Lubbock Magazine | Lubbock Tornado 50th Anniversary

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LUBBOCK TORNADO 50TH ANNIVERSARY

A-J FILE PHOTOS

A POWERFUL TORNADO RIPPED THROUGH DOWNTOWN LUBBOCK ON MAY 11, 1970.

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TIMELINE OF THE LUBBOCK TORNADO AND AFTERMATH MAY 11, 1970

6:55 p.m. Lubbock radar detects a moderate thunderstorm about 5 miles south of the City of Lubbock.

7:05 p.m. Alan Johnson at the Weather Bureau calls to notify Civil Defense Director Bill Payne of the severe thunderstorm warning that is about to be issued. Payne returns to City Hall and begins calling city officials as mandated by the city’s Defense Plan.

7:45 p.m. Forecasters note the thunderstorm is increasing in intensity and issue a Severe Thunderstorm Warning Bulletin until 9 p.m. for Lubbock, Crosby, eastern Hale and Floyd counties. City officials and KFYO radio personnel, many of whom had been at the fire department’s Cornbread and Bean Supper, begin arriving at the Emergency Operations Center in City Hall and at the KFYO studio across the street.

8:10 p.m. Following reports of golf ball and egg-sized hail, an off-duty policeman reports a funnel cloud (the first tornado) 7 miles south of the airport. Reports of baseball and grapefruit-sized hail continue to come in.

8:30 p.m. The first tornado touches down near Broadway and Quirt Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.).

8:59 p.m. A Tornado Warning Bulletin is issued for persons in Lubbock, western Crosby, southern Floyd, and southern Hale counties until 10 p.m.

9:35 p.m. Second tornado touches down near the intersection of 19th Street and University Ave. The power fails in multiple parts of the city, including at the Lubbock Weather Bureau Office (WBO) at the airport.

9:43 p.m. KFYO Announcer Bud Andrews tells residents to take cover.

10:03 p.m. The second tornado passes over the Lubbock WBO. 10:30 p.m. City officials announce the most devastated areas will be sealed off. (See the map of the Tornado’s Path) 11 p.m. City officials learn the storm knocked out two of the three main power plants and that all power for the city’s water pumping stations is also out.

11:30 p.m. Tornado warnings are officially canceled for all areas as storms decrease to moderate intensity in the Lorenzo area.

MAY 12, 1970

1 a.m. Lubbock Red Cross and Salvation Army workers have opened the Municipal Coliseum as a shelter and supply distribution area.

Cots are brought in from Reese Air Force Base and KFYO announcers make appeals to the public to bring food, baby formula, blankets, and other essentials.

Early morning hours Lubbock City Council members hold emergency sessions, which are broadcast on KFYO. 9:30 a.m. Army personnel and federal and state officials begin arriving in Lubbock. City officials take helicopters to survey the damage.

MAY 13, 1970

President Richard Nixon declares Lubbock a federal disaster area.

MAY 14, 1970

The City Council requests the Office of Emergency Preparedness to arrange a center for federal agencies to coordinate disaster recovery efforts.

MAY 15, 1970

The City Council appoints an 11-member Citizens Advisory Commission to study the impact of the tornado on the city, and to make recommendations to the Council on steps needed to make

Lubbock a “Better Place to Live.” The committee reported back to the Council on May 28.

JULY 10, 1970

The City Council calls a Tornado Recovery bond election for Aug. 8.

AUG. 4, 1970

Lubbock Mayor James H. Granberry receives a letter from President Richard Nixon congratulating the city on the “splendid response of the citizens of your community in the aftermath of the tornado.”

AUG. 8, 1970

Voters approve a $13.6 million bond proposal. A memorial civic center ($7.8 million), central library ($1.2 million), Phase 1 of the Canyon Lakes Project ($2.8 million), and general parks improvements ($1.8 million) were included in the package.

FALL 1970

The Institute for Disaster Research is created at Texas Tech University in response to the tornado. The institute, later renamed the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, conducted extensive studies of tornado data in the years following the May 1970 Lubbock tornado.

FEB. 11, 1971

The City Council sells $7 million in general obligation bonds approved in the April and August 1970 elections, providing initial funding for renewal projects, including $2.26 million for airport expansion. The total bond package also includes bonds for street improvement, drainage, and water and sewer projects.

FEB. 19, 1971

Under the city’s Neighborhood Development Program members of the city council and other city officials break ground for the first house to be built in the Guadalupe neighborhood (at 1020 Second St.) since the May 11 tornado. Mayor Granberry notes that the new home signifies the willingness of the people to build their neighborhood back, and the willingness of the city of Lubbock to help in every way.

MARCH 1971

A Group Alerting System or hotline is installed in the City Emergency Operations Center that can be activated to deliver emergency public information quickly and accurately. This system was developed in response to the loss of communication after the May 1970 tornado.

MARCH 16, 1974

The George and Helen Mahon Library is dedicated at 1306 Ninth St.

MARCH 2-13, 1977

A ribbon cutting, dedicatory banquet, and four days of public tours marked the gala grand opening of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, a living memorial to the 26 tornado victims. Other “Spirit of Lubbock” events included a concert by Waylon Jennings and Jesse Colter, Henry Mancini directing the Lubbock Symphony, and the “Holiday on Ice Show.”

A memorial service for the 1970 tornado victims is led by area pastors.

(Timeline compiled from City of Lubbock and Avalanche-Journal archives.)

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PHOTO COURTESY OF TEXAS TECH

TEXAS TECH’S MEHTA REFLECTS ON LUBBOCK TORNADO, OPPORTUNITY THAT CAME WITH IT

DR. MEHTA

By Max Hengst, A-J Media

A

s Lubbock approaches the 50th anniversary of the tornado outbreak that claimed the lives of 26 people, Professor Kishor Mehta reflects on how the disaster changed the trajectory of his own life.

Mehta, a Horn Professor in Texas Tech’s Department of Civil, Environmental, & Construction Engineering, had only been in Lubbock a few years before the May 11, 1970 tornadoes.

After earning his doctorate at the University of Texas, Mehta came to Texas Tech to pursue educational opportunities at the emerging university.

Tech started a new graduate program for civil engineering in 1964. After hearing about the opportunity from an adviser, he applied for a faculty position because of the freedom he would have with the new program.

But only a couple of years into his new position, the tornado outbreak struck Lubbock.

One of the two tornadoes would later be classified as an F5, the highest rating on what would later become the Fujita scale. With winds estimated to have reached more than 261 mph, the tornado destroyed a portion of downtown Lubbock and surrounding neighborhoods, killing 26 people.

Looking back on the disaster, Mehta said the tornado came around the time of spring finals at Texas Tech and it felt like an otherwise normal day.

While grading papers from home, he remembered hearing a gust of wind that made his television flicker, followed by reporters breaking the news about the tornado.

With the power going out shortly after, Mehta said no one knew how much damage was done as the technology was not as 30

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advanced as it is today.

“At that time, the impact of tornadoes was not completely understood,” Mehta said. “All of us thought tornadoes were very bad and they thought all tornadoes were really bad.

This particular one was one of the strongest that we have seen, now that we have seen tornadoes over the last 50 years.”

In an attempt to learn more about the destruction of the tornado, Mehta joined Dr. Joe Minor, Dr. Jim McDonald and several other faculty members who were compelled to investigate the scene to learn more about the destruction.

As the area was closed off, Mehta and his group were granted permission to study the destruction a few days after the disaster.

“We did not know what kind of opportunity we had,” Mehta said.

Once given the OK to study the destruction, Mehta and the team he was working with took photographs and recorded notes regarding the types of building affected, the direction they collapsed and how the building collapsed.

With a curfew established, Mehta was able to investigate the damage without it being moved or cleaned for about two to three months.

He then continued to study the impact of the tornado for a year and a half, with the group putting together a report with their findings.

“We did not know that the report would make such an impact,” Mehta said.

As the National Science Foundation paid for the report, after it was published, Mehta said people around the nation started to realize that Mehta and his team knew more about the damage tornadoes cause than anybody else in the country because nobody else had investigated such a severe

outbreak before.

After the report, Mehta’s research has helped researchers and scientists know more about tornadoes, leading to advancements to keep people safe.

He worked to bust myths of opening windows and staying in the southwest corner of a building during a tornado, and helped to create the criteria for above-ground tornado shelters that could also be used such as a closet or bathroom.

The people he worked with also helped figure out how much debris a double-pane window and windows with a film between could resist, preventing internal damage.

In more recent years, Tech’s wind researchers have been better known for inresidence shelters or safe rooms, which are small interior rooms that are generally above ground and withstand wind damage and flying debris from even the worst tornadoes, according to a previous Avalanche-Journal story from May 2012, about the tornado’s impact on Tech research.

In 1998, FEMA published a booklet on the safe rooms based on Tech research, and just last month, an agency standard was created for manufacturers of in-residence shelters.

Research has also branched into window glass.

Flying shards often pose great danger, especially in high-rise buildings. The center also has studied the cost effectiveness of repairing wind damage versus sturdier, but more expensive, construction.

For current Tech students, Mehta’s research has led to the addition of being able to earn a bachelor’s degree in wind energy and a Ph.D. in wind science and engineering. The Ph.D. program was the first-ever, influencing other universities internationally.

A DESTROYED CAR SITS AFTER A POWERFUL TORNADO RIPPED THROUGH DOWNTOWN LUBBOCK ON MAY 11, 1970.

TORNADO MYTHS AND FACTS

Myth: Tornadoes occur during the spring and early summer.

Fact: Tornadoes can occur at any time, but they are more common during the spring and early summer.

Myth: Tornadoes occur during the afternoon and evening hours.

Fact: Tornadoes can occur at any time, but they are more common during the afternoon and evening hours.

Myth: Areas near rivers, lakes and mountains are safe from tornadoes.

Fact: No place is safe from tornadoes.

Myth: Open windows before a tornado approaches to equalize pressure and minimize damage.

Fact: Opening windows allows damaging winds to enter the structure.

Leave the windows alone, and immediately go to a safe place.

Myth: The safest place in a structure is a southwest room.

Fact: The safest place in a structure is an interior bathroom, closet or hallway.

Source: National Weather Service

A-J FILE PHOTO

Myth: Tornadoes always move from the southwest to the northeast.

Fact: While most tornadoes generally follow a southwest to northeast direction, they can move in any direction and can change direction while forming, moving or dissipating.

Myth: The low pressure with a tornado causes buildings to explode as the twister passes overhead.

Fact: Violent winds and debris slamming into buildings cause structural damage.

A RENDERING OF THE TORNADO THAT STRUCK LUBBOCK IN 1970. NOTE THE SMALLER VORTEXS IN THE LARGER TORNADO.

COURTESY OF RICHARD PETERSON

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CAPROCK CHRONICLES

A-J FILE PHOTO

F5 tornado takes Lubbock by surprise

By Paul Carlson For A-J Media

A POWERFUL TORNADO RIPPED THROUGH DOWNTOWN LUBBOCK ON MAY 11, 1970, KILLING 26 AND DEVASTATING THE DOWNTOWN AREA.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: “Caprock Chronicles” is a weekly series of short articles and essays that examine the life, people, events and historical places of our region’s past.

Paul Carlson, professor emeritus of history at Texas Tech University, writes or edits each contribution in the series. This article originally appeared in the AvalancheJournal on May 8, 2016.]

and shattered businesses along the highway.

Many airplanes and small hangars near the airport – West Texas Air Terminal – turned into twisted piles of their former self.

Personal injuries and loss of life were high.

Twenty-six people died in the tornado, or tornadoes, and nearly 1,800 people – 255 of them seriously – suffered wounds of various kinds. The hospitals filled with scores of injured folks.

Property loss was likewise huge. The storm damaged some 10,000 homes, completely destroying 1,100 of them, many in the Guadalupe neighborhood – predominantly made up of Mexican-American citizens.

Across the tornado’s curling path perhaps 1,800 people became homeless.

Mike Cox estimated property damage totaled $840 million, making the big storm one of the costliest tornadoes in America at that time. Ten thousand automobiles sustained damage, and about 500 businesses suffered wreckage, with some, such as the Fields & Co. showroom on Fourth Street, obliterated.

The tornado was massively disruptive – lives lost, homes destroyed, businesses closed and jobs gone. Household goods and personal possessions disappeared.

The storm scattered such small pets as cats, dogs and birds. It cut utilities, including water supplies, and it created havoc with traffic flow and communication systems. In those days before cellphones, 25,000 telephones lost service.

It toppled power lines and spread debris across streets, including main thoroughfares.

Some underpasses filled with water, blocking access to portions of the city.

Damage to buildings, apartment houses, homes and storage facilities was widespread.

Destruction extended along Fourth Street from Indiana Avenue eastward nearly to Mackenzie Park.

Downtown, such structures as the stately

T

he huge tornado that brought Lubbock temporarily to its knees struck the city about 9:46 p.m. on May 11, 1970. An F5-category storm, it was a powerful, swirling tempest with high winds, hail and heavy rainfall.

The massive storm caught Lubbock and its citizens by surprise. The day had been warm and humid, and there was little indication of a major weather event.

But, early that Monday evening, winds picked up, clouds moved in, and a bit of rain fell. About dusk, some accounts note, a spinning, high wind struck near 66th Street and University Avenue, leaving, before it dissipated, plenty of property damage.

There may have been one or two other twisters involved. But a bit later, most reports suggest, a powerful, churning tornado with very high winds, hail and heavy rainfall dropped out of the dark, night sky near 19th Street and University.

The giant storm cut a wide swath. As it circled its way through the heart of the city with winds that may have reached well over 200 miles per hour, it moved toward and into the downtown area.

Then, suddenly, it turned to the north to smash with massive destructiveness through the neighborhood north of 13th Street and the Guadalupe community beyond Fourth Street.

If, in fact, it was a single tornado, it continued toward the north along the Amarillo highway (U.S. 87, now I-27), and, before dissipating shortly after 10 p.m., leveled homes in the Country Club addition 32

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Great Plains Life tower (present Metro Tower), the old Pioneer Hotel, and the beautiful First National Bank-Pioneer Gas Building sustained heavy physical losses.

Lubbock officials immediately went to work. Mayor James Granberry announced a state of emergency and as early as 10 p.m. called upon the people of Lubbock to provide assistance for those in need of help.

William Payne, who headed the Emergency Operations Plan, set up a control center in the basement of City Hall. Relief centers opened. KFYO, the emergency radio station, broadcasted instructions, and police and National Guard troops patrolled the hardest-hit areas.

Within days, City Manager Bill Blackwell and other officials sought state and federal relief funds for projects of all kinds. In August, city voters passed a $13.6-million disaster recovery bond package.

Over time, the area along and east of Avenue Q between Fourth Street and Broadway became an urban renewal project.

With bond money and federal and state funding, city leaders turned the former residential area into an entertainment, convention and business center. Motels opened along Avenue Q, and the Memorial Civic Center went up.

Nearby, the city built the George and Helen Mahon Library. Texas Tech University, led by retired professor of history William Curry Holden, used debris from the destroyed homes and businesses near downtown to build a series of berms at its outdoor museum – what became the National Ranching Heritage Center. In some ways the 1970 tornado represents a turning point for Lubbock.

The influx of federal and state money, the revitalization of the area just north and east of downtown, and the dispersal of minority citizens throughout the city represent important and permanent transformations.

1970 TORNADO VICTIMS

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he 1970 Lubbock Tornado claimed the lives of 26 people. Men, women and children, ranging in age from 9 months to 88 years, perished in their homes and vehicles during their desperate attempts to seek shelter from the raging storm. Like the rest of the devastation caused by the tornado, the total cost in human life was not fully realized until the days after the twister passed through Lubbock on the night of May 11, 1970..

ENTRANCE TO THE CIVIC CENTER, SEVENTH STREET AND AVENUE Q

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SANDY FORTENBERRY

MONUMENT AT BROADWAY AND AVENUE Q

Jose Aguilar Aguilar, age 75, died May 11. He was found in the driveway of his son’s home at 221 N. Avenue M, which was destroyed by the tornado.

Helen Machado Alafa Alafa, age 30, was struck by flying debris while trying to find shelter on Fourth Street. She died May 21 at West Texas Hospital.

Johnnye Hobbs Butts Butts, 56, died May 11 in her home at 1902 10th St., which was destroyed by the tornado.

Frank Moreno Canales, Jr. Canales, 33, a truck driver from Uvalde, Texas, died May 11 with companion Thomas Andrew Cook in their destroyed truck near Loop 289 and U.S. 87.

Thomas Andrew Cook Cook, 29, a truck driver from Uvalde, Texas, died May 11 with companion Frank Moreno Canales, Jr. in their destroyed truck near Loop 289 and U.S. 87.

John Stephen Cox Cox, 26 and a Vietnam veteran, was injured after he and his wife took refuge outside their car on Clovis Highway near Avenue Q. He died at Methodist Hospital soon after the tornado.

Joseph Glenn Garrett Garrett, 29, was badly injured when the tornado destroyed his family’s home at 1102 Marlboro St. He died May 16 at Methodist Hospital.

Shelbey Curtis Glenn Glenn, 52, of Idalou, Texas, died at Methodist Hospital soon after the tornado.

Otilia Gonzales Gonzales, 46, died May 11 in her home at 201 N. Avenue L, which was destroyed by the tornado.

Dora Bertie Graves Graves, 49, died May 11 when she and her husband, H. J., were thrown from their car on Loop 289 near U.S. 87.

Ola Belle Hatch Hatch, 77, was found in her destroyed home at 2101 Cypress Road. She died May 13 at Reese Air Force Base Hospital.

Ruth Knight Knight, 63, died May 11 in her home at 2201 Mesa Road, which was destroyed by the tornado.

Jose Luz Leyva Leyva, 13, was the son of a migrant farm worker traveling to Nebraska. The powerful storm pulled the boy and his father from a car parked at the intersection of Erskine and U.S. 87. He sustained

serious injuries from flying debris and died May 16 at Methodist Hospital.

Pedro Lopez Lopez, 56, died May 11. He was found at the corner of First Street and Avenue M. Salvadore Jack Lopez Lopez, 57, died May 11 in his home at 208 N. Avenue L, which was destroyed by the tornado.

Dale McClintock McClintock, 39, died May 11 near a storm cellar at 2121 Cypress Road. He died trying to open the cellar door for his family.

Alan Raye Medlin Medlin, 3, died May 11 with his parents in their home at 2301 Mesa Road.

Dustin Lance Medlin Medlin, 9 months, was found wrapped in a blanket at his destroyed home at 2301 Mesa Road.

He died May 12 at Methodist Hospital.

Kenneth Raye Medlin Medlin, 23, died May 11 in his home at 2301 Mesa Road, which was destroyed by the tornado.

Mary June Medlin Medlin, 22, died May 11 in her home at 2301 Mesa Road, which was destroyed by the tornado.

Angela Marie Mora Mora, 9, was found with her mother and sisters in their destroyed home at 1311 Jarvis St. She died May 19 at Methodist Hospital.

Estefana Guajardo Paez Paez was trying to make her way to shelter when she was crushed by a falling truck near a home at 201 N. Avenue O. Frances Rogers Rogers, 88, and her daughter, Cassie, were thrown from her home at 2105 Cypress Road.

She was found wrapped in a piece of tin near the destroyed house. Her daughter recovered but the elderly Rogers died May 20 at Methodist Hospital.

Aurora J. Salazar Salazar, 68, took shelter with another family in a home at 108 N. Avenue L. She was struck by flying debris inside the home and died May 12 at Methodist Hospital.

Lillie Amanda Short Short, 72, died May 11 when she was struck by debris from her home at 512 E. Stanford.

Pauline Zarazua Zarazua, 39, died May 11 on Loop 289 near U.S. 87 while driving home from work.

Source: City of Lubbock SPECIAL SECTION

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