St. Louis – East St. Louis tornado from 1896

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St. Louis – East St. Louis tornado from 1896
St. Louis – East St. Louis tornado from 1896
Destruction path of the tornado in the St. Louis metropolitan area
F4 tornado according to the Fujita scale
Data
date May 27, 1896
Duration 20 minutes
max. diameter 1.6 km
Victim At least 255 dead, over 1000 injured
consequences
affected areas St. Louis , East St. Louis

The St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado of 1896 was a tornado that on Wednesday, 27 May 1896, severe damage in the inner cities of St. Louis ( Missouri ), East St. Louis ( Illinois ) and the surrounding areas served. The extreme meteorological event turned into one of the most destructive tornadoes in United States history . He killed at least 255 people. The tornado was the most devastating eddy of a large swarm of tornadoes that lasted from May 24th to May 28th in the central United States, causing numerous other huge tornadoes and persisting in the eastern United States the following day.

course

At around 4:30 p.m. local time, a thick storm cloud had gathered over western St. Louis. The tornado began just after 5 p.m. along a ridge near St. Louis State Hospital, about 6 miles west of Eads Bridge in St. Louis. From the northwestern edge of Tower Grove Park, the complex combination of tornado and downburst, later classified as an F4 tornado, expanded to over a mile wide and moved east. When the tornado hit the city center, it left behind a coherent, 1.6 km wide swath of destroyed houses, schools, saloons, factories, mills, churches, parks and train stations. Some of the destroyed houses were almost completely swept away. The 36 hectare Lafayette Park has been transformed into "a wasteland of stripped trees and tree stumps". A minimum pressure of 906 hPa was measured at this location.

Destruction in downtown St. Louis

At the east end of Eads Bridge , which was built tornado-proof after the St Louis tornado of 1871, a 2 x 10 inch white pine board was driven through a 5/16 inch thick wrought iron plate. The steel bridge was not significantly damaged, but this was impressive evidence of the ability of a tornado to cause projectile-like destruction.

The tornado had apparently reached its maximum intensity when it spread across the Mississippi to East St. Louis . Buildings and houses along the river were completely swept away and about a quarter of the buildings there were destroyed or damaged. Although the total damage in East St. Louis was estimated to be about $ 2 million lower, the great intensity of the bomb resulted in almost as many deaths as in St. Louis.

After only about 20 minutes and a path of destruction about 10 miles in length, the eddy broke up.

Tornado damage at 7th / Rutger Junction in St. Louis, Missouri

The cyclone was a perfect storm in some ways. It happened at a time when many people were on their way home from work and paved its destructive way through the inner city of a metropolis that at that time already had around 500,000 inhabitants. The storm tore down numerous power lines, leaving large parts of the city in darkness. Several people were injured as a result and a number of fires were started. Rescue workers had to use torches to find survivors. Destroyed telephone and telegraph lines hampered urgently needed communication with the outside world. The storm also damaged tram and railroad lines, making it difficult or impossible for people to get home from work that night.

Damage balance

The number of victims of the cyclone was officially determined to be 255 lives. This consisted of 137 victims in St. Louis and 118 in East St. Louis. However, the number of people who fell victim to the storm on the Mississippi in houseboats, ferries and steamships that were shattered by the tornado could not be determined . The 1896 tornado is believed to be the third highest death toll in United States history , after the Tri-State Tornado and the Great Natchez Tornado .

The storm injured over a thousand other people and caused more than $ 10 million in damage, which in 2019 would have been around $ 307 million after adjusting for inflation. More than 5,000 people became homeless and lost all their belongings. Around 8,800 buildings were damaged or completely destroyed.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas P. Grazulis: Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events . The Tornado Project of Environmental Films, St. Johnsbury, Vermont July 1993, ISBN 1-879362-03-1 .
  2. ↑ Tornado Project online. The Tornado Project, accessed May 19, 2020 .
  3. ^ Julius Baier: Low Pressure in St. Louis Tornado . In: Monthly Weather Review . September 24, 1896. doi : 10.1175 / 1520-0493 (1896) 24 [332: LPISLT] 2.0.CO; 2 .
  4. ↑ The Great Cyclone of 1896. St. Louis Public Library, accessed May 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Mary K. Dain, "The St. Louis Tornado of 1896." Missouri Historical Review (1972) 66 # 3 pp 431-445.
  6. ↑ Harold E. Brooks: Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890-1999 . In: American Meteorological Society (Ed.): Weather and Forecasting . 16, No. 1, February 2001, pp. 168-76. doi : 10.1175 / 1520-0434 (2001) 016 <0168: NDFMTI> 2.0.CO; 2 .
  7. ^ Tornado of 1896 Collection. St. Louis Public Library Digital Collections, accessed May 18, 2020 .