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LAKE MANAWA TORNADO ALBUM |
This photo album shows images from a devastating tornado. The era of the images and the number of images gives us reason to believe that these are from the Easter Tornado of March 23, 1913.
Following is an excerpt from The Story of the Great Flood and Cyclone Disasters, edited by Thomas H. Russell and published by Thomas H. Morrison in 1913. Chapter XXII, entitled “In the Storm’s Path”, describes the path of the tornado as it moved from Omaha, Nebraska into Iowa:
Wrecked A Roundhouse
In crossing Sherman Avenue the path extended from Binney street on the south to Emmet street on the north, and scarcely anything was left intact. Striking over the bluffs into the railroad yards, the tornado devastated the Missouri Pacific roundhouse wrecked its fury on the rolling stock and then seethed across Carter Lake and the East Omaha bottoms.
A terrible, but beautiful spectacle accompanied the crossing of the lake, when the twister sucked the water high into the air, a real water spout. The cottages along the lake were mostly destroyed the Illinois Central trestle obliterated and scores of store buildings wrecked. At this point the width of the path is said to have been nearly half a mile wide.
Crossing the Missouri river, the twister struck the bluffs and seemed to turn southward. That this was the case is evident from the damage done in the city of Council Bluffs, which reports that the storm came from the north.
At the same time another outrider of the main body of the tornado was crossing the river in Sarpy county, hitting up the Mosquito creek through lake Manawa and the scattering residences and farms thereabouts. Another waterspout was noted on Manawa. This comparatively small twister disappeared after this work of destruction.
Other twisters were reported all up and down the Missouri and Platte river valleys, indicating the scope of the cyclonic conditions.
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