Treasures of The Texas Collection
Waco Tornado Script for KWBU/NPR
Script for KWBU-FM and Texas NPR Stations
By Hans Christianson
HOST (Mary Landon Darden)
There is an old Native American legend that claims that Waco, Texas is
immune to tornadoes. Apparently, the Wacoan Indians selected the area for a
settlement because it was situated in a geological recess surrounded by hills
and bluffs.
It's no surprise that on Monday, May 11, 1953, most people in Waco
didn't pay much attention to a tornado warning from the National Weather
Service. Tornadoes just didn't happen in Waco ... or so everyone thought.
But this day was different, as Austin freelance writer Hans Christianson
discovered as he researched the event that changed Waco forever.
WRITER (Hans Christianson)
The Waco Tornado was unlike anything that had ever happened to the city
before. Nearly 1/3 of a mile wide, the F-5 rated twister produced winds up to 260
mph. The results were catastrophic. 114 people were killed, 600 were injured with
survivors trapped under the wreckage for up to 14 hours in some cases. 2,000
vehicles and 1,000 homes and businesses were damaged along with 600 more
completed destroyed. The final damage bill … around $50 million. Even today, it
stands as the 10th deadliest tornado in the history of the United States.
We have all heard about the Waco tornado as the most catastrophic natural
event in the Waco area, but few of us have heard from eye witnesses about
what it was like to experience such an event. What was it like for the people
trapped under the rubble? Can you tell us about any of the survivors – what it
was like to suddenly find themselves in the middle of an F-5 tornado??
One of the survivors was teenager Donald Hansard. A senior at La Vega
High School in nearby Bellmead, he and close friend Kay Sharbutt were heading
downtown to shoot some pool. They noticed the overcast sky as they drove to the
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Torrence Recreation Center, but they didn't pay much attention to it. After all, the
boys knew the Indian legend concerning tornadoes in Waco.
Donald and Kay arrived at the center around 3:30 p.m. Kay parked the car in
a nearby alley and the boys went inside. The center featured a pool hall downstairs
and a dominoes hall upstairs. While they played several games of pool, the weather
outside became worse. The air turned muggy and still, while the clouds grew
darker and darker. Neither boy paid any attention when it started to storm, or even
when the lights began to flicker and eventually went out completely. They kept
playing between flashes of lightning.
Even though several of the older patrons were trying to find cover
underneath tables, the boys continued to joke and talk while they traded shots.
Donald had just finished complimenting Kay on a particularly lucky shot when he
moved around the table — a move that saved his life. Before he knew it, the
ceiling above him collapsed. One end of a floor joist landed on the table and the
other end pinned his foot. Kay, who was standing nearby, was not as lucky. That
same joist crushed his head, killing the soon-to-be high school graduate and
football star.
Did Donald realize what had happened? What was he thinking about as he lay
trapped underneath the debris?
No. Donald initially thought that a bomb had gone off. The tornado had
knocked down the building along with the neighboring five-story Dennis Building.
He particularly remembered the screams from other nearby victims. He recalled in
a 1980 interview,
“People were cursing … and didn't know what was wrong. A lot of people
were begging for their mother and it kind of struck me as funny that these
big, tough guys, they wanted to talk to their mother.”
Trapped underneath the ceiling, Donald felt something sticky … blood. His
clothes were also soaked from the water gushing out of the busted water lines. He
found a pool cue and began tapping on the ceiling. Soon, he heard the commotion
and cries from people above him. Many of the people had already begun to try to
dig through the rubble in search of survivors.
Who finally rescued Donald and how long did it take for rescuers to reach
him?
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Somewhere close to nine o'clock that evening, the National Guard cut a hole
through the ceiling and found Donald. A cotton gloved hand belonging to
guardsman Claude Kincannon reached down into the hole. Donald took hold with
both of his hands and Claude explained about the tornado that had hit downtown
earlier. It took another three hours before they were able to get Donald out from the
wreckage. The guardsmen had to use jacks to lift the floor joists. They also had to
move several dead bodies out of the way first, including his friend Kay.
Finally free of his captivity, Donald was taken to Providence Hospital. His
injuries turned out to be relatively minor … a fractured hip, a bruised foot and a toe
tip that remained dead from the injury. He didn't learn about Kay's death until three
days later. In all, 14 people died in the Torrence Recreation Center that day.
Obviously, there were attempts to make order of the chaos and we know that
some people did manage some success with those efforts. Since there had
never been a tornado in the Waco area and apparently none were expected,
how was this rescue effort ultimately organized and how did word of the
disaster ultimately reach the public?
It wasn’t easy. There was a lot of initial confusion. People were wandering
around in a daze. Others began to try to search through the debris for survivors.
And a few started taking photos, documenting the destruction. But there was no
clear organization in the beginning. The biggest reason for the confusion is that no
one really knew what had happened. But thanks to George Hutson, local manager
of Southwestern Bell, the greater Waco community and the rest of the United
States quickly learned about the disaster.
George had been sitting in his downtown office talking long distance to a
colleague in Beaumont when the wind began to pick up. Since the office didn't
have any air conditioning, the windows were open and George could feel the wind
being sucked outside. He got off the phone and went down to the first floor. Even
though it was only late afternoon, it was already dark outside … almost too dark to
see anything. But George saw something that signaled this wasn't going to be an
ordinary storm … across the street, the wind knocked a billboard loose and blew it
into the nearby Safeway sign.
It was around 4:50 p.m. when George decided to lock the front door to the
building. A few people had straggled in looking for shelter. They were soaked from
the rain and wind. He had locked the door when he heard someone beating
frantically on it. He opened the door again and a man ducked inside. “The whole
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town is blowing apart,” the man announced.
How did George respond to the news? Did he have any doubts about what he
was hearing?
He was about to dismiss the man and his story, when he noticed a Shriner
pin on the man's shirt. Being a Shriner himself, he listened to him. “The whole
town is exploding and blowing away,” the man told him. George didn't waste any
time. He went upstairs, grabbed a telephone test set and contacted the local radio
stations. He instructed them to air an appeal for people not to use their phones
except in an emergency. The automated dial system had locked up because too
many people were trying to call out at the same time. Waco had only switched over
from the old operator system to the new dialing system four years earlier, in 1949.
After the appeal was sent out, George and district manager Justin Hoy made
their way outside through the punishing wind and rain to run across the street to the
company's mobile-equipped telephone car. They drove around surveying the
damage. George described the area as appearing similar to a bomb explosion from
World War II. It was difficult driving because of the damage and debris. A police
officer instructed them to leave the area, but George informed him they had a
mobile phone in the car. And, it was the only working phone in the downtown area.
Once they received permission to remain downtown, what was their plan?
Where did they decide to go and what did they do first?
They parked the car on the sidewalk underneath the Amicable Building,
which is now the present-day Alico Building. The building's clock had stopped at
4:40. This building had little damage due to its engineered design that allowed it to
sway during the tornado. George called the chief operator at Southwestern Bell and
instructed her to block all calls on the mobile channel. At this point, the car became
the official communication center of the city.
George began to send out appeals for help … to the phone company, the
military and the radio stations. To put some authority behind the calls, he used the
name of McLennan County Sheriff, and good friend, C.C. Maxey. When Maxey
showed up some time later and learned of the situation, he told George to keep
using his name.
There was still little organization to the rescue efforts though … there was so
much to do, but no one knew where to start. A local radio personality named Bob
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Walker from KWTX arrived with a loudspeaker attached to the top of his car. They
used the loudspeaker to call out directions to the rescue workers. Eventually,
additional help began to stream into the downtown area, including members of the
Red Cross, Salvation Army, National Guard, Army and Air Force. Southwestern
Bell also set up temporary telephone lines. In all, George Hutson ended up
spending 72 hours straight underneath the broken Amicable clock, managing the
communication effort.
Tell us about the medical response to the tornado. Obviously, a disaster of this
magnitude would overwhelm almost any hospital. How where the injured
transported to a medical facility and how did they manage to care for all of
these people, many with very serious injuries?
Dr. Joe Jaworski and his wife were wrapping up the day's activities at his
downtown practice when the tornado hit. Dr. Joe, as he was called by his patients,
had noticed a storm was coming in when he looked out onto Austin Avenue
through the back windows of his third-floor office. The clouds were dark and the
air was still. He went to the front windows to get a better look. Without any
warning, everything turned extremely dark and he couldn't see anything. After a
minute or two, the darkness passed. Dr. Joe couldn't believe what he saw … the
buildings across the street had either been destroyed or severely damaged.
He went back to the office to tell his wife what had happened. They decided
to leave the building and go across the street to their suite at the Roosevelt Hotel.
They weren't the only ones trying to leave the building; the inhabitants of the
building's upper floors were frantically trying to get downstairs. With the
electricity out and the elevators not working, everyone had to use the stairs. Armed
with two small flashlights normally used for examining throats and ears, Dr. Joe
and his wife tried to lead people safely down the dark stairwells.
It was chaotic. The windows had completely blown out and glass was
everywhere. The building had also swayed during the tornado, but managed to stay
standing. Since Dr. Joe was such a recognizable figure, people kept stopping him
and asking for help. He mostly tried to calm people down and continued on his
way. He knew that he would be needed at the hospital.
It took Dr. Joe and his wife about 30 minutes to get to their car. It had been
parked in a nearby garage and had not sustained any damage. Traffic was slow
moving out of downtown, but they finally made it to Hillcrest Hospital, one of the
city's two hospitals. The hospital staff knew nothing about the tornado. They had
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heard about a storm hitting downtown, but no one had any idea of the damage or
the loss of life.
Dr. Joe took charge of the situation. He knew that dozens of casualties would
be flooding the hospital. He started by setting up an admitting area. Some of the
victims would already be dead on arrival, so they would need to be moved to the
morgue or funeral homes. The remaining victims would be classified into three
categories: extreme injuries, major injuries and minor injuries. Additional doctors
arrived at the hospital to help. Depending on their specialty, there were assigned to
different stations, such as surgical, internal medicine or general medical.
How did the hospital administrators feel about Dr. Joe assuming control? Did
anyone question his authority?
It was a natural fit for him to lead the effort. Dr. Joe had wartime experience
dealing with multiple injury casualties. During World War II, he was director of
surgical services at McCloskey General Hospital. He treated American soldiers
who fought in the European theater. He also spent time in the Philippines.
Everyone at Hillcrest agreed that he was the man for the job.
As the casualties arrived, Dr. Joe's wife and several nurses worked to record
and organize the victims' personal information, so they could try to contact their
families. Psychiatrists and psychologists also talked with victims who had not
suffered physical injuries but had sustained emotional scarring.
The following morning, most of the initial treatment of patients had been
completed. Dr. Joe and his colleagues had worked nonstop through the night.
While the Waco medical community had not previously set out a plan for dealing
with a citywide tragedy such as a tornado, they discovered that efforts at both
hospitals — Hillcrest and Providence — had operated smoothly. Doctors and
specialists had moved between the hospitals in order to avoid shortages in critical
areas.
I imagine it was quite an undertaking to transport that many injured persons
to the two hospitals. What can you tell us about that process?
In order to assist the fire and police department, the sheriff's department
asked the local funeral homes to convert hearses into ambulances. One of the
drivers was Mack Byron, an employee of Wilkerson-Hatch Funeral Home.
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Mack took one of the hearses and drove downtown. He started out by
helping a group of rescue workers search through the rubble at Chris's Cafe. After
they found the remains of a young woman, her body was loaded into the hearse
and Mack took her to Providence Hospital. Upon arrival, one of the doctors
pronounced her dead. Mack drove her body back to the funeral home. He
continued transporting bodies back and forth until 11 p.m. that evening. After that,
he stayed at the funeral home assisting with the deceased.
Within a few hours 114 people lost their lives in a relatively small city. How
did the hospitals and funeral homes deal with so many fatalities at once?
They all worked together. The first priority was identifying the victims.
Wilkerson-Hatch created a temporary morgue in their garage. The Columbus
Avenue Baptist Church also offered their Sunday School rooms as another
temporary morgue. Most of the victims were identified by their clothing and
jewelry.
Once a victim was identified, the funeral home worked with the family to
make funeral arrangements, and even transporting the body to another funeral
home if need be. Joint funerals were held throughout the next week with hourly
services every day at funeral homes and churches.
One interesting observation was made following the tragedy… there were no
natural deaths in Waco during the week following the tornado.
I know there were some particularly interesting stories about how business
banded together to meet the needs of citizens in this crisis. Can you tell us a
little about how the tornado affect the flow of downtown commerce and, in
particular, how the banks worked together to restore services to the
community?
A large number of businesses and restaurants were out of commission. But
the bigger issue involved the three downtown banks. Since martial law was
declared by the military, commerce was at a standstill. However, Community State
Bank president J.D. Hudson Jr. had an idea. He invited the banks to operate out of
Community's building.
The Community State Bank had only opened a year before. Located at 18th
and Washington, it was considered the first suburban bank in Waco. The bank was
planning its one year anniversary celebration on the day the tornado hit. J.D. was in
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the bank's vault with a state examiner, participating in a bank examination, when
one of his employees informed him that the downtown had been blown away.
Luckily, the Community State Bank was left untouched.
The two men left the bank and went downtown to survey the damage. J.D.
immediately called the Federal Reserve Bank and explained the situation. None of
the banks would be able to cash checks until they could set up a central banking
location. That location turned out to be Community State Bank. The next day, the
bank opened up with lines representing each of the four banks: Community,
Citizen's National Bank, First National Bank and National City Bank. Each line
had employees from the respective banks.
For the next several days, the banks all operated out of Community's lobby.
Even during this chaotic time, there was only one occasion when someone tried to
cash a bad check. He was quickly arrested by the police, who were providing
protection for the bank.
Didn't the Community State Bank also help with the overall rescue effort?
Yes, the bank's lobby served as a staging point for supplies, such as food and
clothes. Eventually, the Red Cross took over this effort, but for the first few days
supplies were delivered to the bank. And the first night, J.D. and Bill Darden, who
sat on the bank's board of directors, took several car loads of supplies over to
people in East Waco.
We've talked a lot about the situation downtown following the tornado. Tell us
about some of the people who were not downtown, but were impacted by the
storm nearby? How did the tornado affect them?
One great story involves a young Mexican-American girl named Lillie
Aguilar. Lillie lived in a house with her grandmother, mother and two older sisters.
Lillie and her middle sister came home from school early in the afternoon on
May 11. The two girls paid little attention to the overcast skies on the way home or
to the tornado warning the teachers mentioned at school earlier in the day. They
surprised their grandmother who normally had a snack and play clothes ready for
the girls after school. Lillie and her sister went to their rooms to change while their
grandmother hastily began to make a snack. Lillie's mother was at work that day.
Outside, the wind began to pick up and it started to rain. Lillie told her
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grandmother to open the windows to keep the air from creating a vacuum, a lesson
she learned at school. Naturally, her grandmother refused since she didn't want the
inside of the house to get wet. That's when the house began to move. Lillie, her
grandmother and two sisters ran out onto the front porch.
That sounds like a dangerous move, what made them choose the porch?
Lillie and her family were afraid the house was going to fall down on top of
them. But just as they got onto the porch, the house lifted off the ground. It moved
about five feet off its foundation before it set back down again. Lillie, her sister
and grandmother were all knocked down to the porch floor. Her oldest sister, who
was pregnant at the time, was thrown off the porch onto the ground. She ended up
being okay.
The house was in bad shape. The water lines had burst and electrical wires
were sparking. Just before the tornado hit, her grandmother had been making rice
pudding. Rice had scattered all over the walls and ceiling. The stove had been
blown through one of the bedroom walls. And a nearby oak tree had been uprooted
and had landed inside the kitchen.
The interesting thing was that their house was the only house on the block
that was seriously damaged by the tornado. A few of the other houses lost shingles,
but that was all that happened.
Earlier, you mentioned a National Guardsman named Claude Kincannon. He
helped rescue Donald Hansard. Can you tell us a little more about him and
how he came to join the rescue effort?
Claude was an honorable young man and a good example of the people who
began to help after the tornado. Claude owned a service station at 25th and
Franklin and was also a senior at Baylor University. He was taking his last class
remotely, so he could finish his Political Science degree.
On the day of the tornado, he was repairing a flat tire on a car. The wind
knocked the car off the jack and blew Claude into a gutter. He made it back to his
station to find the power was out. Around this same time, cars started driving out of
downtown with smashed windshields. He stopped one of the drivers who told him
about the tornado. He locked up the station and headed downtown in his own car.
That was a brave move for Claude to run toward the danger rather than away
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from it. What made him make that decision to so endanger his life and what
did he plan to do once he reached the downtown area?
He wanted to help. Claude was member of the National Guard, so he drove
downtown to the National Guard headquarters. After changing into his fatigues, he
joined the rescue effort. The collapsed pool hall was next to the headquarters.
Claude began by using a pick and backpack shovel from his locker. He could hear
someone knocking and yelling from below — it was Donald Hansard. He dug
toward the noise. After several hours, Claude was able to dig down to Donald.
Donald was the only person that Claude found alive in the wreckage. Claude
visited Donald in the hospital a few days later. He also later discovered that his
National Guard unit had been activated but nobody could find him at the time. In
fact, even his wife didn't know where he was for about eight days.
It has been 56 years since the tornado destroyed downtown Waco. Thankfully,
there hasn't been a storm like this in Waco since that time. Do many people
still remember the ’53 tornado?
Apparently, so. Certainly there are fewer people both living and in the area
that experienced the event, however, it's still remembered by a number of people.
Just last year, never-before-seen photos of the damage were provided to the Waco
Tribune-Herald by a family up in Dallas. Days after the tornado, Alvin and Lucy
Winthrow traveled down to Waco to check on family members who lived in the
area. They took three dozen photos of the damage and those photos remained in
photo albums for more than five decades.
Some people have suggested that the tornado contributed to the decay of the
overall downtown area of Waco. Did you find anything in your research to
support this theory?
No, not really. While the tornado had an impact in property damage and loss
of life, it seems that most people think the downtown was on the decline before
that tragic day. With the city expanding and the suburbs developing, it was only a
matter of time before less and less people frequented the downtown for shopping
and dining. And this wasn’t unique to Waco, this was a national phenomenon. The
tornado certainly didn't help the already existing situation.
Why do you think so many people bet their lives on a legend?
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They had no reason not to take the legend seriously. For the past one
hundred years, there were no recorded tornado sightings in the Waco area. Until
May 11, 1953, the evidence supported the legend. What's interesting is that on the
day of the tornado, a newspaper reporter contacted James W. Dixon, who was chair
of the Baylor Department of Geology at the time. The reporter wanted to know if
there was any truth to the legend. His timing couldn't have been any more
prophetic. Neither could Dixon's answer.
Dixon explained to the reporter that Waco didn't sit in a recess, like so many
people believed. He described the area as resting on a limestone cropping that had
been formed over centuries by the Brazos River. Instead of offering protection, the
area could actually be more inclined to attract storms. The next day, Dixon
naturally denied having any part in bringing the tornado to Waco.
Thank you for joining us today, Hans.
It’s my pleasure, Mary.
If you would like to learn more about the Waco Tornado, the Texas Collection
on the Baylor campus has the largest collection of tornado-related documents,
books, letters, photographs, memoirs, diaries, and magazine and newspaper
articles.
Property of The Texas Collection at Baylor University
Final Edit: January 9, 2010
_________________________________________________
Hans Christianson, Writer
_________________________________________________
Dr. Mary Landon Darden, Executive Producer
_________________________________________________
Pattie Orr, Vice President of Information Technology and Dean of
University Libraries
Waco Tornado 12
_________________________________________________
John Wilson, Associate Director of The Texas Collection
_________________________________________________
Dr. Thomas L. Charlton, Director of The Texas Collection