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Archiver > KSCOWLEY > 1999-10 > 0940698926


From: "Allen Coleman" <>
Subject: Re: [KSCOWLEY] 1955 Tornado
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 10:15:26 -0700


My wife was almost seven when this tornado hit her hometown of
Blackwell, OK earlier on the same evening (May 25, 1955) and
killed 20 persons there. Most scholars believe that this same
tornado continued NNW to Udall, KS, intensified into an F5
tornado and hit Udall late at night, killing 83 people and
injuring 270. According to some reports the Kansas media had
called off an earlier tornado watch 1.5 hours prior to the
disaster. Prior to 1955, the federal government did not allow
tornado watches because of a belief that the warnings would cause
panic.

Photos of the Udall tornado damage can be seen at the following
URL:

http://www.mattdennis.com/skywarn/tordamagepics.html

There is also a website for the Udall, KS Museum which is
dominated by the tornado, of course, at the following URL:

http://www.mattdennis.com/skywarn/udall2.htm

What is particularly interesting to my wife's family, Rogers, is
the fact that her immediate family had a close call when the
tornado hit Blackwell, OK AND her ancestoral families of Rogers,
Savage and Hittle had a close call when the same tornado hit
Udall, KS. (These ancestors are buried in the Akron Cemetery
which is very close to Udall, KS.)

Allen Coleman
Vista, CA


----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 4:17 PM
Subject: [KSCOWLEY] 1955 Tornado


Two distant relatives, Henry F. Storey and Sadie Sarah
(Seaman) Storey,
were killed in the May 25, 1955, tornado that devastated Udall.
By any
chance, would any of you on the list have any information on that
tornado....clippings, memory, etc?
Many thanks, Ray Downing in Las Vegas, NV (no tornados here,
just
earthquakes).


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