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You might ask Esther Jordan, Leroy Jordan's mom. I know she went to the hospital to be with Olga that night. She might have the information you want
I have the book "Kansas Storms 1991" and could maybe scan the pages of the Elk County storm. I think newspaper clippings would be better information. If nobody can come up with clippings, I will try to figure out a way to scan the book.
I have them, tucked away somewhere. It was a huge article in the paper. However; I really don't know where they are. Sorry.
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I wouldn't call this the "Good Old Days" but I don't know of another board that would be appropriate for this occasion.
Independence Reporter
April 27, 1991
HOWARD-- A 78-year old rural Howard woman was killed Friday night when a tornado demolished her trailer home about nine miles northwest of Howard, officials said. Two other persons, including the victim's husband, were seriously injured.
The tornado which cut a half-mile swath through Elk County destroyed three homes, including an entire farmstead, and caused between $300, 000 and $400,000 in damage, based on estimates provided by officials and family members.
The body of Lucille Jacobs was discovered lodged in a tree row about 150 yards from her home, the last house destroyed by the storm, neighbors said.
Her husband, Richard jacobs, 77, and Olga Jenkins, 89, were seriously injured in the storm, the Elk County Sheriff;s officers said. Both were transported by Elk County ambulance to Greenwood County Hospital, and later transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. Jenkins was reported to be in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The storm also ripped through Copan, Okla., killing one woman, injuring several others and destroying two businesses.
Cars in Copan were rolled up like little balls said Bartlesville shift Fire Chief Larry Topping.
Nada Packard, Copan, was killed and 10 other people, including two Caney residents, were injured.
Bill Mingle, a spokesman for Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, Okla., said Robert Ward, 70, Copan, Okla., was in critical conidition when transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, and Gene Norman, 41, of Oologah, Okla., was also transferred to St Francis in critical condition.
Residents of Cany who were injured were Karen Rollins, 47, and Kendra Rawlins, 28. Both were in fair condition, Mingle said Saturday.
Other storm victims taken to Jane Phillips were Shirley Snyder, 52, crictical condition, Rhonda Livingston, 22, critical condition; John Livingston, 23, fair condition; Ann Ward, 65, fair condition, John Watt, 25, treated and released; and Shelby Rawlins, 5, who was treated and released. All are residents of Copan, Mingle said.
Except for a few downed trees, minor flooding and flickering power outages, most residents in Montgomery, Wilson, and Chautauqua counties escaped unharmed as tornado and storm warnings were issued throughout the night.
The tornado which touched down near Howard wreaked havoc on the countryside, overturning cars, pulverizing farm machinery, and ripping apart buildings.
We saw it forming. It was just growing, clouds were going, and it just started whipping around, said Dorothy Preston, who lives a mile east of the Jenkins' residence.
Preston said Jenkins was standing on her back porch trying to decide whether to seek shelter in her celllar, when it became very quiet and she decided the storm was over. Then the tornado struck.
"It blew her about 40 feet to the front porch," Preston said. pointing to the area when she and her husband found Jenkins lying near an ironing board, partially pinned by debris.
Aline McKenzie, or rural Howard, who sought shelter in her basement, never saw the funnel cloud but when she opened the basement door, she found her house had been lifted off its foundation and blown about 20 to 30 feet in a northeast direction.
"It's just completely gone," she said Saturday as she and her husband surveyed the destruction, which destroyed two barns and several feeders.
Her husband, Bill McKenzie, was at work at Boeing Aircraft when the storm hit and she was alone.
"It was scary for a few seconds and then shooosh," she said the howling wind was gone.
She said she and her husband had insurance to help cover their losses and they planned to either stay in a motel or in a rented camper on the property while they clean up and make repairs, which may take several weeks.
The tornado struck their home at about 8:30 p.m. and then passed over the Jenkins residence about two miles northeast of the McKenzie farm, an Elk county sheriff's spokesman said.
The tornado then went back into the clouds and came down again on the Jacobs' farmstead, wiping out the entire operation.
Betty Brink, or rural Howard, said the Jacobses had returned from the Howard Senior Citizens Center and were home only about 10 minutes when the tornado struck.
Jacobs reportedly was on the back porch, watching the storm when the wind uprooted a wash sink and knocked him free of the trailer home, officials said.
His wife was sitting in a chair in the southeast corner of the home when the tornado struck, Brink said.
Although the sheriff's department could not speculate on the force of the winds, the tornado was powerful enough to hurl the Jacobs' van more than 100 yards into a hedge row, leaving it a piece of mangled metal.
Farm machinery, an old trailer home and a small house wre also destroyed. Family members estimated damage to the farmstead at about $200,000.
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You know, I was sheriff when Mrs. Jacobs died and after reading that article from the Independence Reporter, I saw a few discripencies. Mrs. Jacobs was not lodged in a tree row. She was found northwest of where the trailer house used to be in the mud, but not in a tree row. Mr. Jacobs was standing at the door watching the storm and however he was thrown, he ended up in the basement that was under the trailer. That's what saved his life.
Ogla Jenkins told me that she went to a closet under the stairs when she saw the tornado. She didn't have much time. She had fishing line wrapped all around her and she said the fishing poles were in that closet.
That was such a horrible evening. When a tornado goes through an area, the tornado changes the atmospheric conditions and we did not have radio communication. The dispatcher could here us, but we could not hear them. We called for ambulances and never knew that ambulances were coming until they showed up. It was frightening.
After we got Ogla loaded up and headed for Eureka, I was able to get to the Jacobs place. By the time I got out, Richard was loaded into the ambulance. I opened the door and Richard was covered, completely covered, with mud. All I could see was his eyes and his appearance reminded me of the coal miners after they come out of a coal mine.
That tornado is something I will never forget.
Would you like for me to scan what I have in the book "Kansas Storms, 1991" and have Janet post it for you. You could even borrow the book if you want.
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Since the newspapers and other printed materials seem to have many descrepancies, I am wondering if I should discontinue posting articles and other data from those sources. What do ya'll think?
I do know that when my brother died several years ago, from a hunting related accident, the Winfield Courier gave the slant that it was a suicide.
When something is posted like this, it gives the people that witnessed it a chance to tell the truth about it, where they wouldn't try to tell the newspeople that they got it wrong. I like having it posted, then others adding their comments. We always learn more than what the news media has told us.
My vote is for you to continue posting, no matter what the source. If someone knows differently, they can tell us.
I am learning a lot that I didn't already know.
Lois,
Keep on posting thing. I had not seen that story. Glad to read it. Thanks Janet for your input also.
Henry
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Lois,
You have to keep on posting. A reader must remember that the reporter takes the story as it is told to him/her then writes a story to make the papers. There will always be discripencies in the stories since they are written by different people and the writers always talk to different witnesses. What I wrote was from my memory as I remember what happened that night and what I saw. People working beside me and with me probably saw something different. A reader should also remember that reporters do not always talk to eye witnesses. They talk to someone who heard it from someone else who heard it from someone else.
The part about Olga Jenkins is different from what Dorothy Preston said in that article and what I remember Jenkins told me because we all remember things different. But then I don't have to tell you that, do I?
I love having the different reports. This just give me more things to think about and more for my book about sheriff's of Elk County if I ever get a chance to write it.
Thanx to all for your valued opinioins/thoughts. I think I shall just have to be more cautious about what I post.
Lois, you shouldn't let the mistakes of others influence your decision as to what you should post. If you think someone might be interested, post it. We are not questioning whether you are right or wrong, we are just pointing out the mistakes of the ones who were reporting and should have been sticking to the facts. After all, they supposedly were there. If they didn't get the true story or if they changed it to make it more interesting, then shame on them. I enjoy reading the stories and some of the old ones are rather hard to believe. But since no one alive was there, we will accept it, maybe.
Keep up the good work. If you don't do it, who will?
Here's a story on another deadly tornado that occured in 1892. It actually started in Chautauqua County, and the man killed, Arthur Larkin, was from there, not far from the Elk County line. It finally lifted just east of Moline and did considerable damage all the way from Boston to Moline.
from THE MOLINE REPUBLICAN, Friday, May 6, 1892
WRATHY WINDS
A Destructive Cyclone Visits Moline and Vicinity
This community was visited by the deadly cyclone Monday evening. One man was killed and a number of barns were blown to atoms. Quite a number of cattle, horses and hogs were killed. The cyclone first struck in the Belknap neighborhood six miles south of Moline, and spent its fury a short distance northeast of the town. The person to first experience the terrors of the destructive whirl from the clouds was C. A. Dutton. He had been to Moline and was returning home. When within a mile of his farm his attention was attracted to an angry looking cloud forming above him. It formed quickly and suddenly swung in a long wavering column to the earth, the point striking so near to Mr. Dutton that a buggy hitched to the hind part of his wagon was torn away and reduced to kindling in the clouds. The first home struck was that of S. S. Lane on Baker's Branch. Mrs. Lane and two daughters were in the building at the time. The first they realized they were blown several hundred yards and the home and all the household effects had disappeared. These three persons miraculously escaped without serious bodily injury.
The next building struck was Chas. Pierce's new residence which was swept entirely away. The family took refuge in a storm cave. C. W. Dubendorff's residence was next to the pathway of the destroying winds and it was carried into the clouds and scattered over the country for miles in the course of the storm. An orchard of large apple trees was blown out of existence. A half mile from Mr. Dubendorff's residence was that of Mr. Arthur Larkin. He and Mrs. Larkin saw the approaching storm and sought to run out of its way but failing in this they locked arms and fell flat to the ground in a shallow ditch. Mrs. L. was blown three hundred yards and very badly injured. The mangled and lifeless body of her husband was found half a mile away where it had been dropped by the angry winds. The house and barn were entirely destroyed.
The whirling column of destroying wind passed on across the corner of Mr. F. Webb's pasture, killing and crippling several head of cattle and rolling wire fences into great bundles till it reached the residence of Mrs. McBride, which was scattered like feathers. Mrs. McBride and her son took refuge in a shallow well and escaped without injury. Mr. B. A. Murphy's barn was the next in line and it was carried away, as was also Mr. Fessenden's barn. Mrs. McBride lost ten hogs, two horses and one mule.
Then the larger and stronger built barn owned by the Ellsworth Bros. was caught up by the extraordinary force of the winds and dropped down nearly a total wreck. A number of hogs were killed here but the horses in the barn basement escaped. A small house in the east part of town was torn to pieces and a number of large apple trees were blown out of the fine orchard owned by W. O. Miller. After passing Mr. Miller's orchard the cloud seemd to rise and disappear. So far as we can learn none of the property destroyed was covered by tornado insurance and will be a total loss to the owners. The funeral of the unfortunate man killed occured Tuesday afternoon and the remains were interred in the Catholic cemetery.
I found this article that Dan posted to be very interesting. It has made me wonder about other tornadoes that may have occurred in Elk County, since it's origin. I looked on the internet, but all I could find were the tornadoes that struck between 1950-1995.
Here are the following tornadoes:
On April 2, 1956 (F-4) 1 death
May 16, 1957 (F-1)
November 17, 1958 (F-1)
June 18, 1959 (F-2)
April 16, 1960 (F-1)
November 27, 1960 (F-2)
June 3, 1965 (F-2)
April 19, 1968 (F-1)
June 8, 1974 (F-0)
October 8, 1982 (F-1)
April 26, 1984 (F-1)
April 26, 1991 (F-3) 1 death
Unfortunately, the data did not tell whereabouts in Elk County where these occurred. I think it would be interesting to check the stories out on these, and others that aren't listed.
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A couple of the tornadoes in the 60's happened South of Howard. I don't remember when they occured, but one Saturday night our house I believe was jumped by one. The sound was just like when Guy Denton used to buzz our place (noise and windows shaking). It never occured to us to ask what Guy would have been doing flying that close to the ground on such a stormy night.
Another one followed the Elk River and did some damage at Dave Majors place, and then continued over to where JC Wiseman was living on the lake road. I remember that it took the West and North sides and part of the roof off their house, and if I remember correctly it did not wake anyone up. Can't remember any other damage, but I am sure there was some.
One that I am sure did not make any lists happened one evening when Mom and I were headed for the dairy barn. I remember that the wind got strong and blew so much dust that we had to hold onto the barbed wire fence and shut our eyes. When it was over we went and milked some fairly spooky cows. Brother Scott was working ground out at the Boston place (5 miles East on the Busby road) and when he came in he talked about seeing a tornado that looked like it jumped Howard. I don't think I ever heard of any damage from that one, so it must have gone back into the clouds.