1944 Appalachians tornado outbreak

The 1944 Appalachians tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that hit the Midwest and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States on June 22-23, 1944. Particularly hard hit was the town of Shinnston, West Virginia in Harrison County which was completely destroyed by a violent tornado before 9:00 PM EDT on June 23. It was and still remains the worst tornado outbreak ever to hit the state of West Virginia. [cite news|last=Dietz |first=Leah |title=Quiet Montrose Community Was Marked By Tragic Tornado |publisher=The Inter-Mountain |url=http://theintermountain.com/page/content.detail/id/16569.html?nav=5056
date=2007-09-14 |accessdate=2008-03-31] At least 154 people were killed and hundreds others injured in the eastern U.S., while at least 9 were killed across the Midwest.

Event

After producing several tornadoes across the Midwest and Ohio Valley region on June 22 and killing at least nine people near the Wisconsin-Illinois border, [ [http://www.castorweather.com/USF4F5.htm US F4 , F5 TORNADOES ] ] the storm produced a particularly deadly tornado (or several tornadoes) across the Appalachian region of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania on June 23. The storms killed at least 100 in West Virginia alone (72 in Harrison County), 50 others in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and injured at least 800 across the three states.

In addition of Shinnston, the West Virginia communities of Flemington, Meadowsville, Montrose and Thomas were also hit. In addition to Harrison County, West Virginia's Marion (3 deaths), Barbour (9 deaths), Taylor (9 deaths) and Randolph Counties (7 deaths) were also hit. Eleven people were killed in Chartiers, Pennsylvania by another tornado which killed in total 30, and 17 were killed by the McKeesport, Pennsylvania tornado near Pittsburgh. All three tornadoes were rated F4 on the Fujita scale. [ [http://www.castorweather.com/USF4F5.htm US F4 , F5 TORNADOES ] ] [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,852023,00.html They Hoped for a Storm - TIME ] ] [ [http://www.communityalertonline.com/lc.aspx?ID=145&Category=24 Learning Center Article ] ] At least 400 structures were destroyed and another 800 damaged. [ [http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view&db=hurheral_articles&id=27529 Hur Herald ] ]

While it is unclear if one single tornado produced all fatalities in the Appalachian region, the Shinnston tornado is ranked at least as the 14th deadliest tornado of all time in the United States. [ [http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/killers.html 25 Deadliest U.S. Tornadoes ] ]

ee also

*List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

References

External links

* [http://www.15122.com/DRAVOSBURGHISTORY/TORNADO/index.htm Tornado damage images in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania]
* [http://www.tornadoarchive.com/viewer.aspx?
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