The Topeka Tornado, 8 June 1966

Fifty four years ago this evening, I came closer to death than any 18 year old wants to be! I was about to leave the house after supper to meet a friend in downtown Topeka. The weather looked stormy. My foster-mother stopped me and suggested I take my raincoat.

I got my raincoat and stopped to chat for a  minute before leaving. As we chatted the tornado sirens sounded. We took shelter in the basement and when the all  clear sounded, emerged to downed trees and power lines. We were lucky! Our home had not been in the direct path of the storm.

Much of the city had not been as lucky. Hundreds of homes and businesses had been destroyed. The insurance company building at 10th and Topeka, where I was supposed to meet my friend, had an advertising slogan on its wall, 'A Safe Haven in Time of Storm'. It looked fine, but it had been twisted by the winds and the steel frame was warped. It was a total loss. Luckily, my friend had also been delayed, so neither of us was harmed. 

I spent the rest of the evening helping to direct traffic, since the electrical grid was down and there were no traffic lights. The next morning I began one of the most intense fortnights of my life. I worked at the time in the Kansas State Historical Society. Our building, which housed the museum, the genealogical library, the state newspaper archives, etc., was just a block away from 10th and Topeka, but structurally, it was sound. However, there wasn't an unbroken window in the building. 

A call had gone out for volunteers to help clean up the destruction, so for the next two weeks, I worked at my 'real job' Monday through Friday, 08.00-17.00 cleaning up the damage, and every evening (and all day on the weekend) I worked as a volunteer. I ate at mobile Salvation Army canteens and US military field kitchens that had been brought in. When we broke for the night, I headed home for a shower and dragged myself to bed for a few hours sleep. 

I remember going to Mass on Sunday covered in mud, because I didn't want to lose the time to shower and change. No one looked twice, since I was definitely not the only mud covered Mass goer that morning.

It was one of the most destructive tornadoes in US history, but it could have been much worse in human damage. Less than 20 people lost their lives. Had the storm struck an hour or so earlier or later  the numbers would have been much higher. The local university was holding enrolment for summer school. They had taken a break for supper. Earlier or later and the campus would have been thronged with students and staff.

Every building on campus was damaged, with several destroyed. I don't recall seeing a single tree as I walked across campus a few days later. I shudder to think what the death toll would have been earlier or later!

After a couple of weeks, things sort of returned to normal, but for years after you could trace the path of the storm through town by the lack of mature trees and the new houses built to replace the ones destroyed by the tornado.

Below are some videos that recount what happened.

Tornado Leaves Topeka Kansas in Ruins 1966 Newsreel

Topeka June 8 1966 Tornado - Color Slides and WDAF Audio

Topeka's Tragedy: Remembering the '66 Tornado

(This is an hour long program done four years ago, on the 50th anniversary.)

From the Kansas State Historical Society 

Topeka Tornado 1966

“The tornado sirens went off. The sky was a sickening greenish color and it felt like something was wrong. I went in the old barrack apartment where we lived and turned on the TV. Bill Kurtis stepped in front of the weatherman who was giving his regular report. Bill calmly explained a large tornado was on the ground and headed our way.”

The Honorable D. Keith Anderson recalled his warning of the Topeka tornado on June 8, 1966. Like many Topekans he and his family immediately sought shelter.

Kansans are accustomed to the threat of tornadoes, but few strike populated areas. The magnitude of this storm was unprecedented in Topeka. Registered as an F5, the powerful storm travelled from the southwest of the city to the northeast, causing the deaths of 17 people, and more than $104 million in damage. The tornado was on the ground for 34 minutes, and a damage area 21 miles long and one-half mile wide. Many people thought such a tornado would never hit Topeka due to the legend of Burnett’s Mound. Legend claimed that the mound was sacred and protected Topeka from tornadoes. The mound didn’t stop this storm.

Crossing downtown Topeka, the storm punched a hole in the Kansas State Capitol dome, destroyed the multistory National Reserve Building, and damaged a number of public and private office buildings.

While many were devastated by the loss, some managed to find humor in the storm. Bob Anderson remembered what he did at the time of the storm. “I could hear the sirens in the distance…I grabbed the cash box and locked up the bar. After about 30 minutes, I returned and unlocked the tavern. It was then that I discovered that we had inadvertently locked one of the patrons in the bar during the whole crisis. The guy didn’t talk to me for months after that, but we noticed he had put a good dent in the Budweiser during his ordeal.” 

The tornado caused massive damage across town, and destroyed much of the Washburn campus. As a result many students were forced to attend classes in trailers for the next few years. Charles Wright, mayor of Topeka at the time of the storm, recalled the impact. "As Topeka's mayor when the tornado hit, I was also on the board of regents. Three months before the tornado, the board reinsured every building on the Washburn campus for the maximum, so when the tornado swept away some of the buildings, Washburn had a nice insurance check. I worked closely with President Henderson to restore the campus and to secure mobile classrooms from the federal government. After the mobile classrooms were on site, I went to Washington. Dr. Henderson asked me to see if we could get air conditioning units in the mobile classrooms, so I met with former Florida Governor Ferris Bryant, head of the Office of Emergency Planning (OEP, today called FEMA). I thanked him for all the help his office had given and said that I had only one request. He said, 'What's that Mr. Mayor.' I said, 'Sir, we need air conditioning units for the classrooms.' Then he said, 'Well, Mr. Mayor, you will just have to park them under the trees,' to which I replied, 'Sir we had a tornado and don't have any trees!' So we got the air conditioning units."

The 1966 tornado changed the architectural landscape of Topeka and those who lived through the storm. The severity of the F5 tornado helped meteorologists understand more about violent storms. It stands as the seventh costliest tornado in the nation's history.