Event Summary
The Waco Tornado struck at 4:36 p.m. The tornado, over two blocks wide, hit the downtown area. Many people on the streets crowded into local businesses for shelter. However, few of the buildings were constructed sturdily enough to withstand the winds, and they collapsed almost immediately. The best-known example was the six-story R.T. Dennis furniture store, which crumbled to the ground and killed 30 people inside. Newer buildings with steel reinforcement, including the 22-story Amicable office building (now called the ALICO Building) just across the street, weathered the storm.
| State | Total | County | County total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | 8 | Fillmore | 1 |
| Freeborn | 6 | ||
| Olmsted | 1 | ||
| Nebraska | 5 | Thayer | 5 |
| Texas | 127 | McLennan | 114 |
| Tom Green | 13 | ||
| Wisconsin | 4 | Burnett | 1 |
| Polk | 2 | ||
| St. Croix | 1 | ||
| Totals | 144 | ||
Read more about this topic: 1953 Waco Tornado Outbreak
Famous quotes containing the words event and/or summary:
“There is nothing that I shudder at more than the idea of a separation of the Union. Should such an event ever happen, which I fervently pray God to avert, from that date I view our liberty gone.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Product of a myriad various minds and contending tongues, compact of obscure and minute association, a language has its own abundant and often recondite laws, in the habitual and summary recognition of which scholarship consists.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)