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Waco Tornado
Mon May 12, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Fifty years ago this weekend, a violent tornado passed through Waco,
Texas. Unlike most tornadoes, it didn't skip through the countryside or take a swipe at the
suburbs. This one went right for the heart of downtown Waco, and that made it the deadliest
twister in Texas history.
Waco wasn't supposed to get tornadoes, or so many of its residents thought. Even though Waco
sits in the south part of Tornado Alley, the city lies just to the east of some bluffs on the
Brazos River. Those bluffs, according to Native American legend, would protect the city from
tornadoes. But the legend didn't work on May 11th, 1953.
This was the first full year that tornado watches were issued, and Waco was included in one.
Eleven people had died in San Angelo from a twister early that afternoon. But the storms got
downplayed in the Waco evening paper, and radio and TV didn't cover severe weather the way
they do now. So there was virtually no warning when a rain-wrapped tornado swept into
downtown Waco.
Roughly 200 businesses were destroyed. A six-story furniture store was blown to pieces with
customers and clerks inside. In just minutes, the streets of downtown Waco were filled with
rubble atop smashed cars. The Waco tornado killed 114 people and injured nearly 700. As bad
as this storm was, there was even more tornadic trouble ahead in June, and it extended all the
way up to Massachusetts.
Thanks to Bob Henson for today's story. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount
Washington Observatory, and is generously supported by Subaru of America and the National
Science Foundation.
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