Deadliest Tornado in Ohio History: The Lorain Tornado of 1924

how many times can you say that and know that you were on the spot where an actual tornado ripped through the town June 28th 1924 was a day that the town of Lorraine Ohio would never forget at :08 p.m. an F4 tornado came in off of Lake Erie at Lake View Beach and then sped across town destroying everything in its path today we're going to talk about that F4 tornado the damage that it caused and visit some of the sites showing some before and after pictures of the devastation so if you're curious let's take a walk through history [Music] [Music] in 1924 Lake View was a big draw for those who looked to escape the heat of a summer day it presented a beautiful Sandy Beach refreshing lakeer water and a new two-story bath house that offered a private space where bathers could change comfortably from their everyday clothes to their swimsuits and the bottom floor of the bath house opened directly onto the beach on June 28th of that year it was a very hot and humid Saturday so droves of bathers flocked to the beach to escape the oppressive temps now anyone who lives in Ohio knows to expect Summer Afternoon thunderstorms so when the bathers saw a storm brewing over the lake they paid little notice these storms after all could come and go in the blink of an eye but this was no ordinary afternoon thunderstorm this storm had already dropped a tornado on the town of and dusy taking the lives of seven people now it was headed straight for Lake View Park and the town of Lorraine once the storm dark in the sky above Lake Erie people picked up their belongings and slowly headed toward the bath house then the wind picked up and beach goers looked on in horror as the Finger of God descended from the storm clouds and began to rotate violently offshore a massive tornado was heading straight for them some people raced for home still wearing their bathing suits While others headed to their cars or nearby houses most took shelter in the new two-story concrete bath house the tornado struck land at 5:08 p.m. so the tornado started across the lake in sanduski at that point it hit the beach right here at 50:08 p.m. and kened up this hill and hit the bath house dead on the structure that you see below the cement structure is the original foundation of the bath house everything above obviously has been rebuilt the bath house that did stand on top of that structure was tossed into the air and then came crashing back down upon itself all of the beachgoers who took refuge in the bath house were were now buried in rubble in the cement structure below as the tornado kened across the parking lot it began sucking up cars and people many were tossed through the air like ragd dolls falling into the water where they drowned in the now turbulent Lake model te's were flung through the air like toys and dropped into the churning storm ravaged waves some ending up close to shore others much further out in the lake the fate of the occupants of those cars was Grim within seconds Lake View Park was completely obliterated it looked as if a bomb had gone off in the returning daylight we could see that the Bungalow next door had only a broken front window but looking over toward the lake we could see that the bath house at Lake View Park was gone more people were beginning to crawl out of their houses houses including our own that look like piles of toothpicks Emily Don the tornado was taking aim at the densely populated residential area of Lorraine almost as if it were a living creature This Tornado had a goal complete and total Destruction about the middle of late afternoon I decided to go swimming but my mother told me to wait until the impending dark clouds passed the storm struck after 5 and I looked out at the maple trees in our yard about 6 in in diameter they were bent down to the ground like stems of a daisy the noise was like gunfire George Meyer we're at the corner of West eie Avenue in Lake View Boulevard in 1924 this was the home of Minnie and Allison Babcock the tornado was gaining Steam and debris as it ripped through the area of the Town Minnie and aliceon survived the tornado but their house was hit hard and took several months to repair here on Wester Avenue was the home of Henry wormser Henry's home was not as fortunate as the Babcock's the house was lifted from its foundation and settled in a fashion reminiscent to a Tim Burton movie this photo is a prime example of why some people say tornadoes have personalities while the entire neighborhood was facing the onslaught of 200 plus M perh winds Henry's Home looks to have been targeted by the storm while the homes right next door experienced far less damage I remember looking out the bay window to my left the glass GL had blown out and all I could see through the window was a blur of green tree branches wires and Boards flying by then looking out the front door I saw a garage tumbling down the street flopping over and over on its sides until it collapsed and the sides sailed away at that point I could see no more because the porch roof pillars blew away and the roof swung down onto the porch floor and then it was over deathly quiet W Lester the beautifully ornate home of William and Francis mallister on oberin Avenue had half of its Century old tree sheared off and the other half bent backward onto the roof of the front porch another Testament as to how unfair tornadoes seem to behave this house sits near the center of the Twister's path yet it and many of the neighboring houses suffered only minor damage this house on Brownell Avenue Bears little resemblance to what was left standing here after June 28th 1924 the home of William and Mary Connors was reduced from two stories to only one what you were seeing is the second floor bedroom and bathroom exposed to the elements sitting on the ground floor the Connor's family and friends are helping to gather what belongings they can salvage from the rubble I'm sure they even went back in to gather the toothbrushes that were still hanging above the bathroom sink the first sign of the approaching storm was that I felt the house move and thought to myself that this house must not have been built very well the tornado picked the whole house up moved it and put it back down a skewed to the foundation it tell you to go to the basement in a tornado but if we had done that we would all have been killed the corner of the house was resting on the washing machine eff heaps if you lived between Erie Avenue and 7eventh streets you were in the direct path of the tornado and would be lucky to survive if your house wasn't reduced to matchsticks you had a chance but even houses that remained somewhat upright saw their share of death the vanen family who lived here on Fifth Street prepared to sit down to dinner with guests who had just arrived from Columbus Mr vanen realized something was wrong as gaale force winds began to strengthen outside he rushed his family and eight guests to the basement out of the 10 people who sat down for dinner only one an 8-year-old girl didn't make it to the basement she hid terrified near a piano in the dining room the sound of a house being lifted and pushed sideways by two 200 mph winds pierced the air as the home began to shift tons of debris fell into the basement and on top of those seeking shelter below five of the nine people in the basement died the rest were trapped in the ruins of the house unable to escape the only person who was uninjured was the little girl who hid in the dining room next to the piano this house on Hamilton Avenue was the home of Andrew and Matty braa as you can see from the photo there was nothing structurally sound about the house after the tornado passed in fact it appears the entire west side of the house caved in on itself Matty Bron did not survive her cause of death was struck by building in a storm it is said she was attempting to fix an awning when the storm hit she is buried along with her husband in Elmwood Cemetery in Lorraine she was 69 when when she died Andrew would follow her 12 years later at the age of 84 at this point the monster tornado was halfway through the city the destructive path of the tornado was already an impressive swath of decimation it's no exaggeration to say the town looked like a lawnmower had run over it in some spots neighboring houses stood tall with only minor damage but in most areas houses and other landmarks were completely wiped away leaving only foundations and driveways intact the rign churches also felt the Wrath of the tornado the First Congregational Church stood on the corner of West Fourth in Washington the tornado blew the church steeple onto fire station number one the next day the church members met at Irving School to give thanks for those who survived they immediately started to raise money to build build a much larger Church on the same site the First Methodist Episcopal Church on West 6th Street didn't Faire much better the front facade was almost completely destroyed the shingles were scraped away there was a giant hole in the roof and the surrounding landscape looked like something out of a war zone but the congregation set forth and rebuilt their house of worship which today stands triumphantly as the greater victory Christian Ministries St Mary's Catholic Church was also in ruin the tornado did so much damage that the roof was caving in on itself local authorities eventually decided the church could not be safely repaired and condemn the building oddly enough it had to be dynamited three times before it could be torn down the Catholic church this church the church on the corner okay those are all destruct zones so right now you are standing on Ground Zero of where an F4 tornado was on the ground unbelievable how many times can you say that and know that you were on the spot where an actual tornado ripped through the town yeah I mean what you see there um that is still the the same facade oh okay you know that the the part that we're seeing there with the stained glass there and the keep mhm that's original oh they just just bu roof from the inside basically and put a new stained glass window in it okay and you know my thoughts have always been what in the world would you do if say we were standing on the sidewalk and that thing was coming at you what what would you do yeah and another thing to think about after the tornado wreak its Havoc all the communication lines were down so how do you call out to the surrounding communities say hey we need help yeah there were literally literally Boys on bicycles who rode to the next town so that the wire service could get word out to the surrounding communities that something happened here it took only 2 minutes for the monster F4 tornado to finish feasting on the residential area of Lorraine it was a devastating path that was almost a mile long and nearly 2,000 ft wide now it set its sights on Lorraine's business district it hit Broadway at 10 minutes past 5 the bottom of the Twister dragged along the street mowing down everything and every one in its path in seconds tall buildings were splintered into kindling and cars were hurled by the wind into storefronts street cars flipped on their sides telephone poles and Electric elect light poles were ripped from their bases and under the bricks and shattered glass people lay unconscious my family lived in the second floor apartment above the Crystal restaurant when the tornado hit all four of us fell through the second floor to the first floor my brother and I eventually got free of the debris and wandered along Broadway looking from mother who was nowhere to be found mother was trapped under an ice box but finds got free she wandered up and down Broadway all night looking for us by 8:00 the next morning we were finally reunited but my sister Dorothy was missing after a search of the debris Dorothy's body was found cookie L Broadway was a nightmare as you can see from this photo of the wreckage at Broadway and six streets bricks splintered wood and glass littered the streets nearly every window of the Lorraine hardware company at 502 Broadway had been blown out and much of its inventory was sucked from the building but nothing compared to the devastation that occurred at the State Theater right up here around the corner was the entrance to the State Theater now the State Theater would have been fine and would have with stood the tornado but right next to the theater was a very tall building very tall for this area uh building was I believe it was five stories tall and the tornado lifted the roof off of that building and it landed on the state theaters roof on June 28th 1924 the opening music being played from the orchestra pit for the silent movie that was about to start was deafened by the rumble of of the giant tornado the staff and patrons inside had no idea what was bearing down upon them when the tornado hit the State Theater held strong but the wickens furniture store next door was no match for the F4 monster the weight of the wickens building roof and some of its top floors concaved the State Theater sending the three floors of apartments above the theater crashing to the main floor 15 people were killed a miraculously low number considering the matina that played earlier in the day sold a th000 tickets then the tornado carried on and it hopped over the Black River which is right there and hit the shipyard the Twister now headed for the Black River and then the industrial area of the Town it destroyed the bno bridge which span the river and then hit the American Shipyard finally the tornado made it to the Eastern residential area of town Colorado Avenue was home to the kuui family what the tornado did to their home became one of the most famous photographs from the storm the tornado pushed the home from its foundation and rolled it onto its side here you see the kouis trying to navigate their sideways home attempting to salvage anything they could before the house buckled under its own own weight soon the tornado would lift but be reborn in Portage County Ohio more than 60 M away the storm would wreak havoc on a few Barns and Orchards and would unfortunately take three more lives with 85 deaths the Lorraine tornado of 1924 still holds the record for being the deadliest single tornado in Ohio and the fourth deadliest ever in the northern United States 35 blocks in the town were affected by the tornado 200 down town businesses were destroyed 500 houses were destroyed and another 1,000 were damaged 7,000 people in town needed temporary shelter this year the city of Lorraine is hosting the tornado Centennial the Lorraine Historical Society Public Library County Metro Parks and others are all hosting commemorative events on June 28th and there are guided walking tours downtown every second Saturday beginning in June and running through September head over to Lorrain his.org for more details I'd like to thank the Lorraine Historical Society for their invaluable help with the research for this video as well as Betsy dianabel author of the book The 1924 tornado in Lorraine and sanduski deadly EST in Ohio history Betsy's book gives detailed accounts of the tornado and in-depth stories of the people who were impacted it's a fantastic read I have a link to it in the description below if you're interested so we're going to leave you with more scenes of the destruction from the site of the deadliest tornado in Ohio history thank you so much for watching we'll see you next time as we Explore More curious history take care [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Curious History

Views: 1,415

Keywords: history, cemetery, exploration, geneology

Id: UMI01PpGlP4

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024