The Waco Tornado - May 11th, 1953
Monday, May 11, 1953, a day that forever changed the face of Waco, Texas. The fateful morning started out as any other normal day, despite tornado warnings for Central Texas. Some folks didn’t seem too concerned about it believing an old legend that the hills and bluffs around Waco protected the city from such a weather event. People went about their day, shopping and working.
The day started off as another spring muggy morning with temps in the mid 70s and the weather forecast calling for partly cloudy skies with mild temps for the next few days. During the afternoon things started to change, dark clouds rolled in and scattered thunderstorms began to develop east of the Texas Panhandle down to Midland and west of Del Rio. At about 2:30pm an F4 tornado had touched down 200 miles west of Waco in the town of San Angelo, leaving a 20 mile path of destruction, killing over a dozen people and injuring 153 more.
At 3pm the skies in Waco were cloudy with southerly winds at about 8mph; people were out and about running errands, eating late lunches, etc… However, as the time progressed, the skies over Waco became turbulent when thunderstorms started to develop. Many folks rushed into buildings to obtain cover from the rain that started to fall, not knowing what just lied ahead.
At 4pm the sky grew hauntingly dark and the thunderstorm grew in intensity. Heavy rain and baseball sized hail began raining down on the city. Witnesses there said the sky got so dark, it appeard that nighttime had come early.
While residents were ducking into buildings to get out of the rain and hail, at About 4:30pm, just southwest of Waco near the town of Lorena, a tornado touched down and started to ravage homes. It quickly grew in intesity and was headed straight for downtown Waco, cutting a path of chaos and destruction that reached 1/3 mile wide.
It took just minutes for the tornado to reach downtown Waco. At 4:36pm, the city center was slammed by what had grown to be an F5 tornado with winds in excess of 261 mph (experts estimate that winds reached 300 mph).
Stuck in their car at a red light at 5th and Austin, Baylor professor Keith James and his wife couldn’t escape before the R.T. Dennis & Co. building collapsed on their vehicle flattening it to a height of about 2 feet, killing them both.
Others were more lucky. The Baylor Baseball team was having practice before the tornado hit. The players took cover in the dugout as the bleachers were ripped off and their scoreboard bent in two by the fierce winds. After the storm passed, they were some of the first people on scene to help with recovery efforts.
The tornado resulted in a colossal death toll, with at least 114 people losing their lives and over 500 suffering severe injuries. More than 600 homes were destroyed and many businesses and public buildings fell to rubble.
The Waco tornado is ranked as the #1 worst tornado to ever hit Texas and one of the most tragic natural disasters in state history. Destruction was so massive, the city never fully recovered.