Forum Flashbacks: Oct. 24-30

THE MARYVILLE DAILY FORUM, OCT. 25, 1934
90 YEARS AGO: This picture shows what damage was done to the north side of the Washington school building, the lower two floors of which were used for the gymnasium, showers and dressing rooms.

90 years ago

The Maryville Daily Forum, Special Morning Edition, Oct. 24, 1934

TORNADO HITS CITY AND CCC CAMP

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The peacefulness of Maryville was suddenly disrupted at 5:30 o’clock Tuesday afternoon by a quickly forming tornado that dipped down in the residential section of the city, swept through to the northeast and demolished the Veterans CCC camp (EDITOR’S NOTE: Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal work program) where two were killed outright and a third is not expected to live. Upwards of twenty were injured as the barracks on the south side of the newly constructed camp were demolished like they were mere paper.

In the stillness of the evening as preparations were made for the evening meal, the copper colored clouds struck with a viciousness that left only debris and writhing forms.

The storm followed a heavy shower, which with the heavy rain of last night, made a lob-lolly of mud on the camp site and made rescue difficult.

Hasty calls were put in for ambulances and physicians. The ambulance rushed the injured to the St. Francis hospital. At first the identity of the men could not be learned.

Six or seven of the buildings were demolished. One of the CCC boys who was standing in the door of one of the demolished buildings said it felt like the structure was blown out from under him. The men who were killed were crushed in the buildings as they were caved in.

Only of short duration, the tornado struck with such suddenness that it left the people dazed. Persons living on South Main street and in the east part of the city were terror stricken as there was a roar of wind that caved in the windows. Huge limbs of trees struck the roofs of the houses, causing more commotion in the houses that suddenly became darkened as the electric light wires were shorted.

The storm coursed to the north in a width estimated at little more than a block wide. The storm first hit in the southwest part of the town, struck off across Main Street, took in the ice plant and high school, demolished buildings to the northeast and then wreaked its havoc at the Veterans’ camp. …

The heaviest damage in the down town district was done at the McFarland ice and fuel plant. The building was unroofed and the heavy concrete blocks were piled to the inside of the building. The roof was carried west across the street on top of the Martin building.

The plate glass window of the Electric Light and Power company was blown in and glass was strewn over Main street.

Traffic on Main street was held up for some length of time by the large trees which were blown into the street. The city got out its trucks and men to clear the federal highway as automobiles and trucks, impatient to get through, focused their lights on the limbs and trees to enable the workers to chop their way through.

Spoofhound Grid Squad “Huddled” Into Buildings

While a tornado swept across a section of Maryville, the Spoofhound football squad of Maryville high school huddled in a corner in the dressing room until the storm had subsided. A portion of the roof on the high school annex housing the gymnasium and home economics department was destroyed.

Albert Myers, a member of the football squad, tells this story:

“The fellows had just come in from the field from practice and were dressing. Robert Sawyers and myself were the first to leave the gym. We had just stepped out of the door and saw limbs and parts of roofs from houses flying in the air. We rushed back into the dressing room and told the fellows what was happening. Instead of running out of the building, the fellows followed the command of Coach Croy and packed into one corner without any confusion whatever. When the storm had passed, the coach told the fellows to go home immediately.”

As the storm was the heaviest in the vicinity of the high school, the response which the football fellows made to the command of their coach probably saved some of the high school students from injury. Between twenty-five and thirty players were in the dressing room at the time.

Carried Across Street

William Masters, pressman for The Forum, was walking to his home at 114 South Dewey street. The tornado hit and he decided the best thing to do would be lie down in the vacant lot directly across south from the high school building across the street. He did that and the first thing he knew he was being thrown through the air and across the street into the bushes by the side of the school building. He was hit by flying missiles and lacerated and injured about the head, and several ribs cracked. Mr. Masters said that he could not describe the sensation of being lifted and thrown through the air.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 90-year flashbacks are courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, accessible at shsmo.newspapers.com.

THE MARYVILLE DAILY FORUM, OCT. 26, 1934
90 YEARS AGO: This view shows the wreckage sustained to the south of the CCC camp. The car turned over is the one that crushed G. S. Runyan, 1101 East Fourth street who was critically injured.