Monticello Tornado

See our slide show with many photos, personal accounts, and information provided to the Northern Indiana office of the National Weather Service by the Monticello Herald-Journal and its editor Kevin Lashbrook.  We are very grateful for being allowed to share Monticello's story here. 

What was to become the Monticello Tornado was born in a field two miles west of Otterbein, in southeast Benton County, at 4:50pm.  The twister narrowly missed Chalmers, and took a direct hit on Monticello, passing through the heart of the city.  The storm then proceeded northeast, striking the west side of Rochester but hitting Talma squarely.  Leesburg was the next town in its way, after which the tornado crossed Dewart Lake and Lake Wawasee in Kosciusko County.  Proceeding to the northeast, it passed between Ligonier and Topeka, finally ending near Oliver Lake in Lagrange County.

The tornado wasted no time, killing two people just moments after it formed near Otterbein.  The tornado weakened slightly as it entered White County, but then increased in intensity as it neared Monticello.  The tornado reached its maximum power, doing F4 damage, just northeast of Monticello where it leveled farm after farm.  A total of at least 21 people were killed by this tornado, from Benton County to Lagrange County.

Four years after the Monticello Tornado, which was originally thought to have been on the ground for an amazing 121 miles, it was shown that the event was actually a family of two tornadoes.  As soon as the first tornado lifted, another touched down almost immediately and along the same path, so in 1974 to the casual observer it appeared as a single tornado track.  In reality, the first of the Monticello Tornado Family lifted, and the second touched down, west of Brookston.  This tornado lasted all the way to Lagrange County (still an extremely impressive distance!) until it lifted just west of Valentine.  Another, much weaker, tornado then touched down south of Plato and headed northeast before lifting near the Lagrange/Steuben county line.

Note how the tornado tore directly through the center of town:
 

(Map from "Engineering Aspects of the Tornadoes of April 3 - 4, 1974, by Mehta, K. C. et al.)

Excerpt from Engineering Aspects of the Tornadoes of April 3-4 1974 by Mehta, KC et al

The storm crossed an open field as it approached the three schools located on the southwestern edge of the town.  From the school complex it moved into a residential area, across an abandoned school, and into the central business district where the county courthouse was severely damaged.  It then passed through another residential area to a bluff over the Tippecanoe River.  Unusual events took place here:  (1) the tornado followed the terrain closely by damaging houses and industrial buildings at the foot of the bluff (approximate elevation difference is 60 feet) and (2) the winds pushed four spans of a Penn Central Transportation Company railroad bridge off their piers.  The spans consisted of two 10 ft. deep plate girders 105 ft. in length carrying a single track. 

The damage path continues northeastward from Monticello to Rochester where it caused extensive damage to railroad equipment, industrial buildings, and residences.

Three schools on the southwestern edge of Monticello experienced the effects of a tornado that passed across the town late in the afternoon of April 3.  Meadowlawn Elementary School caught the full effects of the tornado.  Twin lakes High School felt severe, but not direct, effects next.  Roosevelt Junior High School was located on the left edge of the advancing tornado and was less severely damaged.

The Meadowlawn school...has a principal main hallway oriented east-west, with classrooms on either side.  The tornado slammed directly into the school from across an open field.  Classrooms on the south side of the hallway were extensively damaged -- window walls demolished and open web steel roof joists and roof were uplifted.  Classrooms on the north side of the hallway were virtually undamaged.  The principal hallway was undamaged except for the west glass doors which were broken.  The hallway would have been a safe haven for school children.

The Twin Lakes High School is oriented such that the southwestern-most corner of the complex is a gymnasium.  This corner of the complex is approximately 1000 feet north and east of the Meadolawn school.  Damage to the Twin lakes school was concentrated in the gymnasium area (the gym proper and adjacent one-story dressing rooms) and in classrooms on the west side of the complex.  Unreinforced, non-loadbearing masonry walls (12 in. concrete block with brick facing), which formed the south and west external walls of the gymnasium (extending from the roof of the first floor dressing rooms to the roof level of the gym) toppled outward.  Although atmospheric pressure change inducing outward acting pressure may have been a factor in these wall failures, there is evidence of lateral movement of the gymnasium structural frame (steel trusses on beams which frame to pipe columns; column height approximately 30 ft.) within the masonry "shell".  The evidence (vertically cracked interior masonry walls at the locations of pipe columns) suggests that wind loads induced a lateral translation of the structural frame to the northeast and, upon rebounding, the fram pushed the south and west unreinforced masonry walls outward.

A significant missile incident at the Twin Lakes school involves a steel wide-flange beam which formed the roof support along the western edge of a second story classroom.  This beam was lifted over the school building as the second story roof failed upward, and fell on the opposite (east) side of the building in the school yard.

As in the Meadowlawn school, hallways would have proved to be safe havens for school children in the Twin Lakes school.  The school tornado plan called for building occupants to move to first floor hallways away from outside doors; this plan would have assured protection of building occupants, if warning times would have permitted planned movements of people.

The Roosevelt Junior High School, located to the north and west of the Twin Lakes school sustained less damage than the other two Monticello schools.  The significant documentation item from this school is a barograph recording taken on a lower floor in the north central portion of the building (click on the image below):

 

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