Winner, ISHS Certificate of Excellence, 2015 Disaster relief as we know it did not exist when the deadliest tornado in U.S. history gouged a path from southeast Missouri through southern Illinois and into southwestern Indiana. The tri-state tornado of 1925 hugged the ground for 219 miles, generated wind speeds in excess of 300 miles per hour, and killed 695 people. Drawing on survivor interviews, public records, and newspaper archives, America’s Deadliest Twister offers a detailed account of the storm, but more important, it describes life in the region at that time as well as the tornado’s lasting cultural impact, especially on southern Illinois. Author Geoff Partlow follows the storm from town to town, introducing us to the people most affected by the tornado, including the African American population of southern Illinois. Their narratives, along with the stories of the heroes who led recovery efforts in the years following, add a hometown perspective to the account of the storm itself. In the discussion of the aftermath of the tornado, Partlow examines the lasting social and economic scars in the area, but he also looks at some of the technological firsts associated with this devastating tragedy. Partlow shows how relief efforts in the region began to change the way people throughout the nation thought about disaster relief, which led to the unified responses we are familiar with today.

The amazing true story of the deadliest tornado in American history, as told by a survivor.

On an ordinary spring day in 1925, folks in the Midwest were going about business usual. Little did they know that between 1 and 4: 30 p.m. on March 18, their lives would be changed forever in an event that defined the weather in the central U.S.Nthe Tri-State Tornado.

The Tri-State Tornado is a gripping account of the worst tornado disaster in American history. Claiming 689 lives during a three-hour rampage across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925, the storm had one of the longest uninterrupted paths (219 miles) and one of the widest (up to one mile) of any recorded tornado. Its continuous energy was so extreme that it completely obliterated several small towns in its path. Although the fatality count was nearly that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, with the exception of meteorologists and residents of the affected area, few had ever heard of this catastrophe until this book's initial release in 1992. The Tri-State Tornado reconstructs the tragedy, using vivid eyewitness accounts of fourteen survivors who lived along the tornado's path from the Missouri Ozarks to southwestern Indiana. The clarity with which they recall that day in their lives over sixty years earlier will give readers the unsettling feeling that the tornado struck days, not decades, ago.

When the tornado roared across southern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southwestern Indiana for many hours during the afternoon on March 18th in 1925, there was now way that people along the tornado path would know it was occurring before they could see it. This was because there was no radar systems then and the National Weather Service was not able to let people know that a tornado was going to occur or that there was a tornado already occurring since they did not know much about tornadoes. So, the only way a person then was able to know that a tornado was occurring and it was going to hit them was when they were able to see it close to where they were and realize that it was a tornado. This story shows in Franklin, Hamilton, and White Counties in Illinois what some people saw and what they did, and what happened to them when the tornado hit them. This story also has many detailed maps across the townships in Franklin, Hamilton, and White Counties in Illinois that show where many peoples homes, many schools and churches, and other things were located when they were hit by the tornado and damaged or destroyed. Some of the maps also show where some people landed after they were blown well away from there home. There are also some pictures in this story that shows what some homes, schools and other things looked like when they were damaged or damaged by the tornado. And a few of them show what they looked like before they were hit by the tornado. Some of the eyewitnesses of this tornado that I net with and went on driving surveys with are shown on pictures in this book.

A gripping account of the most deadly tornado ever to hit the U.S.--695 people killed in its 219-mile path of destruction--including first person accounts, newspaper stories, and the author's own climate science expertise.