Great Cyclone of 1896
The Great Cyclone of 1896, also known as the St. Louis tornado, was a devastating natural disaster that struck on May 27, 1896, hitting the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and nearby East St. Louis, Illinois. On a day initially predicted to be partly cloudy, the weather rapidly deteriorated, culminating in a powerful tornado that tore through the region in the late afternoon. This storm, characterized by a half-mile-wide path of destruction, destroyed over 311 buildings and damaged more than 7,200 others, impacting both affluent and impoverished neighborhoods alike. The cyclone caused significant loss of life, with 306 fatalities reported, along with over 2,500 injuries and many families left homeless.
Witness accounts described the tornado's violence, comparing its motion to a whip and noting its swift passage through the urban landscape. Notably, the storm impacted significant infrastructure, including the Eads Bridge and various commercial centers, resulting in the death of many workers and residents in its wake. The aftermath saw extensive rescue efforts, with survivors being pulled from rubble and a wave of sightseers flocking to the city to witness the devastation. The disaster not only highlighted the immense power of nature but also sparked a wave of human compassion, as many citizens came together to aid those affected. This tragic event remains a significant chapter in the history of St. Louis and is remembered for its profound impact on the community.
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Subject Terms
Great Cyclone of 1896
Tornado
Date: May 27, 1896
Place: St. Louis, Missouri
Classification: F4
Result: 306 dead, 2,500 injured, 311 buildings destroyed, 7,200 other buildings severely damaged, tremendous damage to river boats and railroad lines
Because the previous three weeks had witnessed violent weather across the United States, it must have come as a relief to St. Louis that the weather report for Wednesday, May 27, 1896, called for a partly cloudy day with only a chance of local thunderstorms. No one would have suspected that St. Louis could suffer the ravages of a tornado; it was considered common knowledge that tornadoes do not strike large cities. The tornado that nearly hit St. Louis on March 8, 1871, was believed to be as close as a tornado could come.
Until 3 p.m. on May 27, 1896, it was a hot, humid, and sunny day in St. Louis, just as the newspapers predicted. The city was a booming metropolis whose population already exceeded 500,000—it was the fourth-largest city in the United States. Union Station was in its second year of operation as the mid-America passenger hub of an increasingly mobile nation. Crowning its new status in industrialized America, preparations were well under way to house the Republican presidential nominating convention, scheduled for June. Across the mighty Mississippi River, East St. Louis had become a commercial railroad center with a rapidly growing population.
After 3 p.m. the sky slowly began to darken as the barometer and thermometer began to fall. By 4:30 p.m. large black and green cloud masses could be seen approaching the city. By 5 p.m. many parts of the city were enveloped in darkness, except for forked lightning illuminating the sky. Sizzling telegraph wires and burning telegraph poles cast an eerie bluish light pattern in the streets below. People scurried for the relative security of temporary shelter wherever they could find it, a fact substantiated by the location of bodies found after the storm. Shelter in cellars offered the best protection, providing that an individual was not crushed by the upper floors caving in.
At about 5:15 p.m. the tornado struck at the southwest edge of St. Louis. It widened into a 0.5-mile-wide complex of tornado and downburst wind, heading due east toward the central city area. Along its path it demolished 311 buildings and severely damaged 7,200 others. Stone and brick houses of the affluent were smashed almost as easily as the flimsy wooden houses of the poor. The tornado devastated 6 churches and damaged 15 others. Several city hospitals suffered varying degrees of destruction.
The storm cut a 10-mile path, leaving in many places a mile-wide swath of devastation. Witnesses described the tail of the storm as being like the lash of a whip, moving north to south, while the massive body of the storm slowly moved on its eastern path of destruction. Entire neighborhoods, such as the Soulard area, were left in shambles. Nearly 500 workers were building a thirteen-building complex for Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company when the storm hit. Structures collapsed, and miraculously, only 13 workers died. However, at Seventh and Rutgers Street 17 people died when a three-story brick tenement collapsed. The new Ralston Purina Mill was also destroyed. However, a bank loan would allow the new headquarters to be rebuilt.
The storm reached maximum intensity when it came to the Mississippi River. Because of a slight turn in the storm, the tall buildings of downtown St. Louis were spared the test of whether or not they could survive tornadic winds. However, poverty-stricken families living in houseboats disappeared into the river. Sixteen boats moored in St. Louis harbor were wrecked. By the time they hit the Eads Bridge, tornadic winds were strong enough to drive a 2-by-10-inch wood plank through the -inch thick wrought-iron plate of the bridge.
The great tornado then tore into East St. Louis, leveling half of the city. Thirty-five people died in the Vandalia railroad freight yard in East St. Louis. It took about twenty minutes for the worst single disaster in the history of the St. Louis metropolitan area to take its deadly and destructive toll. The storm system left 306 dead, over 2,500 injured, and 600 families homeless.
Drenching rains and lightning continued in St. Louis until about 9 p.m. Because the Edison Plant was destroyed, the city was without electricity. Rescue workers worked through the night by torchlight and through the sunshine of the next morning. Survivors were still being pulled from the rubble two days later. Meanwhile, long lines of friends, relatives, and the curious waited at the city morgue as the dead wagons unloaded their crushed and mutilated human cargo. Many bodies were blackened and unrecognizable. Others had been turned into human pin cushions as splintered wood and other debris had been hurled at tremendous speeds into their bodies.
As news of the disaster spread, the weekend brought tens of thousands of sightseers to St. Louis, anxious to see firsthand the destruction that was wrought. Among their number were hundreds of thieves, eager to uncover valuables from demolished homes and stores. On the Sunday following the “great tornado” over 140,000 people crammed through Union Station into the streets of St. Louis. Tours had already been organized to see the destruction. For weeks after the storm St. Louis newspapers were filled with stories of miraculous escapes, tearful tragedies, and tales of heroic citizens coming to the aid of other citizens. These accounts and others were pieced together by the Cyclone Publishing Company, a group of newsmen who copyrighted their work in Washington, D.C., only nine days after the storm. An eager American public read in awe and horror about the powers of nature and the human dimensions of natural disasters.
Bibliography
Curzon, Julian, comp. and ed. The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896: Being a Full History of the Most Terrifying and Destructive Tornado in the History of the World. 1896. Reprint. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997.
Montesi, Albert, and Richard Deposki. “The Great Cyclone of 1896.” In Soulard, St. Louis. Images of America. Chicago: Arcadia, 2000.
O’Neil, Tim. “The Great Cyclone of 1896.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 26, 1996.
“The Top Ten US Killer Tornadoes—#3: The St. Louis/East St. Louis Tornado of 1896.” The Tornado Project Online. http://www .tornadoproject.com.