1953 Flint–Beecher tornado

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On Monday, June 8, 1953, a powerful F5 tornado went right across the city of Flint, Michigan and its suburb Beecher. The latter city had 113–114 people dead following the severe tornado.[1] Before the 2011 Joplin tornado in Joplin, Missouri, it was the final tornado that lead to triple-digit death tolls in the United States.[2]

Related tornadoes[change | change source]

Other tornadoes also hit lower Michigan and northern Ohio. The overall outbreak killed 116 or 117 in Michigan alone. Affected states also included Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts.[3]

The overall people who died from June 6 through 9 was 247 (some reports mention higher numbers).[4] The full damage went beyond $340 million (1953 USD; almost $3.3 billion 2021 USD). Michigan's deaths alone were 125. Others were killed across Nebraska, northern Ohio and east-central Massachusetts (mostly around Worcester).[5] The last-said state's tornado was its very most expensive (costing $53 million) before 1979.

References[change | change source]

  1. "The 1953 Beecher tornado". The National Weather Service. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  2. "Tornado Season is Deadliest Since 1953". The Wall Street Journal Newspaper. 24 May 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  3. "Worst Tornado in New England's History". The New England Historical Societies. 9 June 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  4. Flint, MI/Other Towns' Tornadoes. Gen Disasters (Report). Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  5. Massachusetts' Tornadoes of All Time. Mass Live (Report). Retrieved December 12, 2021.