Waco Texas Tornado Photograph Archive of Downtown Waco Street Destruction, 1953

Author: Waco Texas Tornado
Title: Waco Texas Tornado Photograph Archive of Downtown Waco Street Destruction, 1953
Publication: 1953

Description:

Photograph

Waco tornado photograph archive, 1953, recording street level destruction after the May 11 storm that struck the center of Waco, Texas, killing 114 people and injuring 597. The tornado was later rated F5 and remains among the deadliest tornadoes in Texas history, tied in fatalities with the 1902 Goliad tornado. The images record the disaster at ground scale, depicting crushed cars, collapsed brick walls, shattered storefront areas, and debris fields in the downtown commercial landscape where the storm did its most lasting urban damage.

Photo archive of 6 silver gelatin snapshot photographs, 3.5 inches x 6 inches, Waco, Texas, 1953. The photographs show wrecked automobiles behind fencing; an overturned car flattened along a roadway; brick, lumber, pipe, and framing strewn across streets and alleys; exposed building interiors; and downtown blocks reduced to open piles of timber and masonry. One image is captioned by hand, "Waco tornado 1953." Several views concentrate on damaged vehicles and nearby commercial structures, while others move into the ruined streetscape, where standing brick walls, broken doorways, and collapsed upper stories mark the path of the tornado through the built center of the city.

The Waco tornado hit during a three day outbreak across the central United States, striking Waco shortly after 4 p.m. on May 11, 1953. In Waco, About 196 business buildings were destroyed and another 396 were damaged badly enough that they had to be torn down, a scale of downtown commercial loss that helped redirect shoppers and businesses toward suburban centers in the years that followed. The storm also prompted Texas A&M University and the United States Weather Bureau to organize the Texas Tornado Warning Conference in June 1953, part of the post disaster effort to improve tornado warning procedures and radar use. Light surface wear, curling, and occasional handling creases. Overall in good condition. A direct visual record of the 1953 Waco tornado as a downtown disaster measured in wrecked automobiles, collapsed masonry, and the loss of a central Texas commercial district.

Seller ID: 23558

Subject: American History & Americana, American History by State, Labor, Environment & Industry, Archive