Volume 15 , Issue 22

1908 Woodward Tornado - At Least Eight Dead and Scores Injured

In The Salt Lake Tribune, dated 12 May 1908, page 1, we find the headlines: "At Least Eight Dead And Scores Injured," in a series of destructive tornadoes in northwestern Oklahoma, but details were lacking.

Woodward, Okla., May 11 (1913) --At least eight persons were killed and scores of others injured in the several tornadoes in northwestern Oklahoma the evening of May 10, 1913.

The Dead

Mr & Mrs. J. E. Hale, Little Robe, Ellis county.
Two Unknown Persons, Arnett, Ellis county.
Dr. J. Howser, Vici, Woodward county.
Arthur Sibel, Mutual, Woodward county.
Will Hand, Estelle, Major county.
Mrs Young, Seiling, Dewey county.

No list of the injured was obtainable at the time of printing as telephone communication was entirely cut off front he storm swept area and the only other means of securing information was by stage.

The nearest point to Woodward that the storm struck was Mutual, five miles away. The most distant was Little Robe, in Ellis county, which was fifty five miles southwest of this place.

There was a succession of tornadoes between 5 o'clock and 10 o'clock p.m. They appeared first in the western part of the devastated district, and moved toward the east. The most serious results were in the vicinity of Arnett, where fully thirty persons were believed to have received broken limbs. Nearly all of these victims were residents of the farming districts.

The only town known to have been destroyed was Vici, a postoffice in the southern part of Woodward county, where it was said not a house was left standing. Postmaster E. A. Speck had asked that a postoffice inspector be sent to report on his office,which was demolished and the contents scattered in all directions.

The report of four deaths at Arnett included the two at Little Robe and was confirmed by the news that four caskets had been sent overland from Gage to Arnett, Gage being the nearest railroad point.

Thrilling incidents were being related by all who had received any information from the storm center. Mr. Hale of Little Robe was one of the most prominent cattlemen in that locality. Dr. Howser at Vici was taking refuge in a dugout when he was killed. A horse was lifted by the wind and dashed throughout he top of the dugout, burying the victim underneath the entire earth roof of the dugout and the weight of the animal's body. A horse belonging to Mr. Sibel of Mutual was killed by a piece of two by four lumber being driven through his body. At Mutual fifteen young persons had gathered for a Sunday evening social. The storm lifted the house completely off the floor on which they were seated, leaving the floor and the young people unharmed. O. E. Null and daughter of the vicinity of Arnett were over taken by the storm while driving. They took refuge in a hollow tree, but their horses were killed when a near by tree fell.

Reports front he neighborhood of Vici state that the heavy hail that accompanied the storm did much damage to property, crops and cattle. Hailstones measuring fifteen inches in circumference were said to have fallen. As there was a family on every quarter section of land in the storm area, which was smile wide and alb out fifty miles long, definite figures on the number of victims were not obtainable.   |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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