Flint-Beecher tornado: The 69th anniversary of Michigan's deadliest tornado
This is of particular interest to me because I was born at about 2:30am on the 9th - in the aftermath. My dad was recruited to help with triaging patients in the hospital parking lot. Not sure why but I think the sports medicine doc he worked with (Dad was a high school football coach) was there and knew my dad could handle it.) When I was an adult, he described some of the tragic things he saw. The one that sticks out in my mind was the children who were forcefully rolled and rolled and rolled in gravel and the small stones were embedded in their skin. 116 people died in that tornado.
Ironically, the year my dad died we had ANOTHER tornado but this one was on my birthday. A lot of pine trees were lost but no human fatalities. It was a much less dangerous storm. Just another of those things that stick in my mind.
A lookback at the only F5 tornado to hit Southeast Michigan
Flint, Mich. – On Monday, June 8, 1953, disaster struck the north side of Flint and the northern suburb of Beecher. The National Weather Service reported that the Flint-Beecher tornado was Michigan’s worst natural disaster in terms of deaths and injuries.
The Flint-Beecher tornado is the only tornado to hit in Southeast Lower Michigan to be classified as F5 on the Fujita scale. According to the National Weather Service, an F5 tornado is defined as, “incredible damage. Strong frame houses leveled off foundations and swept away; automobile-sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; incredible phenomena will occur. Wind speeds approximately 261-318 mph.”
https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2022/06/08/flint-beecher-tornado-the-69th-anniversary-of-michigans-deadliest-tornado/
