1927 Tornado Story Map (St. Louis, Rea: live in, station, metro area)

[marigolds6]

Unfortunately I wrapped up this project too late for the 85th anniversary of the 1927 tornado on September 29th.

Still though, I think many here might find this interesting (especially if you live in the city). This is a map of the damage path of the 1927 tornado accompanied by 43 contemporary photos of the tornado damage. Many of the buildings in the photo are still standing and recognizable today. The devastation the tornado dropped on the city is amazing to see.

1927 St Louis Tornado Story Map

Two things were particularly astounding in researching these photos and finding their locations: how many of the surviving buildings in the photos were demolished in the last two years and how the pattern of the destruction seems to still affect North City today. Whole blocks that were wiped out in 1927 apparently never were rebuilt.

[Dawn10am]

Wow. It went pretty much directly over my building (which was built a year later in 1928). I would've been toast! Thanks for sharing!

[aragx6]

This was super interesting. Thanks so much for sharing!

[marigolds6]

Originally Posted by Dawn10am

Wow. It went pretty much directly over my building (which was built a year later in 1928). I would've been toast! Thanks for sharing!

Yes, from what I discovered, if you live in a building built in 1928 or 1929, then the tornado leveled whatever was in that spot.

I found a lot of 1928 buildings in the locations of the most devastating photographed damage. I should be able to add more of the Missouri History Museum archives soon, and might even be able to convince the Post-Dispatch to give permission to use their photo archive.

Next up is a similar project for the 1959 tornado (hopefully I can finish that one by February 8th).

[Dawn10am]

Originally Posted by marigolds6

Next up is a similar project for the 1959 tornado (hopefully I can finish that one by February 8th).

Cool! I look forward to reading it. I read on a wikipedia page (so I take it with a grain of salt) that St. Louis has had more tornado-related deaths than any other city due to the fact that we've had 3 major tornados devastate our inner-city, which is unusual for an urban area. Is that true?

[marigolds6]

St Louis has the most deaths of a metro area. Natchez, MS, has actually had more fatalities in its history.
St Louis has far and away suffered the most damage from tornadoes.

[brettmc]

Very interesting stuff there. also the "history's time portal" link on that page has some interesting pics & reading. thanks for posting it.

[jskirwin]

Excellent piece. Thanks for posting.

[marigolds6]

I've actually started receiving some industry level attention for it The company that makes the software behind the maps, Esri, has started using it as an example and talked about copresenting on the story maps concept

[MUTGR]

Really interesting. I guess I wasn't aware of that tornado. I was thinking of the earlier one that wiped out part of the south of downtown, near the old city hospital (if I'm not mistaken, and I might be).