- June 8th, 1966 Tornado 45th anniversary remembrance program
- Sunday June 5, 2011, 2-4 pm in the Marvin Auditorium
- Learn about the ’66 Tornado through slideshows, video footage, maps, photos and personal stories
Add your personal stories and recollections to the Library’s local history collection, and read others’ memories of that day.
Use this Recollection Form to share your story, or simply type or write your memories of the Topeka Tornado of June 8, 1966.
I Remember… the June 8, 1966 Topeka Tornado Recollection Form
Tornado memory submissions are collection, organized and added to the permanent collection of the Topeka Room, the Library’s local history collection. Bring or mail your submission to the Topeka Room, where you can also read other people’s memories of the famous tornado and its effects on our community.
For more informatio on the Topeka Tornado project, contact Jeanne Mithen, Special Collections Librarian at 785-580-4510.
2 Responses to Share your “Topeka Tornado” story with the library
J.L. "Stormy" Laurenti
June 3, 2011
My submission for…”I remember THE TOPEKA TORNADO June 8, 1966″
1. First Name: Jimmy
2. Your Age in 1966: 13
3. Address or intersection where you lived in June, 1966: On Moundview Drive, 3 blocks west of 19th & Gage Blvd in SW part of Topeka.
4. Where were you during the Topeka Tornado June 8, 1966? Who were you with? What happened? What did it sound like? What kind of warnings were there?: It was a muggy Wednesday afternoon after morning thunderstorms. In the evening after supper, I went out to play football in the street with some neighbor kids. The sky to the SW was darkening with “low rolling” almost continuous distant thunder. It started to rain just after 6:30pm so I went stood on the porch of my parents house until the rain got heavier, then went inside. It was my turn to do the supper dishes and I started washing them around 6:45pm or so. My mom was talking to her mom on the phone…then all of the sudden around 7pm…the Tornado Warning sirens started blaring and I yelled out loudly “TORNADO” and my mom said to grandma: “…it’s a tornado, I gotta go.” We hurried down the basement and had the TV on Channel 13 and Bill Kurtis was on the air giving storm information and tracking the storm. My parent’s house was the only one in that neighborhood with a basement…so several neighbors packed in and we had about a dozen people down the basement.
The closest point of impact to my parent’s house was the old VA Hospital laundry area and other buildings (KNI area)…slightly less than 3 miles to the southeast. After the All Clear was given, we emerged from the basement and I looked to the east and saw a wall of storm clouds with continuous lightning while it was clear to the west as the sun was getting ready to set.
I was scared to death…but at the same time…that’s when I decided I wanted to study about tornadoes some day.
5. How did the tornado and the destruction it caused affect your life in Topeka? Employment, school, family, daily routine? Was your home damaged?: The affect on me was that I wanted to know more about these scarry storms called tornadoes. Through high school…I read books about storms and clipped out newpaper articles about tornadoes that had occurred across parts of the U.S. I spent many hours in the early 1970s making trips to the Topeka Weather Bureau (National Weather Service Office) to watch them take observations, look at the teletype machines was look at the radar scope. At the time, the (then) Principal Assistant Phil Shideler knew that I was very interested in weather and advised me on which classes to take and to study hard in order to learn about it. After graduation from Topeka West in 1972, I went to Washburn University for a few years, then enlisted in the USAF in 1975 and was trained as a Weather Specialist. I spent 20 years on active duty and retired as an Air Force Meteorologist in 1995. While on active duty, I earned 3 academic degrees (main one was a Bachelor’s in Atmospheric Science/Meteorology) and obtained many years of experience in weather observing and forecasting. I had the fortunate pleasure of serving as a Severe Weather Forecaster twice in my career.
I now live in Bellevue, NE
(just south of Omaha) and every year on June 8th…since 1966…I have thought about the famous Topeka Tornado and how the city has changed…especially hard-hit Washburn University.
6. Throughout your life, how have tornadoes affected you?: As mentioned, after June 8th, 1966, I wanted to learn more about tornadoes. Now as a 58 year old meteorlogist…I am still learning about tornadoes…as are other meteorologists. Many theories have been developed and the new age of technology has helped with understanding of nature’s wrath.
7. What is your most memorable moment of June 8, 1966 tornado and it aftermath?: My most memorable moment is hearing Bill Kurtis (then) of WIBW TV say: “For God’s Sake, Take Cover!” A few days after the tornado, my dad took us on a “sight-seeing” tour of the tornado damage. Little did I know at the time, but that was my first “storm damage survey” and I remember seeing a house across the street from Washburn University that was completely demolished, yet the mailbox out front was left standing with NOT a speck of dirt on it. I was amazed for many years of how that could have happened… and some 40 years later, I now know it was probably the result of a “multiple vortex” in which the house was demolished…but the mailbox at the street was in-between the vorticies and was unscathed!
8. Do you have any specific memories of the day?: Now 45 years after-the-fact…I still remember sequence of events very well. It was significant emotional event that I will never forget…even as I get older. I saved the Topeka Capital-Journal from the next day–June 9th 1966 in which the headline reads: “Topeka Ravaged” and I still have that newpaper today and I also save the ones from several days afterwards. I also have printed publication called “The day the Sky Fell.” Those newspapers are in plastic sleeves, even though the paper has yellowed through the years with age and is somewhat brittle.