1966 Topeka Tornado - Topeka, Kansas Tornado

Topeka, Kansas Tornado

On June 8, 1966, Topeka, Kansas was struck by an F5 rated tornado. It started on the southwest side of town, moving northeast, passing over a local landmark named Burnett's Mound. According to a local Native American legend, this mound was thought to protect the city from tornadoes. It went on to rip through the city, hitting the downtown area and Washburn University. Total dollar cost was put at $100 million (US$ 716 million in 2012) making it one of the costliest tornadoes in history.

During the early evening of June 8 at 6:37PM CDT, a tornado was reported in the college town of Manhattan, west-northwest of the city. As the tornado that would slash though Topeka began developing eighteen minutes later at 6:55PM, eight miles west of town, the National Weather Service could not detect the developing tornado on radar as the Topeka forecast office used a modified military radar that was donated by the government following World War II. While it was considered state-of-the-art for its time, it had a limited ability to detect tornadic activity, compared to the Doppler weather radar of the present day.

Around 7:30PM CDT, a 1/4 to 1/2-mile (400–800 m) wide tornado tracked into the southwest side of town, moving northeast, and passed over Burnett's Mound. On the Washburn University campus, many students in the Carnegie Hall building were taking a test and disregarded the blaring storm sirens, until they heard the roar of the tornado when they decided to take shelter. Washburn suffered extensive damage to numerous buildings and one church. Bill Kurtis, then a reporter for WIBW-TV (channel 13; then a hybrid CBS/ABC/NBC affiliate, now only affiliated with CBS) wanted to urge people to take shelter from the devastating storm and advised viewers to "for God's sake, take cover."

The tornado first struck residential areas, cleanly sweeping away entire blocks worth of homes. It went on to rip through the central part of the city, hitting the downtown area. Buses were crushed as the transportation barn was collapsed by the tornado and the trains on the Santa Fe Railway were overturned. Many workers at the AT&T building downtown took shelter after a co-worker notified people of the approaching tornado, which they couldn't hear through the soundproof operating room. The building was narrowly hit, but only light damage occurred. The State Capitol building also experienced minor damage.

Homes and other buildings along the tornado's path were completely obliterated, and the National Weather Service Topeka forecast office years later rated this tornado as an F5 on the Fujita scale. Ironically as the storm raged on, meteorologists at the National Weather Service Topeka forecast office (located at the city's municipal airport) had to take shelter as well as the tornado tracked through the airport, flipping over several airplanes.

It was after the tornado ripped through the airport that at 7:29PM CDT, 34 minutes after it touched down, the tornado dissipated after having traversed twenty-two miles of the city, with a damage path width of 1/2 mile (800 m). The worst damage occurred on the east side of town, partly due to the close proximity of housing units.

Then-mayor Chuck Wright later issued a decree that those caught looting would be shot on sight. The Kansas National Guard was called in to handle the situation. Streets in devastated areas of the city were filled with sightseers checking out the ruins of homes and businesses hampering efforts from first responders to find those missing under rubble. Families of victims also came onto the scene to try to find those missing.

820 homes were destroyed and 3000 damaged. 250 businesses were destroyed and 2330 damaged including a major shopping center. 330 of the damaged homes and businesses suffered major damage and the other 5000 received lesser damages. Hundreds of apartments were destroyed and most of the Washburn University of Law and Philip Billard Municipal Airport were affected. Many government buildings, public buildings, other structures and much other property were damaged or destroyed.