(KWTX) Monster From The Sky

[@lisaharrod8386]

An excellent documentary! The survivor interviews were especially poignant and fascinating. I can't imagine their experience. Very special to hear them speak about an event that happened sixty some years ago. Thank you!

[@tamipilot-matias6283]

That's my aunt Alta talking at 22:22. She and my grandmother and my aunt Libby were lucky to survive!

[@billguill1859]

Well done, KWTX!!!! I remember - growing up in the suburbs of Chicago - the Belvidere and Oak Lawn tornadoes of 4/21/1967, and the coverage we had of the storms. This is one of the best documentaries I have seen, about a tornado disaster, by far!!!!

[@marymcmahan5603]

I lived within a mile of Oak Lawn. Terrible damage.

[@brt-jn7kg]

My grandfather was baling hay and Lorena. He saw the tornado coming in and he called my grandmother who worked downtown at Goldstein Miguel's. He treated her like she was an angel from heaven and I guess in a lot of ways she really was. She was the type of lady who just said something like I wish my yard would get mowed and all of the men in my family would stampede each other to the mower. I never heard the woman ever raise your voice above barely a whisperer. So I tell you this so that you understand the next part of what I'm about to say and how important it is to the story. My grandfather spoke to my grandmother like a drill instructor would have spoken to a young Marine in boot camp. Very harshly and with a lot of cuss words but he basically said get your purse don't even clock out don't talk to those people getting the car get the kids go home immediately!!! He didn't tell her why he just told her and she knew being his wife that if he spoke to her like that it was very very very very important. Not questioning her husband she did exactly as she was told and it saved her life and my family. She was carried on the dead missing list for 7 days because she was still clocked in at Goldstein Miguel's and everyone there was dead. My grandfather and my uncle cleared the debris and recovered bodies for 9 days. My father told me stories of seeing things that that tornado did that just are almost beyond belief and outside the pale of an imaginative child. It wasn't until I experienced the Jarrell Texas tornado firsthand as a police officer when I come to understand what it was my father had seen as a boy.

[@stevehinnenkamp5625]

An amazing, powerful documentary. Inspiring testimonials to make the viewer thank God for survival instict. Amen

[@BrandyinBoiseID]

Thank you so much! This is one of the best weather related documentaries I've ever seen. I loved the personal stories by the survivors.

[@Sushi2735]

WOW, so many hero’s and helpers! Such a blessing for those hurt and trapped ❤

[@equarg]

This was a professional and well put together documentary and memorial to that 1953 Tornado. Better than most these days. Thank you for giving the witnesses and survivors a voice, and remembering those who were lost. Thank you❤.

[@MartinLisius]

Fantastic! The most in-depth story about the '53 Waco tornado I have seen. The archived stills and footage are top-notch.

[@StR8uP254]

A special thanks to Brady Taylor & KWTX, for the time spent on making this possible!

[@NatPat-yj2or]

My God I love Texans. No drama, nobody crying and whining looking for sympathy. Just strong, honest people. I was born and raised in Maine, but I spent 2011-2013 in Texas and I came back, but every day I miss Texas. I will never be fully happy again until I move back to Texas. People in Maine and Texas are so much alike, but there is an extra something about Texas that is spiritual, and that's what is missing in my life I think. I never went to Waco, but I will visit one day when I move back.

[@annholtz3714]

This is an amazing documentary 👏 The stories truly moved me. Prayers for healing for those who are still recovering 🙏

[@bethluther3950]

Such a good report. We forget it wasn’t all that long ago we didn’t have the communication systems and weather info that we have now!

[@Angry_Toe]

That was downtown Waco!? Wow! It looked like New York City back then.

[@user-wi9hv2pb2q]

Yes a lot of brick construction, with wood beams, dependent on wall integrity. Not great for tornados. Also, beautiful

[@bigroy38]

Wow!Born & raised in Waco(1968;left in’87).Love our history,especially the tornado.

[@1988diesel]

On the same day, San Angelo was hit by an F4 tornado at exactly 2:30 pm.

[@Katmai_Bear_480]

It was mentioned a couple of times. Bad day all around.

[@StormStock]

Exceptional image archive! Excellent!

[@joshjones3408]

My grandmother madin name was Barbara Ann winingham....later a bates....,👍👍👍👍 thanks to all in the Making of this video 👍👍👍👍👍👍 like really thank you

[@wtxrailfan]

My mom was a telephone operator in San Angelo in 1953 and she used to talk about a tornado that hit there while she was at work. When the woman mentioned that the bad weather started in San Angelo, I immediately thought about that story my mom used to tell. This sounds like it was the same storm system. Thanks for the video.

[@joshjones3408]

My grandmother showed me where the man was trapped in the basement an lived off drinking the beer ...👍👍👍👍

[@NicoleBrink9531]

Thank you for sharing this.

[@joshjones3408]

What got me was my grandmother showed me the same spot where she ripped her skert up the back an ran out of her high heels to try to get away from..... once she showed me this an told me what she wanted me to know .....she never spoke of it again plum up tell the day she died in 2008...

[@trutherror]

Really, a tornado can happen anywhere... we had one right down the road in Middletown, DE a few years back, earth quakes too. Anything Anytime Anywhere. Never say never.

[@newme1813]

May 11,1916, a grand jury was assembled and quickly returned an indictment against a 17 year old Jesse Washington in the murder of Lucy Fryer, sealing his fate. The actions of the people afterward were horrendous! May 11, 1953 (37 years to the day) an F5 ripped through downtown Waco,Tx and showed little to no mercy! 37 years prior(May 1916) Children were let out of school early just to be a part of, or a witness to the mayhem! If the stories are true about Washington's body being dragged through town, mutilated, etc, then the events of the 1953 tragedy should have been a wake-up call for the citizens of Waco,Tx! The same famous photographer Fred Gildersleeve that was perched high up and photographing the lynching is the exact photographer (37 years later) capturing the aftermath of the tornado! Make it make sense! Nobody wants to have THAT conversation, tho!😮 #TheCoxFamily #newspapers #incitingriots #MYcity

[@brendadion7868]

While it is truly heartwarming to see communties coming together in the face of disaster, it is sad that it seems this is what it takes. 😢❤

[@joshjones3408]

All man this is great 👍👍👍👍 stuff my grand mother was in this ....i was born in 80 but i got to out there with her a my grandfather....an even got to go to cups thr little drive-in place where they hand made the brugers an hand cut fries.....

[@joshjones3408]

I understand after watching the news clip why my grandmother was the way she was.........when it would rain ..now i wish i could just tell her ...am sorry....

[@lesliecarr312]

I wonder if they got it yet. In April 1953, nobody thought Waco could have a tornado. In May, they changed their minds. Cleveland, and some other places in the Great Lakes states, Waco, Texas, and God knows how many other places, should have been a beacon to the nation and especially the Midwest for better knowledge of the weather and and its surprise attacks, and hopefully people learned something. Every place in Texas from Louisiana to New Mexico, and Mexico to Oklahoma, is vulnerable to the big wind. There have been tornadoes in Alabama, too. A lot of the stormy weather in the Midwest is generated by conflict between the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes because two different kinds of weather play like a hockey game between two different teams. They start hitting each other and the towns and cities suffer in the melee.

[@trutherror]

They can happen anywhere really.

[@GarryFisherProRider]

"(...) hopefully people learned something" - I don't want to make you feel upset, but... especially history, doesn't teach us anything, although it should. Please watch: Blake Naftel - "The Home-Town Tornado | May, 7, 2024 | Portage, MI | Kalamazoo County | Full Video Documentary" The tornado itself has done some significant damage, but that's not what makes this documentary one of the saddest of all time.

[@tomsparks6099]

A lot of wisdom said in this. Disasters bring out the best in people which is ironically sad.

[@hildeschmid8400]

After hearing these people tell their stories, the phrase Ignorance is Bliss comes to mind.

[@joshjones3408]

My grandmother's sister.. Dorothy was married to a man that come in after it was done with.... he come with a Ford tractor an a Dodge dump truck....an become a multi millionaire....his name was C.P.DOWNING... he had a stroke by the time i met him....but heven told me about the big building that fell in the basement....

[@wobblintop8094]

I am also a survivor of this tornado.

[@joshuapettyjohn1424]

💗

[@duskmoon181]

Trains still aren't always safe in a tornado, but running to the locomotive to ride out the storm likely saved his life

[@trendmassacre8423]

If you can get into the bathroom of the engine car that pulls the other train cars, then you are much safer than just being in the main part of the train itself because the bathroom sits on the bottom part in the middle of the main train car.

[@ohnoohyeah3205]

...until the residential properties were in the hands of SlumLords. Only then did the area decline. How's that for Tact?

[@seanm.kingsr.1384]

Hey, I know that Carolyn lady... 😊😊😊

[@billcrowder6477]

I was in awe of all of looters 😮 Shocking

[@KaileyB616]

Imagine believing that a tornado couldn't hit your town because someone told you they heard that the Native Americans said so 😂 I'm SHOCKED that turned out not to be true

[@noodlywisdom]

Sadly, there are towns with those sorts of legends that people still believe.

[@mirrage42]

Why the hell would anyone take as fact a legend from a tribe?

[@Dovietail]

I see black folks helping to dig white folks out of cafes that they probably would not have even been allowed to eat in. Did white folks help out black folks as well? I'd be interested to know more about this!

[@GarryFisherProRider]

Ending the slavery wasn't enough? It was going on for thousands of years, until the white folks have ended it.

[@ritsakara3476]

Practice

[@lavenderandwine]

Good to see a documentary of Waco. Could have done without all the God nonsense but considering the generation and location i'm not surprised. I personally don't think a deity had any hand in survival, partially because i don't believe in God but mostly because it feels like a slap in the face to the dead (but again this is personal. I'm not an atheist. I just don't believe deities work like that and i have a distaste for Christianity). Luck and physics. I can appreciate the history though.

[@jimmie999999999]

as a man whom God has chosen to keep alive, this is a reminder to get busy doing his work. To me that means serving others and loving others and making sure they are ok.