A Sense of Doubt blog post #4245 - Letter to Dad #55 - Kalamazoo Tornado of 1980

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4245 - Letter to Dad #55 - Kalamazoo Tornado of 1980

Hi Big Guy,

I have been sitting on this topic for a while and trying to decide when would be best to publish it.

Right now, things in my life seem like severe weather, so this post is a metaphor for that tumult.

Though I am being a little melodramatic. There's no devastating path of destruction.

In fact, some things are going well. 

I managed a good day of self care on Sunday and plan to have another this Sunday. It's a set goal for me in this time of my practicum.

I worked with several people to solve a problem at my site that started last week, a week ago today.

Fence staining starts next week.

I wish you were here to do that with me. You liked doing that stuff together. I miss those projects. Though I am not doing this project. I hired someone with more expertise than I have.

As for the rest of this post, it's all captured content and images about the 1980 Kalamazoo Tornado that ripped through downtown Kalamazoo while I was stuck at home with mono.

I would have been at the civic theatre had I not been ill.

Many of my friends were there, and one foolish but heroic friend ran out of the building to warn people in Bronson Park to seek shelter and was thrown into an alcove on the side of the building as he attempted to return and the tornado literally passed on the street right next to him.

Crazy.

The city awarded him a medal of heroism.

More next week Dad, but about something else. :-)

Love you!

~ christopher


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Kalamazoo_tornado

https://www.1980kalamazootornado.org/

Path of Destruction
Afternoon of Tuesday, May 13, 1980

1:30 | Tornado watch issued in Southwest Michigan
2:30 | Funnel cloud spotted in Van Buren County
2:35 | Reports of funnel cloud spotted near Bangor, Van Buren County
3:48 | Tornado damage reported 14 miles west of Kalamazoo near Glendale, Van Buren County
4:00 | Tornado warning issued and sirens sound for city of Kalamazoo and surrounding areas
4:09 | Tornado enters western part of city and township limits, moving eastward
4:09-4:12 | Tornado strikes neighborhoods near the edge of Kalamazoo Township and City lines, skips and slams through Mountain Home Cemetery – Mari Gilman is killed at the Norge Laundry and Dry Cleaning on West Main St.
4:13-4:19 | Tornado lands in downtown Kalamazoo – three people are killed; Francis Hardy while traveling down Rose St. near Bronson Park, and Christina Wellington and Lucia McFall on Farmer’s Alley behind the Gilmore Department Store.
4:20-4:24 | Tornado crosses Pitcher St. traveling towards Comstock Township, damaging several industrial plants – Raymond Moyer is killed on Wynn Rd. in Comstock Township.
4:25 | Tornado dissipates between King Hwy and Comstock Ave., in central Kalamazoo County, just northwest of the village of Comstock

Looking north on Rose St. from the South St. intersection., the Young Women’s Christian Association (now Greenleaf Trust) and Industrial State Bank (now Comerica) buildings are visible on right. The skywalk connecting a parking garage and the Kalamazoo Center Hilton Inn (now Raddison Plaza Hotel) is also visible. (KVM 80.752)

Tracing the Path:

The 1980 Kalamazoo Tornado

Forty years ago on May 13, 1980 a tornado bore down on Kalamazoo. In just 16 short minutes, the tornado left an 11-mile path of destruction, killing 5 people, seriously injuring 79, and causing over $50 million in damage.

The tornado touched down at 4:09 p.m. near the western edge of the city limits, striking the neighborhoods along the West Main corridor. After tearing through Mountain Home Cemetery, the twister leapt to the bottom of West Main Hill, plowing into the St. Augustine Cathedral. In Bronson Park, over two dozen trees that had stood for over 150 years were uprooted or damaged.

Kalamazoo’s pedestrian mall and its surrounding buildings were next along the path of destruction. The six-story Gilmore Department Store building suffered extensive roof damage, and its east wall collapsed outward, piling massive amounts of rubble into Farmer’s Alley below. The tornado damaged several additional structures as it traveled towards Comstock Township, dissipating at 4:25 p.m. just northwest of downtown.

As we look back on the Kalamazoo tornado, the resilience of the city and the positivity of its inhabitants were paramount in the aftermath of disaster. “I Survived the Kalamazoo Tornado—Let’s Rebuild!” t-shirts were produced and words of encouragement were hand painted on wooden boards exclaiming, “It’ll Take More Than a Wind to do Kalamazoo In” and “Yes, there STILL is a Kalamazoo!”

 

Devastation at a Glance

5 people killed

79 people seriously injured

F3 rating on the Fujita scale, which classifies tornadoes from F1 to F5 – an F3 is a severe tornado with winds of 158-206 mph.

$50 million in estimated damages

$1.8 million in estimated automobile damages

31 Kalamazoo homes and businesses demolished

173 Kalamazoo homes and businesses with moderate-to-severe damage

1,200 Kalamazoo residents left temporarily displaced from their homes and workplaces

16 minutes for the tornado to cut a path across Kalamazoo after it touched down at 4:09 p.m. north of West Main St. and Drake Rd.

328 students at St. Augustine Elementary School who were sent home early, a mere hour before their school was destroyed

4 windows out of 112 left intact in the Industrial State Bank building – located at 151 S. Rose St., the site is currently the Comerica building.

2 number of days it took for essential services to be restored in the Kalamazoo area

F3 on the Fjuita Scale

In June 1980, Dr. Tetsuya Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago visited Kalamazoo to survey the damage left by the tornado. Dr. Fujita, in collaboration with Allen Pearson, head of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, released a scale in 1971 to measure the intensity and severity of tornadoes called the Fujita Scale. While in Kalamazoo, Dr. Fujita confirmed a rating of F3, based on counterclockwise wind speeds reaching upwards of 150 – 175 miles per hour.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2610.01 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 4109 days ago & DAD = 763 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.