Ruskin Heights - 50 Year Anniversary

[Mike Peregrine]

The 50 year anniversary of the Ruskin Heights F5 is coming up this Sunday. The Star has a special section on it here. The damage path went from south of Ottawa up through Kansas City - 71 miles long. It killed 39 people and injured over 500. The article has some interactive content and stories from the survivors.

 

[Mike Smith]

Ruskin Heights was what got me interested in weather. Once I saw the damage, I knew whatever did it (I was 5 years old) had to be pretty interesting.

In addition to myself, Ruskin Heights caused Les Lemon and Dennis Smith of TWC to make weather a career.

I will be at the 50th Anniversary Commemoration Saturday. Please feel free to say "Hi."

Mike

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Found an excellent website on the tornado here. Lots of photos I've never seen before. We are floored when we see devastation like what happened in Greensburg ... but for some reason we forget that such large scale devastation has been going on for quite a while now. It's only a matter of time before it happens again, but hopefully it won't be anytime soon.

 

[Eric Flescher]

Thanks Mike. I found the Ruskin article last Monday and also posted it before that in the forum in a section I put up Tornadoes of the Past etc. I was surprised how long the path was and that it went near Spring hILL AND Olathe. Ok course I was 6 years old then and in Rhode Island

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Sorry I missed your post, Eric ... this was definitely a historic one around here. Right up there with Topeka and later OKC, Andover, etc. Ruskin Heights is one of those subdivisions you don't hear much about these days, as the areas around it are the ones that have since grown. I wonder if this tornado had anything to do with that - and whether people ended up migrating out of Ruskin Heights into other parts of town as a result of this storm.