2 Tim Marshall, “A Tribute to Dr. Ted Fujita,” Stormtrack.org library, http://www.stormtrack.org/library/people/fujita.htm (accessed February 17, 2006).
3 Severe Weather Database Files (1950–2007), Storm Prediction Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Norman, OK, http://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/#data; Storm Events Database, National Climate Data Center, http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent~Storms.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Grazulis, The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate Windstorm, 138.
8 Ibid., 220–221.
9 Ibid., xiv.
10 Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes, 1880–1989, Volume 1: Discussion and Analysis (St. Johnsbury, VT: Environmental Films, 1991), 18.
11 Severe Weather Database Files (1950–2007), Storm Prediction Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Storm Events Database, National Climate Data Center.
12 Ibid.
13 Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes, 1880–1989, Volume 1: Discussion and Analysis (St. Johnsbury, VT: Environmental Films, 1991), 22; also “F5 & EF5 Tornadoes of the United States, 1950–Present,” Storm Prediction Center http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f5torns.html (accessed June 5, 2009).
14 Joseph G. Galway, “John Finley: The First Severe Storms Forecaster,” excerpts from the NOAA Tech Memorandum ERL-NSSL-97; Stormtrack.org, Vol. 23, No. 6, September–October 2000, http://www.stormtrack.org/library/archives/stsep00.htm (accessed February 17, 2007).
15 Tim Marshall, “John Finley’s First Tornado Damage Survey,” Stormtrack.org, Vol. 23, No. 6, September–October 2000, http://www.stormtrack.org/library/archives/stsep00.htm (accessed February 17, 2007).
16 Ibid.
17 Marlene Bradford, Scanning the Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001), 36.
18 Ibid.
19 Galway, “John Finley: The First Severe Storms Forecaster.”
20 Grazulis, The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate Windstorm, 82.
21 Bradford, Scanning the Skies, 45–46.
22 Ibid., 43–44.
23 Ibid., 44–45.
24 Ibid., 49–50.
25 Ibid., 40–42.
26 Ibid., 43–55.
27 Wikipedia.org, “1899 New Richmond Tornado,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Richmond_Tornado (accessed February 18, 2007).
28 Grazulis, The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate Windstorm, 230–231.
29 Peter S. Felknor, The Tri-State Tornado: The Story of America’s Greatest Tornado Disaster (New York: iUniverse Inc., 2004), 4.
30 Bradford, Scanning the Skies, 54.
31 Wikipedia.org, “Tri-State Tornado,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado (accessed February 18, 2007).
32 Grazulis, The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate Windstorm, 232.
33 Bradford, Scanning the Skies, 59–62.
34 Ibid., 61–64.
35 James L. Crowder, “Tinker’s 1948 Twin Twisters, Birth of Tornado Forecasting,” Air Weather Association, released April 1, 1998, http://www.airweaassn.org/Library/aws/Tinker.htm (accessed February 18, 2007).
36 Ibid.
37 Robert C. Miller, “The Unfriendly Sky,” transcribed by Charlie A. Crisp from an unpublished manuscript written in the 1970s, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/GoldenAnniversary/Historic.html (accessed February 18, 2007).
38 Crowder, “Tinker’s 1948 Twin Twisters.”
39 Miller, “The Unfriendly Sky.”
40 Ibid.
41 Bradford, Scanning the Skies, 66–67.
42 Miller, “The Unfriendly Sky.”
43 Crowder, “Tinker’s 1948 Twin Twisters.”
44 Bradford, Scanning the Skies, 73–75.
45 Ibid., 71–77.
46 Ibid., 78–85.
47 William E. Unrau, Indians of Kansas: The Euro-American Invasion and Conquest of Indian Kansas (Topeka, KS: Kansas State Historical Society, 1991), 16–25.
48 Ibid., 33.
49 Ibid., 31, 37.
50 R. David Edmunds, The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), 234.
51 Ibid., 15–23.
52 Ibid., 198.
53 Ibid., 220.
54 Unrau, Indians of Kansas, 55.
55 Ibid., 56.
56 Tom Hamilton, “Potawatomi ‘Trail of Death’ March and Death of Father Petit,” Potawatomi Web, A Kansas Heritage Group Site, http://www.kansasheritage.org/PBP/people/trail_map.html (accessed February 18, 2007).
57 Gary Wis-Ki-Ge-Amatyuk Jr., “Chief Abram B. Burnett Family,” http://wiskigeamatyuk.com (accessed February 18, 2007).
58 “Father Benjamin Petit and the Potawatomi ‘Trail of Death,’” Fulton County Historical Society, http://www.icss.net/~fchs/petit.htm (accessed February 18, 2007).
59 Edmunds, The Potawatomis, 267-268.
60 “Father Benjamin Petit and the Potawatomi ‘Trail of Death,’” Fulton County Historical Society.
61 R.C. Obrecht, “Burnett’s Mound,” Bulletin of The Shawnee County Historical Society, No. 18, March 1953, 16.
62 Ibid., 14–16.
63 Ibid., 16.
64 “Man of Muscle,” The Topeka Journal, Oct. 19, 1929.
65 Obrecht, “Burnett’s Mound,” 17.
66 Douglass W. Wallace, “Before Kansas Bled: Pre-Territorial Shawnee County” (Topeka, KS: Shawnee County Historical Society, Bulletin No. 82, September 2007), 26–31.
67 Obrecht, “Burnett’s Mound,” 17.
68 Steve Fry, “How the West Was Won,” The Topeka Capital-Journal, February 2, 2003, via cjonline.com, http://cjonline.com/stories/020203/our_westwaswon.shtml (accessed February 20, 2007).
69 Barbara Brackman, “Kansas Troubles: This Week in Territorial History, December 5–11, 1854,” www.kshs.org/sesquicentennial/series.htm.
70 F. W. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka: A Historical Sketch (Topeka, KS: George W. Crane & Co. Publishers, 1886), 77–78.
71 Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, 57–59.
72 Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, 134–135.
73 Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka, 105.
74 Douglass W. Wallace and Roy D. Bird, Witness of the Times: A History of Shawnee County (Topeka, KS: Shawnee County Historical Society and Shawnee County American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, 1976), 252–253.
75 Fry, “How the West Was Won.”
76 Ann Marie Bush, “Larger than Life: Chief Abram Burnett Remembered as Colorful Topeka Character,” The Topeka Capital-Journal, November 23, 2000, via cjonline.com, http://cjonline.com/stories/112300/swn_chief.shtml (accessed June 7, 2009).
77 W.C. Campbell, “Heap Big Injun,” Topeka Mail and Breeze, May 22, 1896, unknown.
78 Edmunds, The Potawatomis, 221.
79 Campbell, “Heap Big Injun.”
80 Aileen Mallory, “Burnett’s Mound,” The Territorial: Where the West Was Won, Vol. 6, No. 6, November–December 1986.
81 Wis-Ki-Ge-Amatyuk Jr., “Chief Abram B. Burnett Family,” http://wiskigeamatyuk.com (accessed February 20, 2007).
82 Milton Tabor, “They Still Hunt for Burnett’s Gold,’’ The Topeka Capital, March 11, 1928.
83 “The Original Kansans,” Kaw Mission State Historical Site, http://www.kshs.org/places/kawmission/mainmenu.htm (accessed February 20, 2007).
84 Unrau, Indians of Kansas, 80–91.
85 “The Original Kansans,” Kaw Mission State Historical Site.
86 Fry, “How the West Was Won.”
87 Spencer L. Duncan, Historic Shawnee County: The Story of Topeka and Shawnee County (San Antonio, TX: Historical Publishing Network, 2005), 39.
88 Gene Smith, “Cleared for Take-off,” The Topeka Capital-Journal, May 30, 1999, 2-B.
89 Ibid.
90 “Forbes 2nd Largest Base in SAC,” The Topeka Sunday Capital-Journal, December 10, 1961.
91 Strategic-Air-Command.com, “SAC Bases: Forbes Air Fo
rce Base,” http://www.strategic-air-command.com/bases/Forbes_AFB.htm (accessed February 3, 2007).
92 Ralph Marsh, “Tornado Watch No. 201,” Midway magazine, The Topeka Sunday Capital-Journal, June 4, 1967, M5.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid., M6, M9.
95 Harold E. Brooks and Charles A. Doswell III, “Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999,” Journal of Weather and Forecasting, Vol. 16, No. 1, February 2001, 168–176.
96 James B. Taylor, Louis A. Zurcher, and William H. Key, Tornado: A Community Responds to Disaster (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1970).
97 Ibid., 17.
98 Ibid., 30.
99 Ibid., 41.
100 Ibid., 9.
101 Robert Stallings, “Research Report #20: A Description and Analysis of the Warning Systems in Topeka, Kansas, Tornado of June 8, 1966,” Disaster Research Center, Ohio State University, June 8, 1967.
102 Daniel Miller et al., “Highway Overpasses as Tornado Shelters: Fallout from the 3 May 1999 Oklahoma/Kansas Violent Tornado Outbreak,” 1999 National Weather Association Annual Meeting Presentation, Biloxi, Mississippi, http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=safety-overpass-slide01 (accessed May 1, 2009).
Index
A
Abbe, Cleveland, 50–51
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M), 33
agriculture in Kansas, 5
Alden, Kansas, 33
Anderson, Erma, 6–7
Anderson, Hattie L., 262–63
Anderson, Herb, 262–63
Anderson, Ralph, 124
Anderson, R. R., 262–63
anvil cloud, 45
Arkansas, 51
Armco Steel, 226–27
Arnold, Roy, 156–57
Assumption Church, 211
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway shops, 4, 224–25, 237
Avery, William, 245
Axton, Bailey, 19–20
B
Bartley, Marsha, 170, 172, 177–78
Bartley, Neil, 170, 172, 177–78
Bartley, Neil, Jr., 170, 172, 177–78
Bass, Henry, 156–57, 158
Batman (TV series), 4
Beasley, Mary I., 261
Bedard, Alfred J., Jr., 157–58
Benge, Denny, 190–92, 205–6, 250–51, 296
Beymer, Craig, 247, 256, 288–89
Billard Municipal Airport, Topeka, 16, 230. See also U.S. Weather Bureau, Topeka, Kansas
Billboard Hot 100, 26–27
Blackwell, Oklahoma, 78
Blake, Henry, 246–47
Bolen, Lee, 156–57
Boline, Katherine Taylor, 219, 302
Bordner, Francis, 234, 300
Borum, Fred S. “Fritz,” 53–56
bowling alley, 183–84, 189–90, 201–2
Breuninger, Sue, 151–53, 292
Briery, David, 229–30
Brightfield, Bud, 202
Brokaw, Gordon, 32, 215
Brumme, Dick, 186–87, 189, 193–94, 207–8
Brumme, Dizi, 207–8
Bulmer, Wanda. See Idlet, Wanda
Burnett, Abram, 61–62, 63–64, 66–67
Burnett, Mary Knoffloch, 62, 67
Burnett’s Mound
description of, 62–63
Hathaway on, 90, 91–93
Legend of Burnett’s Mound, 57, 58–60, 63, 75, 302–4
Meinholdt on, 37, 87, 88, 90, 92
as spotter assignment, 34, 37
water storage tank, 72–74, 105, 303
Bushwhackers, 66
bus storage warehouse, 192
“butterfly effect,” 44
C
Capitol City Pawn Shop, 221–22
Carnegie Hall, Washburn University, 136, 141, 159, 160, 277. See also Fernstrom, John
cascading downdraft, 46
Central Airlines, 273
Central Park Elementary School, 171
Central Park neighborhood, 169–70, 293–94
“Charlie Brown’s All-Stars,” 4
Civil Defense Administration, 80–82
civil rights movement, 4–5, 22
Clay, Francis, 265
Clearwater, Bob, 3, 8
Coffeyville Journal, 281
Coffman, Bobby, 228
Cofran, Marjorie, 163, 164
Coleman-Muñoz, Sue. See Breuninger, Sue
College Hill neighborhood, 169–70
Colpitts, Teri. See Huffman, Teri
Commercial Telegraphers Union Local 22, 5
Coriolis effect, 44
County Fair Estates, 35, 72, 109–10, 124, 125–26
Crane Observatory, Washburn University, 159, 163, 165
Crouch, William R., 261
Culver, John D., 262
Curtis, Charles, 71
Cushinberry, Kathryn, 36
D
Dale, Mrs. Nell, 196–97, 209–11
Dalrymple, Laura, 188, 194, 297
death toll, 255–57, 259–63
Decker, Lois “Dorothy,” 187, 195–96, 209, 263–64, 297–98
Decker, Earl, 187, 209
devastation
aerial view, 255
from Burnett’s Mound to Atwood, 130–31
Byron Street, 176
College Hill and Central Park neighborhoods, 176–80
County Fair Estates, 124, 125–26
east of I-70 and 10th Street, 221
Garden Park, 240–41
Kansas Avenue, 202–3
in Oakland, 233, 235
overview, 256
at Santa Fe rail car shops, 237
at Washburn University, 159–60, 162, 265, 277
at White’s Pony Farm, 100–101, 123
Disaster Research Center, Ohio State University—Columbus, 281–82
dogs
rounding up after the tornado, 244–45
silence of, 216
Douglass, Rick
biographical info, 18–21, 247
caught in tornado, 108–9
recovery, 284–86
as tornado survivor, 121, 123–24, 125, 127, 166–67
and WREN-mobile during tornado, 87–88, 97, 101–3, 108, 125, 167
Dover, Kansas, 38
Drayer, Ralph, 164
DuPont, 4
E
Eagleman, Joe, 278–81
Eib, George, 271
Eiesland, Fred, 194–95
Eland, P. N.
biographical info, 31
sounding the Thunderbolt sirens, 91–92
storm preparations, 23–24, 31–32
thunderstorm warning for west edge of Topeka, 38
Ellis, Lanny, 221–22, 234–35, 276
Elmont, Kansas, 70
Embassy Apartments, 37, 88–89, 116–17, 124, 129–30, 265
Emporia, Kansas, 15
Engelbert, Arthur F., 277
Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF-Scale)
EF-5 in Alabama, 156
EF-5s in Kansas, 48, 78–79, 259, 295
overview, 43, 256
Esquivel, Dolores “Steph,” 225–26, 238–39, 299
Esquivel, Marcia, 197–98, 211–12, 239, 299
Esquivel, Phyllis, 225–26, 238–39, 299
Esquivel, Ramon, Jr., 197–98, 211–12, 239, 299
Esquivel, Ramon, Sr., 197–98, 211–12, 239, 299
Esquivel, Sylvia, 197–98, 211–12, 239, 299
Estes, Jerry, 184–85, 190–91, 205–7, 266–67
Exodusters, 66
F
Fawbush, Ernest J., 52–56
fear mentality, 83–84
Federal Communications Commission, 286
Fernstrom, John
in Carnegie Hall, 138, 145, 147, 150, 161, 251
noticing the skies, 135–36
on post-tornado smell, 162
psychological effects, 293
return to Carnegie Hall, 267
Fernstrom, Ruth, 135
Finley, John Park, 48–50, 51
Fis
her, Gary, 228
Fleenor, Gary, 196
Fleenor, Mary Patricia, 282
floods and flood prediction, 77
Flora, Snowden “Frosty,” 76
Florida, 47
Forbes Air Force Base, 4, 71, 245
French explorers, 58
Fromme, Bob, 286
Fujita, Tetsuya “Ted,” 42–43, 46
Fujita Scale (F-Scale), 42–43, 256. See also Enhanced Fujita Scale
G
Gainesville, Georgia, 52
Galbraith, Patricia and Jim, 175
Garden Park neighborhood, 218, 227, 230
Garrett, Richard Albert
biographical info, 75–77
and Civil Defense Administration, 80–82
and southwest corner safety myth, 279
and tornado preparedness, 78–85, 139, 258–59, 281
U.S. Weather Bureau Exceptional Service Award, 282
gas main leakage, 127–28
gas station construction, 1–2
General Services Administration mobile homes, 272
Georgia, 52
Gilbert, Nadine, 165–67, 247, 256
Gilmore, Wilma, 30, 170
Ginter, Clarence, 222–23, 233–34
Goodall, John, 227, 240
Goodin, Sue, 88–89, 93–94, 112, 129
Goodson, Robert, 198–99, 212–13
Goodson, Roger, 198–99, 212–13
Goodson, Wayne, 198–99, 212–13
Goodyear, 4
Grand Ole Opry marathon fund-raiser, 276
Grauer, Erma Anderson, 6–7
Grauer, Lisle, 5–7, 189–90, 201–2, 295–96
Grauer, Ron, 6, 295–96
Grauer, Sam, 6
Gray, Darius, 221–22
Great Bend, Kansas, 15
Griebat, John, 98–99, 114–16, 132–33
Griebat, Julie, 98–99, 114–16, 132
Griebat, Sherry, 98–99, 114–16, 132
Grimshaw, John, 163–64
Grimshaw, Laurie, 164
Guin, Alabama, 156–57
Guthrie, Cyrus, 216–17
And Hell Followed With It: Life and Death in a Kansas Tornado Page 33