storms. In 2014, the town of Pilger, Nebraska, was leveled by one of two twin EF4 tornadoes. One of those tornadoes (The original Pilger tornado), during its dissipating stage, was pulled into the circulation of a tornado called the Wakefield EF4. As it was slingshotted past the new tornado, the Pilger EF4 reached a forward speed of 90 mph, setting the world record for fastest forward speed. The 2013 El Reno tornado also contained suction spots that moved at almost 130 mph, killing storm chasers that were unfortunate enough to be caught inside the larger tornado.

[@purcascade]

The super fast tornadoes are scary, but it's the slowest ones that really give me nightmares. You absolutely do not want to be in the way of a major tornado only moving 5-10 miles per hour forward.

[@fahrenheit2530]

@@purcascade it's thought that extreme highs and lows in forward speed can create equally severe damage. A fast tornado like the 2011 Smithville tornado hits a house with the speed of a train and the force of a bulldozer, and the force of the initial arrival is enough to destroy the house. But a slow moving tornado such as the 1947 Leedy tornado may sit over a house and grind away for minutes, meticulously picking it apart. For example, the 1997 Jarrell tornado had a forward speed of only 5 miles per hour, and it completely leveled a subdivision, so much so that little rubble was left after it passed. It's generally accepted that the Jarrell tornado was one of the strongest tornadoes in history and its sheer muscle alone caused such extreme destruction, but its also possible that the tornado was weaker than proclaimed and its slow speed exposed houses to tornadic winds for longer than expected.

[@purcascade]

@@fahrenheit2530 I know about the Jarrell F5, thank you.

[@mindyhetrick9273]

We lost 4 family members in illinois in this tornado 2 great uncles, great aunt & great grandmother..ive always heard about this loss from this historic tornado from my dads family members. First time seeing the actual devastation and never knew how many casualties there were. I'm glad I live in arizona!

[@StephanyChills]

I live in the De Soto area for a while. Looking back I would have like to have learned a bit of history of that area. So, this was a interesting tid bit. Sorry for your family tragedy and for those who also were lost.

[@matty6848]

Yeh I don’t think I could live in a state that suffers with tornadoes. I’d never be able too relax knowing your home could be gone in a instant.

[@electrictroy2010]

GLOBAL WARMING IS WHY this tornado was so strong! .

[@SubPablum]

My great-grandfather is the only person to have been killed by a tornado in Arizona. I now live near Smithville, look that one up, also bad.

[@hidinginyourcloset]

you may not deal with freaks of weather but you deal with freaks of nature. Those animals in Arizona are fucking horrifying.

[@EKA201-j7f]

One of my relatives was at home in Southern Illinois with her new twin babies. She was cooking on the old style wood burning iron stove in her kitchen. The tornado picked it up and dropped it on her legs pinning her down and took her babies. They never even managed to find their bodies. She was crippled and burned badly. I barely remember meeting her but still feel so sad for her suffering like that.

[@gittenielsen95]

😢

[@EKA201-j7f]

@@WhiteArrow76 That is kind of wonderful. How do you mean "cataloged"? Maybe I can look them up. Well - surely if they had unidentified bodies they would have notified the public.

[@JenAmazed42]

@@EKA201-j7f I see the comment you replied to has been deleted but I wanted to reply in case that person never did. There are over 40 thousand unidentified bodies in this country alone. Many of them are babies and children. Remains could have been found at any time after that.. if you want to share the area in which the babies were taken by the tornado, I can help you to search to see if there's ever been any remains located that fit the description. Also, I recommend having someone related to the babies, as closely as possible, to do a consumer at home DNA test and then adding those results to a website called GED match. If remains were ever recovered, there's a good possibility that at some point law enforcement will obtain DNA and load it into GED match. They're identifying people left and right who were found 50 years ago and remained nameless through a process known as genetic genealogy.

[@EKA201-j7f]

@@JenAmazed42 Wow, amazing info you provided. Well, they were twins, so if both were found, that would be an indicator. Lots of the relatives are gone of course, but I think I would fit the genetic bill. Thanks so much for sharing that. I know they were in Southern Illinois. I think they were under 1 year old. Connie was their mother's first name I think. Wish I remembered more. She was from the Watsons I believe. Not much to go on. I do have one genetic test I have had done, although some of it seems far fetched. GED Match. I will check that.

[@joemars8739]

So tragic , her new twins - breaks my heart

[@johnbowles5399]

The image of that piece of wood impaling a tree trunk really brings home the unimaginable force the tornado exerted. Great video btw, I've only just discovered your channel. 👍

[@theravenseye9443]

Cheers and thanks for the comments!!

[@EKA201-j7f]

They can also drive a paper straw thru a tree limb. Very strange.

[@olwynskye417]

Or deliver cows to your local restaurant pre-tenderized.

[@ThortackNezzerack]

They have also been shown to carry a container of eggs miles away and set them down unbroken.

[@EKA201-j7f]

@@ThortackNezzerack Wow - weird!

[@OrNaurItsKat]

The stories about kids getting sucked out of their parents arms in tornadoes always gets me. In 2019 I was listening to the news as a storm chaser was describing the location of a tornado he had eyes on and it was coming right for us, my son was 6 and as I heard it approach and then hit us I just tried to hold on to him as hard as I could because we had no idea how strong it was at that point. Thankfully we only had some minor damage to our home and no injuries. Tornado ended up getting an F3 rating.

[@lisaparker5329]

Thank you for the story. My grandfather was 10 years old, living in West Frankfort and was paralyzed when the door he was attempting to hold up against the coming storm broke his back. His father was one of the miners caught underground. We've talked about it over the years and how he and the family recovered because they had no choice but to keep moving forward. They were strong people.

[@PipelinePunch-qf9mc]

Damn

[@Cellmate412162]

I know why the Tri State Tornado looked like a “giant cloud or fog.” It was a heavily rain wrapped tornado. After seeing enough pictures & videos of high precipitation supercells, I learned that the heaviest rain shafts give the appearance of a “giant cloud or fog” on the ground. That also happened with the Waco, Texas Tornado in 1953, the Birmingham, Alabama Tornado in 1977, the Plainfield, Illinois Tornado in 1990, the Joplin, Missouri Tornado in 2011, & the gargantuan El Reno, Oklahoma Tornado in 2013.

[@Gail1Marie]

In May of 1984, I was at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. A rain-wrapped tornado came straight down the interstate. A captain I knew was driving to work when the rain became so intense he had to pull over because his wipers couldn't keep up. Then his truck started bouncing; he decided to abandon it and crawl in the ditch beside the road. When it started to hail, he debated getting back into his truck. When he looked back at it, it was ten feet in the air, spinning. He saw vehicles with people in them sailing by in the air; none survived. He said that the tornado simply looked like a wall of rain; no funnel was discernable. I've no idea if any local radio station put out a warning (or if he was listening to the radio at all). This was, of course, in the pre-cell phone days. Glad we have the weather resources we have today.

[@electrictroy2010]

GLOBAL WARMING IS WHY this tornado was so strong! .

[@Kaidhicksii]

I say it was a combination of that, the debris ball, and the tornado itself being a wedge.

[@phoenix042x7]

Rain-wrapped tornadoes are no joke. I was out spotting a storm in Ohio in early June and was distracted by what was left of a satellite tornado's funnel and was taking video with my phone. I only realized after I got back and reviewed my footage that I caught the main tornado in the background when I panned aside to show where the main mesocyclone was for reference. You won't always understand what you're seeing right away... sneaky SOB.

[@IFollowTheSpiders]

@@electrictroy2010 lmao back then huh? Lmao you aren’t smart at all

[@8bigbob]

My grand mother, was in this tornado at Murphysboro, Illinois. She was in the Longfellow school when it hit, She was 12 years old. She survived, but most of the kids in the classroom she was in did not, as she told the story. The teacher told the kids to run for their life, but she and one other boy froze in their seat. All that was left of the second floor classroom were two walls and floor and the ceiling was blown away. They had to be rescued from the rubble after the storm passed. All her family survived, but their home was totally destroyed. She died in 2004, but sometime in the 1990's we sat and talked for over an hour about her experience in this still record-holding tornado. Her name was Bernadine Rawlings as a child; first marriage last name was Powell, from which my mother came, and finally Bernadine Wood of Rolla, Missouri. Rest in peace, Grandma!

[@WhiteArrow76]

I've catalogued all the identified victims on FindAGrave and it's astounding how devastating the loss of life was. I've identified 698 victims, 210 of whom were under the age of 12. 593 died in the immediate storm, and 105 died later from injuries

[@rufuspipemos]

That's fascinating!

[@dcrggreensheep]

@@rufuspipemos Death is fascinating? 210 children dying is fascinating?

[@rufuspipemos]

@@dcrggreensheep , no, him finding all that info about the real death toll the way he did is fascinating. Yes!

[@hidinginyourcloset]

Dude I know for a fact that took a long long time. Using FindAGrave like that, my man you should've been paid!

[@Kitty-mb4hy]

Thank you for your work! Would you mind to share the link?

[@bennyboogenheimer4553]

I read one account of this tornado in my Great Uncle's journal . A Hobo my Grandmother was feeding in 1928 told my G'Uncle that he was asleep in the shade under a railroad hopper car, when the black fog set in. There were 2 little girls and their nanny walking on the sidewalk. He yelled for them to lay face down, but they didn't. He said the slag from the RR tracks picked up and sandblasted the cloths, and skin right off of them before picking them up and and throwing them 3 miles or so away. It tilted the hopper car he was under, but never took it off the tracks. This was 3 years later, and the man said he wasn't able to sleep right yet.

[@jeffro118]

The farmers and workers who lived in that area were weather aware and familiar with tornadoes. That they didn't recognize what it was demonstrates how far outside the norm this storm truly was.

[@ArchTeryx00]

The Tri-State tornado was so deadly because at the time nobody really knew what it was - a rain-wrapped "wedge" tornado. Wedge tornadoes are wider than they are tall, and wrapped in rain they can appear as black walls or even just harmless shafts of rain - rain that hides a giant spinning sledgehammer going at up to 500 kph. Worse, this took place away from where most tornadoes in the U.S. occur, the Great Plains to the west. Nobody was expecting a monster wedge tornado out of the blue, moving at more than 100 kph. Something very similiar actually took place in 2011, when Joplin, MO was hit by a monstrous EF5 tornado that blew up and hit the city so fast there was little warning - and what warnings there were went unheeded, because MO isn't the centre of Tornado Alley. It killed over 160 people. *In 2011.* Winds were estimated at 480 kph at its peak and it destroyed everything it touched, razing even large reinforced buildings down to their foundations, and directly striking the town hospital. It did so much damage to the hospital that it had to be razed afterward, and killed many patients there that couldn't be evacuated in time.

[@beezlebub3955]

As I was reading your comment I immediately thought of one specific video from Joplin that literally looked that way, they were just on the south edge of it I believe

[@ArchTeryx00]

@@beezlebub3955 Joplin was one of the most powerful tornadoes ever filmed; yet its boundaries were murky and wrapped in rain about midway through its life. It was also well over a mile wide and moved at up to 65 mph. I tell folks if you want a good look at what the Tri-State Tornado might have looked and sounded like, look at Joplin 2011 videos.

[@TheMeloettaful]

That was one thing that I found very eerie about the Tri-State Tornado was how it looked. The first time I've learned about it was from a vhs tape about tornadoes back in the 90's. The way they described what the tornado looked like it sounded downright terrifying, and that it didn't really look like a tornado they had seen before 😰. Very scary, but absolutely fascinating!

[@ArchTeryx00]

​@@TheMeloettaful These F5 supertornadoes are very, very rare even in Tornado Alley. And this is in an era where EVERY Tom, Dick and Harry is a storm chaser in the central plains and tornado footage is common as dirt in a garden. Very few of the true monsters have been seen, out of all the footage out there. Now go back 100 years, where the only concept most people had of tornadoes was what was handed down verbally, and at best a small library of plate photographs existing as documentation of the monsters. What few people would know what tornadoes really looked like would think of a funnel or maybe a stovepipe. Then along comes THIS. A rain-wrapped maxi wedge tornado moving faster than highway speed and smashing everything in its path like an enraged giant. Few people even knew what hit them.

[@kumarcollins585]

I think El Reno Tornado was probably the best representation of the Tri State tornado. Joplin was without a doubt rain wrapped nightmare. But it did have a funnel silhouette when close. El Reno was a complete gray blob, with a low wall cloud. Which caught the storm chasers completely off guard. Having no idea, that it was an actual massive twister until it was too late. Sounds alot like eye-witness accounts, from the Tri state IMO

[@Strype13]

For what it's worth, there are quite a few experts along with some substantial evidence suggesting that this wasn't just one single tornado, but in fact a "train" of multiple powerful tornados generated by the same massive tornadic system. Unfortunately, record-keeping. data-gathering, and our ability to document such events was not even remotely close to as sophisticated as it is today... so we will probably never know precisely what occurred that day -- suffice to say it was incredibly tragic. Regardless of whether it was one single freakishly anomalous tornado of pure devastation or several deadly tornados spawned by the same perilous weather system... the damage it produced is still unparalleled to this day, and I can only offer my sincere condolences to the townships, families, and friends of the many victims who were impacted by this monumental storm that day. I truly hope we never see another tornadic event like the one all of those poor people were forced to bear witness to on 3/18/1925. Such a tremendous, unforeseeable travesty.

[@pumkin610]

Is it possible for tornados to join together

[@Strype13]

@@pumkin610 Sure. However, it would be extremely rare for, say, two very large tornados to merge together -- just based on the mechanics of supercells and how tornados are produced by them. But I've seen a few videos where tornados started out as multiple smaller vortexes swirling around each other, eventually coming together to form a much larger tornado. The infamous 2.6-mile-wide El Reno tornado is a great example of this.

[@ethangorham17]

To add on to what you've noted here: At the periphery of the established track of what we know as the Tri-State Tornado, the evidence is indeed there to suggest a family of powerful tornadoes rather than one extreme example, but otherwise? Yes, there's substantial evidence (a lot of it STILL visible via satellite in 2022) that the core destructive force from central Madison County, Missouri to western Pike County, Indiana (151-173 miles) was very likely the result of a single powerful and long-tracking continuous tornado (or Very Long-tracking Tornado, VLT). Moreover, observations along this core were sufficiently dense along much of this damage path so as to largely discount multiple tornadoes, and it's namely because of the sparser human settlement in the gaps of the established track that the estimate of a 219 mile long VLT is still held up, as the alignment of tornado reports attributed to the event show a consistent heading, suggestive of a single tornado rather than a family. Beyond that, what scarce documentation remaining of the weather conditions and like in the region over the course of 03/18/1925, the week prior, and the week afterward, have no analogous mesoscale circumstances in recent history, even the other major tornado outbreaks in 1908, 1974, 2008, and 2011, suggesting that the weather conditions leading to the Tri-State tornado event were apparently unique to begin with; IE a recipe for disaster. The result speaks for itself. The overall tornado outbreak led to at least 751 people killed and more than 2,298 injured, making the outbreak the deadliest tornado outbreak, March 18 the deadliest tornado day, and 1925 the deadliest tornado year in U.S. history.

[@LighthawkTenchi]

I’ve heard this before, and while it’s certainly likely that it was a family of tornadoes, based on just the sheer amount of destruction wreaked by it all in a fairly consistent path, I wouldn’t rule out a freakishly long lived twister. At any rate, we haven’t seen anything like it since, which I’m thankful for

[@Beltzer0072]

​@@LighthawkTenchi The Quad State Tornado event is the only thing that comes close however that actually was a family of tornadoes and not just one singular funnel.

[@kscorp5176]

Thank you for including metric measures. I appreciate the extra work you did to focus on the human cost, gathering details of what peopled experienced and lost that day, and finding so many photos of the devastation. You're creating quality videos and I'm glad to have subscribed!

[@theravenseye9443]

There were so many terrible human stories to come out of this, it is easy to overlook them due to the magnitude of what happened. Thanks for the positive comments....

[@Justin-rv9nc]

I love hearing people from other countries talk about our tornadoes here in the US. We are so used to tornadoes here we forget how rare they are across the rest of the world. I just had a tornado warning at my house a week or two ago. Sirens blaring, our phones go off saying tornado spotted in your area. I'm outside looking for it and my fiance was on the couch reading with the dogs lol. I never did see anything.

[@johngalt2506]

I had that warning too in Central Iowa. Our county was on the western edge of the system. I went out and looked around, not a cloud in sight. But I always take the warnings seriously. Last December 4 houses were severely damaged by a tornado less than a mile from my house, fortunately no injuries.

[@natenae8635]

Question: is there a reason why you don’t build concrete or brick buildings in the Mid-West. I live in the Bahamas so building strong for hurricanes is essential. Things like Steel rods & Concrete, roof latches are required. People also have hurricane glass, build houses up on stilts and have either classic or Extra strong window shutters. But when I look at some Midwest locations/towns. I see a lot of wood and a lack of any of these protective measures. Even some trailer parks(more in the south) Is this the case in your experience because I find it perplexing and concerning?

[@nairsheasterling9457]

@@natenae8635 Because money, that's why.

[@joebond2099]

@@natenae8635 if you look at the destruction of a hurricane compared to a tornado the destruction is limited to a small area so that’s probably why. I know my house which is wood has the roof rated for 120mph winds so it’s built fairly well but as you know it’s not invincible. As far as trailer parks they have a central storm location that all the people can go and be safe in when there is a warning.

[@natenae8635]

@@nairsheasterling9457 Idk but I thought that most Americans were rich enough to get these things. Idk I have a hard time understanding because my country is poorer than America but a lot of Americans have low protection. I guess I just find it hard to comprehend poverty in a place like America.

[@jimhansen5395]

What a horrible thing to live through. And that last photo, of the little boy with his puppy...heart wrenching!

[@fructosecornsyrup5759]

As the daughter of a meteorologist, I heard about this tornado as a little girl, I've always been interested in it. Perhaps I just haven't been looking hard enough, but this is the best piece on it I've ever seen. Thank you!!!

[@trishapeach7477]

I lived in DeSoto for several years. This is the best documentary I've seen on this. The older people in DeSoto say that the bodies of the 38 children killed in the school that day, as well as all the other bodies, had to be buried together in a mass grave because there were not enough coffins. Sometimes no relative claimed the body because they were all dead too. Murpheesboro did send more coffins by train but they didn't have enough either. So a lot of the bodies were buried together in a large burial pit. What bothers me is that no one in town seemed to know where the mass grave pit was/is? There is a small graveyard in town but that the mass burial bit seems to be unmarked. I always wondered why it remains unmarked... And where is it??

[@EKA201-j7f]

Wow, I had never heard that! My family were living in several towns there.

[@mattstewart8962]

are you still in the area? I've lived in Murphy for years now and this tornado is still brought up regularly

[@trishapeach7477]

@@mattstewart8962 no I moved to Wisconsin for work. But I think of those kids and families a lot. I wish there was a market there if there really is a mass grave....

[@EKA201-j7f]

@@mattstewart8962 No, out in CA.

[@pumkin610]

I figure it's near the place of death or near the graveyard but that's speculation.

[@jons.6216]

As a native Californian that's lived through my share of mild to more serious earthquakes throughout the decades I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for those that have been through tornadoes and hurricanes in regions where they are more frequent and have braved them! Humanity's strength is remarkable when put to the test!

[@St.Linguini_of_Pesto]

@Jon Simunvich Audron I hear that.. also born & raised in CA, and I'm fascinated by tornadoes. Quakes will always rattle me to the bone [no pun intended]. Terrified of them, tbh. But I think I'd shit enough bricks to build a 3 story house if I witnessed a tornado.

[@Gail1Marie]

I grew up in the Midwest and live in California now, and if I had my druthers, I think I'd rather have tornadoes than earthquakes. At least you know tornadoes are coming. Earthquakes are too sneaky for me (and I live less than three miles from the San Andreas Fault). I'm always expecting the other shoe to drop, so to speak. Better the devil you know.

[@time_for_toast4922]

Actually, this tornado doesn't have all the records. The El Reno tornado of 2013, was 2.6 miles wide making it the widest tornado ever recorded. There was a certain tornado back in perhaps 2015 or 2016, that briefly achieved a speed of 93 m.p.h. making it the fastest tornado recorded.

[@Part-time-Poet-SK]

Yes Pecos hank has a wonderful video on the Pilger tornado in Nebraska that now holds the fastest speed record. It was caught in the RFD of another tornado and accelerated extremely quickly. However it was only that fast for a few seconds.

[@pumkin610]

Man the speed of these things is scary

[@discoj7112]

I believe Tim Samaras recorded the lowest known pressure reading at the Manchester, South Dakota tornado in 2003. He was killed by the El Reno tornado in 2013 along with two other members of his storm chasing team.

[@ArkVallen]

@@discoj7112 Fair, but this is more of a local record, in regards to that specific area, but the dude is wrong in many areas, like how it was the fastest at 73mph or how it was the deadliest tornado ever

[@samanthagomez7074]

Wow that's was scary shit for real

[@hicknopunk]

The way you describe tornados is kinda how earth quakes are when you live in Japan. You get so used to them, you wake up for a second, if things are not falling, you turn over and just go back to sleep. Every now and then you experience one that is a lot stronger than you have come used to expect.

[@Kaykay-wf3ii]

Yeah you're right! There's a ton of earthquakes in Alaska too; they make kids do safety drills for them in school and stuff. Most are small enough to sleep through, but every once in a while there's a scary one like the Anchorage magnitude 7.1 from 2018. I felt that MF from over 300 miles away 😬 thank god it didn't kill anyone

[@hicknopunk]

@@Kaykay-wf3ii yikes, you would not want to be anywhere near a 7.1

[@Lycan_Jedi]

Everytime there's an earthquake I'm reminded of Robin Williams joke: I live in California, God's Etch a sketch! And after do many you know when to worry. Oh damn! (Spills water) 2.5 not bad... OH SHIT! (Spills even more) 3.6 maybe we have drinks outside let's go.

[@saragrant9749]

Three and a half HOURS?!?! My God that’s a long lived tornado! And at a time when people understood very little about the phenomenon.

[@Alex_BuilDR]

You are UNDERRATED! Good job and nice video❤️

[@theravenseye9443]

Thank you so much!

[@jayman105]

I remember reading about this in a book when I was a kid. The pictures in the book were horrifying, especially that one you had in this video of the funnel cloud with two extra vorticies popping out of it. Scary!

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

That picture was the second oldest photo ever taken of a tornado. In 1884 in S. Dakota. I have that photo in a couple tornado books I have. (Jan Griffiths).

[@anarchistatheist1917]

The picture of the south Dakota tornado in 1884 is the first picture of a tornado that was deadly the earlier surviving photo of a tornado in Kansas was not deadly.

[@samanthagomez7074]

Wow really

[@rufuspipemos]

At 8:51. I believe the reason people thought it was a "black fog" was actually because it was a "Wedge Tornado" at that time, much like the El Reno was. Probably a mile wide at that point.

[@Lycan_Jedi]

Also likely rain wrapped.

[@MsSwitchblade13]

I've watched many tornado documentaries, but your words at the end of this video talking about the aftermath and how there's no lesson to be learned and how the people carried on... it brought me to tears. It deeply saddened me as I was mentally transported back in time, imagining being surrounded by so much utter devastation. Great video I've read and watched videos about this tornado but yours really did it justice

[@Gail1Marie]

Well, today you're remiss if you DON'T take proactive action! I grew up in tornado alley, and we had a reinforced area in the basement that was protected by a sturdy door. Today, authorities recommend that you buy crash helmets for your whole family (since most fatal injuries occur to the head). Make sure you keep your cell phone by your bed at night so you can hear weather alerts. Maybe the victims of the Tri-State Tornado couldn't learn anything from the experience, but we can.

[@laurelanderson6782]

I chase tornadoes and was at the EF-5 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma in 2013. You did an absolutely phenomenal job with your descriptions of this event. It happened just north of where I am from, at a time when all four of my grandparents were kids. When you showed the map of the tornado’s path, on the lower side of that map is where both sides of my family is from in Kentucky. Again, great, great job with this video!

[@EKA201-j7f]

They have recently discovered that the walls of a big tornado are sometimes formed of smaller, even more rapidly spinning mini tornadoes. A real shredder system. One day my Mom looked out and the grass in the yard was spinning in little circles. She had never seen that before. It skipped over her place, hill to hill.

[@mattkaustickomments]

I grew up in one of the affected states, but I never heard of this killer. I do remember the night of the Super Outbreak April 3rd 1974. There were 148 individuals tornado tracks spread across a few states. Our city was luckily spared (and again in 2011), but Xenia,OH took a direct hit from an F5. We used to have unannounced tornado drills as a kid and they scared the crap out of us. But our part of the Midwest was nothing like the plains states like Oklahoma & Kansas. A storm cellar is pretty much mandatory in those states. Now I live in a hurricane area, but we have oodles of warning before they come ashore.

[@privatelyprivate3285]

I’ve visited many relatives in those 2 states, from very nice to not so nice areas and it saddens me to correct you that other than run-of-the-mill basements (which aren’t mandatory), there are very few designated shelter quarters anywhere. Storm cellars that one used to find in older homes are a fast-dying thing in the suburbs.

[@mattkaustickomments]

@@privatelyprivate3285 Wow. That’s tempting fate… Unless maybe homes nowadays have central, windowless “safe rooms”?

[@privatelyprivate3285]

@@mattkaustickomments pfft, nope (at least not deliberately for that purpose). 🤷‍♀️

[@bwktlcn]

My dad’s uncle lived thru it, and when he bought a farm, the first thing he did was dig the storm shelter before he did anything else. He was scared of tornadoes for the rest of his life.

[@samanthagomez7074]

Wow really cuz it's was scary shit for real

[@steveclapper5424]

A once in a thousand year event. I had heard about this before and your presentation was excellent.

[@SMGJohn]

And now, once in a decade hopefully with 6000 mph winds and shards of tiny black holes rips through the entire USA. Saving the rest of mankind.

[@cs7511]

One survivor stated that the tornado was preceded by a few minutes of thunder before it struck. He took refuge inside the bank's vault where he worked. When he emerged, the town was gone. Some scientists believe the location of the tornado relative to the accompanying low pressure system may have been the reason the tornado was so violent. Something that rarely occurs.

[@nitroxylictv]

Living in North Texas, you eventually develop a stored shelter and evacuation plan for tornadoes. Its like a pre-planned sequence of actions that you do without even realizing when you see a funnel in the clouds. Turn on the weather channel, grab a flashlight, put your family in the most secure place in your house like a bathroom and watch the sky constantly. I used to live in a rural town that saw tornadoes frequently and the worst part is that it was so far from the main part of town that you really couldn't hear the tornado sirens. You had to be watching the sky if you got a warning on TV.

[@privatelyprivate3285]

Assuming they are timely and you’ve at least got decent service, that’s where those freakishly loud cell phone alerts are a great tool. They wake you up from a deep sleep real fast.

[@samanthagomez7074]

Yup that's very true cuz it's scary shit for real those Tornadoes. From Edinburg Texas

[@paulsmith5398]

My late wife had family that lived in West Frankfort Ilinois, and survived the Tri-State Tornado, they are all now deceased, and i would have been fascinated with their recollection of it.

[@john.m.shukites]

I have lived in Southern Illinois my entire life and spoke to a survivor when I was young. He was in Logan School in Murphysboro when the tornado hit. He lost his home and his grandmother. Yet even he was more fortunate than others. Drive around Murphysboro today and you can see by the architecture of the homes where the tornado went through.

[@CONVEXstorms]

As meteorologists and weather researchers, The Tri-State Tornado is one we all wish we could go back and witness and document ourselves. It is such an unprecedented case, and it's what inspired a lot of us to begin chasing tornadoes and conducting research to better understand them.

[@nolancain8792]

Mayfield is about as close we’ll get.

[@bearzdlc2172]

@@nolancain8792 wrong. hackleburg from 2011 was basically tri state rebirthed. its appearance, wind speed, travel speed and duration are all carbon copies of tri state. aside from the fact it didnt last as long or travel quite as far its still eerily similar and horrifying.

[@kn0xstep]

It is absolutely terrifying how decimated every building was considering the speed. It did that kind of damage in a matter of minutes.

[@Lycan_Jedi]

The thing is that type of damage is completely commonplace in tornados. Go and look up overhead footage of aftermath of tornados on KZbin and you can see plenty of videos showing exactly this.

[@JoMarieM]

One reason why people back then didn't recognize the tornado for what it was, was because it was apparently what appeared to be a "wedge" tornado, rather than the funnel-type tornadoes that most people are familiar with. Wedge tornadoes are often wider than they are tall, and if they are "rain-wrapped", surrounded by rain shafts, they can be EXTREMELY difficult to recognize as a tornado. Also, people back then didn't have the kind of advanced safety warnings that we have today, like radio, TV weather forecasts, and tornado sirens in their towns. In modern times tornado deaths have been significantly lower thanks to modern warning systems, but even if you heed the warnings and still take shelter, some people STILL end up dying in tornadoes. Mobile homes are incredibly unsafe places to be during tornadoes -- in fact, here in Kansas, we even have a nickname for them: "Tornado Bait." Highway overpasses are also VERY unsafe places to take shelter. The idea that they make safe tornado shelters came about due to the famous video of some people driving through western Kansas taking shelter under one during a tornado -- but what many people don't know is that this particular overpass had a crawl space under it, that enabled these people to safely shelter in place, and many overpasses do NOT have these kind of crawl spaces in them! Storm winds can bottleneck under these overpasses, making them VERY dangerous places to be! If you're out driving and you see a tornado coming toward you, don't stay in your car -- get out and get into the lowest-lying spot you can find, if you're out in a rural area. I've seen what tornadoes do to vehicles, and it's not pretty! You can also get an idea of whether or not a tornado is going to get you by watching it for a few moments -- if you can see it moving sideways, chances are it's not going to get you. But if it looks like it's staying in one spot and getting bigger, then that's when you should probably think about taking shelter! I live in Kansas and I've seen a few tornadoes in person, and while they are fascinating to watch from a safe distance, they can also be pretty scary when a big one comes in close to your house!

[@erindzurison6227]

I've just discovered your channel, and I love it! For some reason, I've always been completely enthralled with this tornado. I'm from Indiana and have never actually been in a tornado thank God, but they just interest me greatly. The Tri State in particular.

[@sooz9433]

I was born and raised in East St Louis, Illinois just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up there were many people who remembered that day. I have great respect for storms. Thank you for sharing this video.

[@mattstewart8962]

my mom was born in East st. Louis and raised in Belleville before moving to sparta in the 70's

[@samanthagomez7074]

Wow really

[@sugargold4126]

Excellent video. What a tragedy.

[@windycityliz7711]

Time from the tornado crossing the Mississippi to destroying Gorham was 3 minutes and to hitting Murphysboro less than 15 minutes. Even with modern warning systems both towns would be hard hit.

[@settingsun3470]

Fun fact: the tornado in the thumbnail was not part of the tri-state system, it was photographed in Minnesota in the 1920s and is one of the most iconic landspout tornado photos; used on the cover art of some music albums

[@josi4251]

I grew up in Perry County, IL, hearing about this tornado. Fortunately, my hometown of Pinckneyville is down in a sort of gully, which has fortunately been a sort of protection thus far. We were also, fortunately, just a few minutes north of this particular disaster.

[@EKA201-j7f]

Pinckneyville! Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while. I was born in Benton. Lived in West Frankfort and either Herrin or Marion.

[@Gail1Marie]

My cousins lived in a valley too, but it didn't stop a tornado from ripping off their roof. You've just been lucky so far. Don't assume you have some kind of special protection, because you really don't. Take precautions like everyone else.

[@josi4251]

@@Gail1Marie Believe me, I take these things deadly seriously. When I bought my house four years ago, I told my realtor that central A/C and a basement were non-negotiable. Growing up having to dash to the basement with family members and pets conditioned me to take every warning seriously. I have seen one tornado up close (it didn't touch down, apparently) and was UNDER a funnel forming while driving on highway 57 -- I am always aware that my luck could run out at any moment.

[@Gail1Marie]

@@josi4251 I'm relieved to hear it. I hear so many people say things like, "I live in a big city, and tornadoes don't hit those," or "I live where two rivers meet, and the Native Americans say a tornado can't form there," or similar superstitions. I grew up in Minnesota. We had a storage area that was under our entryway (about 6' X 6') which was the best supported area in the basement, so that's where we went. When I was at Maxwell AFB in 1984, I was going to get up and run one Sunday morning, but rolled over and went back to sleep. Half an hour later the sirens went off. I later realized that I my run would've put me right where the tornado went through, between a flat golf fairway and the Alabama River. My quarters were probably 1/2 mile away from it, but I couldn't see it because of the tree line. That's as close as I've been to a tornado, and that's close enough. (I must say that seeing a tornado form over me would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience--maybe literally!) If I ever live in "tornado alley" again, I'm going to buy motorcycle or at least bicycle helmets to wear during a tornado. Supposedly most tornado fatalities are head injuries. And I'd probably have the area under the stairs enclosed with 3/4 inch plywood with a sturdy door on either side.

[@charliekezza]

Best underrated channel out there

[@kevinquist]

tornado last year. little F1. came bouncing through my neighborhood. took few roofs off. took down power lines. traffic lights. hit the street to the south west of us and took out ALL the trees and damaged the houses. thing left the ground, went right over our house. touched down on the other side and took out more trees and houses. we lost 23 trees on my little street alone. My favorite maple tree. Thank GOD no one was even hurt. we got enough notice it was coming every one hid. just tons of property damage. i could not live in tornado alley.

[@IntrepidFraidyCat]

A little spooky to see this a few days after the December 10/11 2021 tornadoes that hit. Great video, new subscriber!

[@johngalt2506]

Several houses within a mile of me had their roofs torn of in that one. Fortunately no injuries.

[@chrisgriffin7357]

We're lucky today that we get warnings of tornados on the ground, and or a chance to outrun the tornado with a 100mph vehicle. In 1925, it was just "Why does that black fog have a house revolving around it... oh.. I have 20 seconds to live"

[@Gail1Marie]

Radio was still in its infancy in 1925. So even if the tornado had been recognized as such and a radio warning broadcast, few people would've received it. The best bet for warning of impending disaster would've been railroad telegraphers, but after the tornado hit, all the lines would have gone down. People really were caught unawares.

[@anarchistatheist1917]

The videos of the Phil Campbell tornado of 2011 give a good example of what the tri state tornado of 1925 looked like. Both were rain wrapped giant wedge tornadoes.

[@shotforshot5983]

Respectfully done. The spring of '25 was actually a "super outbreak".

[@mmabagain]

Been through 3 tornadoes here in Texas. None too serious but still, in 2015 I finally bought a tornado shelter. The peace of mind is worth every penny.

[@llYossarian]

It's hard to understand at first how people would think it was "fog" or just a "big cloud" at first but being from the region I think the issue is that most of "Tornado Alley" is sparsely populated and wide open plains but the Tri-State tornado happened at the very NE tip of the "Alley" and around here the population is dense and there are _millions_ of hills and trees (and that also means even in suburban areas you're more likely to have taller building closer together...) so while I've _always_ wanted to see a tornado, living in Southern Indiana I had to recognize that in many/most places you can have one right around the corner/over the hill and still not see it and even in good conditions actually seeing so often means that it's only a few hundred-to-a-thousand feet away by the time you know for sure/can actually see a funnel. -- Also, with so many trees there have been dozens of storms that didn't even have a tornado but I'm still terrified to go outside _(and especially to look up)_ because the chances of a large branch coming down in the high wind of a non-tornadic event is SO MUCH more likely to kill you than just about anything else you can imagine...

[@EKA201-j7f]

As I remember the air has a tendency in So Illinois to get this weird greenish look to it - probably from shredded leaves and the high moisture in the area. It is a real warning sign.

[@Cellmate412162]

The “fog” or “big cloud” effect is due to the tornado being wrapped in heavy rain. From what I learned about high precipitation supercells is that the heaviest rain shafts give the appearance of the “giant cloud or fog” on the ground. That also happened with the Plainfield Tornado in 1990, & the El Reno Tornado in 2013.

[@Gail1Marie]

@@EKA201-j7f Actually, the "air" isn't green--the clouds are. The blue-green appearance occurs when light travels through hail (which very frequently accompanies tornadoes). I've seen it several times, and each time, there was a tornado associated with it. It can be a spectacularly beautiful aqua color too. Or at least it would be if it didn't indicate a potential tornado. If you see it, it's time to head for the basement! What I really remember as an indicator of tornadoes was how still everything became--not a breath of wind, the birds stopped chirping, and the sky was so black the streetlights came on at four in the afternoon.

[@EKA201-j7f]

@@Gail1Marie If we had headed to our basement one time we would have been drowned. The tornado in the '50's went through the lake we were at and then dumped water, fish, snakes and rain on our nearby town. Lots of people had boats tied up to the front porch until it receded.

[@Gail1Marie]

@@EKA201-j7f It's like hurricanes--it's a no-win situation. Which will happen first? Will the tidal surge get you, or will your house blow apart? Your best choice is to get the heck out of Dodge and head away from the hurricane's path. I was stationed in Mississippi, and you'd always have people who would refuse to evacuate. Sometimes they'd never find their bodies. They remind me of today's anti-vaxxers: "It's not going to happen to me."

[@WindTurbineSyndrome]

Never heard of it. Great job with actual photos and research.

[@just_kos99]

The El Reno tornado in 2013 was the largest on record, at 2.6 miles wide at one point.

[@Straswa]

Great vid Raven's Eye. I've haven't been in a tornado yet but I've seen enough of their destructive power to be afraid when a tornado watch is issued. I feel sorry for all those poor lives lost. They had no weather channels, no radios, no warning at all.

[@sookie4195]

In 1990 I met an older lady in an orthopedic office. She had survived the Ruskin Heights, Missouri tornado of 1957. She was still needing an orthopedic surgeon for injuries sustained in that tornado 30+ years later. She said that she ran with her infant daughter in her arms to the church to take shelter. The infant was sucked out of her arms at the church’s doorstep. She also said that later on as she drove around town, she would see her heirloom linen hanging on other peoples clothes lines. After this horrific tornado, my brother went in and built his first home right where homes had been destroyed.

[@TruckerChick]

Growing up in Oklahoma I witnessed some really bad ones thats for sure but never had I heard of this one. Wow over 600 people lost and miles and miles of damage. Tornadoes are wicked.

[@josephpacchetti5997]

This was one year before my Mother And Father were born, {R.I.P.} And they were born in Illinois. Thanks for posting. 👍

[@troythompson1768]

Actually, the tri-state tornado is no longer the record holder for most people killed by a tornado, although it held the record for over six decades. The current record holder is the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado, a far weaker tornado that nevertheless killed about 1,300 people in Bangladesh in 1989. The Daulatpur-Saturia tornado was no where near as strong as its death toll might suggest though, probably being an F-3 or F-4; it killed so many people because it struck an area of dense, overpopulated slums full of what poorly-constructed housing the impoverished inhabitants could afford. The tri-state tornado is still the most powerful, most destructive, and most expensive tornado in human history, though, as well as the deadliest in US history and the second-deadliest in world history.

[@Cat3465]

Hackleburg-Phil Campbell and Joplin are the closest tornadoes to describe what the Tri-State tornado looked like

[@bearzdlc2172]

witchitaw falls from 1979 is what survivors of the tri state tornado said it looked like. if you dig around on google images you can find pictures of it in the distance as just pure black evil on the ground in the distance. beyond horrifying. hackleburg is by far the closest we have to a modern day equivalent of tri state though, its forward speed/wind speed and duration make it seem like the tri state tornado respawned and touched back down nearly 100 years later

[@danw2112]

Watching this video again after the tornado outbreak on December 10-11, 2021 in the nearly the same area.

[@luckypanther69]

Yeah, and I remember on the 10th my senior year homecoming came to a halt and I had to drive my friend to take shelter

[@tr4nsg0th1ca]

One thing NOBODY ever seems aware of is the state in which many corpses are found in after being blown off by a tornado. Tornado winds at the surface are densely packed with small particles that will 'sandblast' off clothing and large patches of skin. Any wounds will be deeply penetrated with fungus and bacteria-rich soil, causing serious secondary infections. The wind gets into cavities (eye sockets, nose, mouth, ears) and can do severe internal damage and ghastly mutilations. In addition to debris impacts, many people are killed/injured from being violently tumbled along the ground or becoming airborne and then falling. I remember reading an interview of first responders and search & rescue teams from the 1997 Jarrell TX tornado.... most of the bodies were so abraded & unrecognizable, they had to be identified by dental records. To make it worse, the tornado had plowed through a ranch and there was remnants of livestock mixed in with the human remains. Many said they found pieces of body that were unrecognizable between human and livestock.

[@Kaidhicksii]

Ah yes: the Tri-State Tornado. I should've figured you had covered this monster. For as long as I've known tornadoes, this was one individual storm that I have always known. I cannot begin to imagine the horror one must have felt as this mother of all storms came literally barreling down on them. Perhaps there were some who saw it coming from a long way away and realized it was a tornado, but figured 'eh, I should have enough time to get the place dogged down and then get below.' They turn back around and all of a sudden the funnel is right on top of them. Given the superlatives I've heard including here about its size, this must have been a wedge, without a shadow of a doubt. If not and it was somehow a classic funnel, then honestly that seems even more terrifying to me. The everyday person including me doesn't normally expect a classic elephant trunk tornado to be a powerful F5 - or EF5 as is used today, with its more accurate calculations. The only thing that's even more terrifying is to imagine if there were more powerful tornadoes before this one, when we didn't have any means of measuring and recording them. And if so, how bad were they. But even with that in made, even when we've been hit by storms like El Reno in 2013, Joplin in 2011, Moore in 1999, the recent "Quad-State" (not a single tornado that one), and several other powerful storms that have gone down in history, this one still towers above the rest.

[@janblackman6204]

You need to do a video on the tornado that tore through Phil Campbell and went for over a hundred miles killing a large number of people. This occurred in Alabama in April of 2011. Over 252 people were killed in Alabama that day. I was in Cullman county which was hit by 5 that day including one ef4.

[@diontaedaughtry974]

Very insightful 👍👍, Great video 🌪

[@celestiafanforever]

the only tri-state tornado I heard of was the one from 2021, my sister in law was lucky enough to not have been hit by the tornado. It was a scary night for everyone. The sirens going on for several hours to the point I kept hearing them go off in my head the next day.

[@NaVeS2]

3:03 bro how is the house just chilling on the top left LOL

[@jesusbeloved3953]

I’ve just discovered your channel. I’m really enjoying your content, but this one was very well done. Your amazement at the enormity of the disaster come through. It’s a warm touch of humanity with your last warning this could happen again tomorrow. Very well done!

[@Robocopnik]

Regarding the opening, as an American, I can say that we have a real zeal and aptitude for just sort of living with awful stuff happening. Tornadoes, hurricanes, stochastic right-wing terrorism, everyone's just like, "Oh well".

[@St.Linguini_of_Pesto]

@MS-06 Borjarnon ...and then there are those of us who read a comment such as this and reply with "LOL". lol.

[@thelouster5815]

And right wingers thinking the left is more destructive.

[@hh7407]

This one and the Quad State Tornados (actually two tornadoes) nearly 250 miles across Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, (one that traveled over 165 miles and the other traveled over 80.3 miles)...are both horrific weather atrocities.

[@bearzdlc2172]

quad state was a family of tornadoes and the main two were both rated EF4 (which is bullshit because its very clear it was EF5 damage.) but that aside, the destruction caused by mayfield has nothing on tri state and the storm itself was nowhere near as intense

[@LQOTW]

Holy smokes, in a world where civil defense warning were not yet known this tornado must have seemed like a monster from hell! How terrible for all of those poor people. Strong people, to be sure, to come back and move on from (I guess you'd have to be), but that kind of experience must have left scars on the psyche of everyone who experienced it - especially those who lost loved ones. Thank you for the great video presentation.

[@seanbean3826]

I've been in the so IL area for two years, you can see me on this map actually. People still talk about this tornado so thanks for making this.

[@brodyrichard263]

What’s wild is I live five minutes from west Frankfort. In fact I work in west Frankfort and since this tragedy we have only had one single tornado notable tornado. Our area has somehow been lucky for so long

[@thewingedpotato6463]

5:05 "A cow was picked up and hurled into the village restaurant" Hey, it's free Real Steak.

[@jeffbryan4019]

The Tri State will always be the deadliest tornado ever in our nation . It killed more farmers and school children than any tornado on record . This monster raced through Indiana at 73 mph . The actual path length was 235 miles instead of 219 . The longest on record .

[@bradsanders407]

No record setting tornado is going to stop high school basketball in Indiana. Well until it became classed in the 90s.

[@Warkingist]

still waiting to see if they will ever make a movie based on this event, THAT would be a great tornado movie to watch.

[@Stichting_NoFa-p]

6:56 Another lie, this was the tornado in Howard, South Dakota on August 28 1884.

[@kingcrook1757]

I think he's showing tornado pictures because there's only one picture of the Tri-State tornado

[@LittleRayOfSnshine69]

Rode through Murphysboro last month on a road trip. Never would've guessed something like that had happened there.

[@WhiteArrow76]

At West Frankfort the fatalities were grouped into three areas. Most of the town itself was spared, as the tornado clipped the northwest corner of the city, which was unfortunately mostly very densely populated neighborhoods. 102 were killed in that area. 23 died in Denning township to the west, and another 23 died at Caldwell just northeast of town

[@Bluefire397]

Not the highest death toll, that would be the Daulatpur-Saturia Tornado in Bangladesh in 1989 which killed 1300 people.

[@seigedrakonera5689]

It boggles my mind on how people willingly build their homes, set up business all in an area *known* to have tornados fairly regularly in the first place but to then rebuild in the same place after losing it all, homes an irreplaceable loved ones.

[@elliottprice6084]

I knew this tornado was a monster from what I'd read, but the statistics that were included were shocking. It's a testiment to the people who survived this disaster of how resilient they were

[@kyleoelrich462]

The story of this tornado would be a perfect disaster movie.

[@seanlanglois8620]

The speed of this tornado just boggles my mind.

[@mickkimmings6186]

I've watched this 4 times..... 5 now It's a monster tornado .!

[@theravenseye9443]

Hey if all my subscribers do this it might get to 1000 views....Ha.Ha.

[@mickkimmings6186]

7 now dude... be 8 tonight. Hay, saw your up to 404 subscribers. Bet u a pint your at 1000 in ten days

[@theravenseye9443]

I'll gladly buy you 2 pints if we are at 1000 subscribers in 10 days!! Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@digitalartemis333]

Something about seeing the videos of the tornado in old film is chilling

[@ahill4642]

Something about 15,000 attending that basketball game really touched my heart. People want to *live.* This one left me awestruck. The epitome of a freak weather event. And I'd never heard of it.

[@jhtsurvival]

I'm from MA.. We rarely get tornadoes but every so often one hits and causes havoc. one hit my town back in the day. It ripped right up Central MA into Worcester. My small town had a hotel, zoo, and a few other businesses that never were rebuilt

[@CaptainCJ97]

Great vid

[@cesaralcaraz819]

Just subscribed, you deserve more subscribers.

[@theravenseye9443]

Thanks Cesar - every sub is appreciated.

[@cesaralcaraz819]

@@theravenseye9443 your welcome man, seriously, after seeing a couple videos from your channel, I gotta say, you’re pretty underrated.

[@derekhughes8318]

Great video good job keep up the good work 👍

[@silverthorngoodtree5533]

in 2011 we had the 2nd and 3rd worst tornados. Both same in power and size, but thankfully early warning kept many alive.

[@blackhawks81H]

70 mph across the ground is ridiculous for a tornado..They're capable of doing it. But very VERY rarely do. I'm a trained spotter/part time tornado chaser.. And you just don't see stuff like that. My fear is a tornado like this is going to happen again one day, but it'll be hitting much more densely populated areas if it happened now. Some areas of the country like in Kansas and Oklahoma have a fair amount of tornado shelters built into homes and public buildings nowadays.. But not as many as you'd think. And they're almost nonexistent in areas like this, Illinois, Indiana...peoplenjust don't have shelters there. Houses are built cheaper than ever in these areas as well. 16 inch on center 2x4s, some thin plywood and drywall inside.. A paper thin layer of vinyl or aluminum siding on the outside. Modern densely populated apartment buildings might as well be made of popsicle sticks, even in the face of a tornado much much weaker than this was. Another one like this taking just the right path, could easily kill thousands today. The only thing we have now that's exponentially better than back then, is warnings. The tornado warnings we have now are incredible even compared to just 20 years ago. Lots of lead time, and the national weather service almost never misses. But even with the excellent warnings, and lots of lead time.. What good does that do if you have nowhere to run. No substantial shelter in which to take cover? That's the scary thing. As I mentioned before, it wouldn't even need to be a tornado this strong. A solid EF-3 or above, that was long tracked, and picked just the right path. Would cause a biblical scale disaster today.. And the worst part is that it's really not a matter of if.. But when. We've actually been really lucky over the last 100 years, other than a couple scattered tragedies like Moore Oklahoma... But it's going to happen again one day. And if it's a big densely populated city.. I don't even want to think of the possible outcomes. Imagine an EF-5 tearing right through Chicago, Indianapolis, St Louis. Etc. I pray we never have to find out. But in the meantime I also strongly encourage people to look into shelters. You can get some very affordable in ground ones installed in your garage floor.. Even above ground armored safe rooms that go in closets. Look for deals, talk to your insurance company, local governments, and even bug the federal government about any sort of financial assistance you could get for such a shelter. One day it may well save your life, or the lives of your entire family.. And you just can't put a price on that. Some more handy types out there. Just dig a shelter. Something is better than nothing. An old fashioned root cellar.. Buy an old beat up shipping container and bury that thing. It doesn't need to be deep. It can be above ground if you pile up enough earth on top of and banked to the sides of it. Stay vigilant my friends. And stay safe.

[@thelouster5815]

It’s insane how tornado-prone areas have buildings built so flimsy that you could tip them over if you lean on it wrong and with virtually no potential shelter

[@MicrowaveOvenVideo]

it's so weird hearing history of your home towns, I live outside of West Frankfort and it's surreal hearing the names of local travesties. also sadly West Skankfort was rebuilt

[@Chaos8282]

My fathers family has been in Southern IL since 1805. Lived through earthquakes, tornados, floods, derechos and mine explosions. We are a unique breed of people here. We deal with it, put our heads down and keep on going.

[@mattstewart8962]

I'll never forget the may 2008 derecheo. worst storm I've lived through in Southern illinois

[@clareharrison3361]

I hadn't heard of this before. Thanks you.

[@Loy1950]

My paternal grandfather died in the TriState tornado of 1925 in Murphysboro, Illinois. He was a blacksmith. That was 25 years before I was born. His name was John Godfrey Andrews.

[@patriciayoung4728]

I lived in Gorham and worked and lived in Murphysboro learning of this tornado at the feet of old people in the local county nursing they had prior to closure. .very sad...there is a PBS story of this with those very people speaking about ut.