Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Remembering The 1925 Great Tri-State Tornado

85 years ago, on March 18th, 1925, the tornado formed about 1pm near Ellington, Reynolds Co., Missouri, and dissipated at 4:19pm, near Petersburgh, Gibson Co., Indiana.



The F5 tornado stayed on the ground for over 219 miles, it was about 1 mile wide and almost 1 mile high. There was no funnel, due to the tornado being so close to the ground. Winds probably exceeded 300mph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado



My dad's family had just moved back to Mt. Vernon, Posey Co., Indiana, the year before, after living in the Missouri/Arkansas area for 24 years. Griffin is north of Mt. Vernon, by a few miles and Griffin was completely destroyed. 69 people died and 85 farms were devastated.



Three states were involved in the longest tornado in the history of the world: Southeastern Missouri, through Southern Illinois, and into Southwestern Indiana, which are all states that I am doing genealogy on. Estimated total number of deaths was 695, with 2027 injuries.



Another good link is the Princeton, Gibson Co., Indiana website: http://www.princeton-indiana.com/pages/history/tornados/1925_tornado-main.htm



Toujours Moi,

Claudette

2 comments:

  1. WAHOO! We got it. I enjoyed talking to you and hope that we can figure out how the Inge, Beasley and Walker lines connect...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Robin! We'll have to work on those lines.

    ReplyDelete