1968 Wheelersburg, Ohio tornado outbreak

The 1968 Wheelersburg, Ohio tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that struck portions of the Midwest and Ohio Valley on April 23, 1968. The worst tornado was an F5 twister that struck portions of Southeastern Ohio from Wheelersburg to Gallipolis, just north of the Ohio-Kentucky state line. In the end, at least 14 tornadoes touched down, leaving 14 dead, including five in Kentucky and nine in Ohio.

1968 Wheelersburg, Ohio tornado outbreak

Part of the tornado outbreaks of 1968
Type	Tornado outbreak
Duration	April 23, 1968
Tornadoes confirmed	14
Max. rating^1	F5 tornado
Duration of tornado outbreak^2	4 hours, 44 minutes
Damage	$46.8 million (1968 USD)
Casualties	14 fatalities, 513 injuries
Areas affected	Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Louisiana
^1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale ^2Time from first tornado to last tornado

Confirmed tornadoes

Confirmed tornadoes by Fujita rating

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	Total
0	1	4	4	2	2	1	14

April 23 event

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
Michigan
F1	SW of Pittsford	Hillsdale	1750	9.3 miles (14.9 km)
F3	Big Rapids to S of Sheridan Township	Mecosta, Osceola	1853	60.9 miles (97.4 km)	Tornado struck the town of Big Rapids. A total of 25 homes and businesses were damaged, causing $500,000 in damage. One home lost its roof and two walls, and several cottages were leveled. Four homes were torn apart east of Paris as well.[1]
F0	SW of Livonia	Wayne	1930	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
Kentucky
F4	W of Falmouth to E of Lucasville, OH	Pendleton, Bracken, Mason, Brown (OH), Adams (OH), Scioto (OH)	1841	78.7 miles (125.9 km)	6 deaths - See section on this tornado[2]
F2	NE of Chatham	Bracken, Mason	1930	0.1 miles (0.16 km)	Secondary tornado struck some the same counties already hit by the previous F4.
F3	E of South Shore	Greenup	2055	0.1 miles (0.16 km)	Multiple homes were destroyed. Some sources list this as an extension of the same tornado that struck Wheelersburg.[1]
F2	Nicholasville	Jessamine	2234	3.3 miles (5.3 km)	Several homes sustained roof damage and one lost its roof entirely. Another home was shifted off of its foundation. A barn was obliterated and scattered over 60-70–acres.[1][2]
Ohio
F4	NW of Willowville to E of Westboro	Clermont, Brown, Clinton	1856	24.1 miles (38.6 km)	1 death - Large tornado destroyed 35 homes, 40 barns, and one house trailer.
F1	NE of Fayette	Fulton	1915	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F1	N of Pataskala	Licking	2030	8.2 miles (13.1 km)
F2	S of Minford	Scioto	2030	4.9 miles (7.8 km)	Five planes were destroyed and seven others were damaged at Scioto County Airport. One man was severely injured when a concrete block barn collapsed. One home and several farm buildings were destroyed, with others damaged.
F5	Wheelersburg to Gallipolis	Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia	2105	34 miles (54.4 km)	7 deaths - See section on this tornado
Tennessee
F1	Smithville	DeKalb	2058	0.1 miles (0.16 km)	Struck the Miller Heights subdivision in Smithville. One house was unroofed and torn apart, and three trailers were destroyed. Many other structures were damaged.[1]
Louisiana
F2	S of Crowley	Acadia	2200	1 mile (1.6 km)	One barn was destroyed, a second barn was damaged, and a house trailer was overturned.[3]
Source: Tornado History Project - April 23, 1968 Storm Data

Falmouth–Dover, Kentucky–Ripley, Ohio

Falmouth–Dover, Kentucky–Ripley, Ohio

F4 tornado
Max. rating^1	F4 tornado
Casualties	1 fatality, hundreds of injuries
^1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

This tornado began in Kentucky where 380 homes were damaged and 180 others were destroyed in and around Falmouth. 115 of the 127 homes in the small town of Dover were badly damaged. Many homes and barns were also destroyed around the towns of Berlin, Augusta, Bladeston, and Chatham as well. The tornado crossed into Ohio and struck the Ripley area, where 30 homes were damaged, 40 barns were destroyed, and a tobacco warehouse and a shoe plant were badly damaged. It then continued through Brown County, destroying 17 barns, before moving through Adams County, where 25 homes and barns were damaged or destroyed and four trailer homes were destroyed. Hundreds of people were injured. The tornado occasionally lifted as it dipped into valleys but mostly remained on the ground, though it may have been a tornado family. It produced high-end F4 damage and may have been an F5 like the Wheelersburg–Gallipolis event, but is officially rated F4.[1][2]

Wheelersburg–Gallipolis, Ohio

Wheelersburg–Gallipolis, Ohio

F5 tornado
Max. rating^1	F5 tornado
Casualties	7 fatalities, 92 injuries
^1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

At around 4 PM EDT, the deadliest tornado touched down. Touching down just east of the Ohio River in Scioto County east of South Shore, Kentucky, the F5 tornado tore through the Wheelersburg area causing extensive damage to many structures. There, it first destroyed a transfer company and a farm supply store. A train was derailed and thrown from the tracks nearby. 550 homes were damaged or destroyed in the Dogwood Ridge area of Wheelersburg, some of which were swept away. A greenhouse was destroyed and a furniture company had its roof torn off. A large metal power line truss tower was ripped off at the base and thrown by the tornado. Cars were tossed from route 52 and Wheelersburg Cemetery was damaged.[1] Damage was estimated at around $2 million (in 1968 dollars). The storm moved east into Lawrence and Gallia counties and affected areas near and around the communities of Cadmus, Buckhorn, Centenary and Gallipolis, where the storm dissipated 34 miles (55 km) after its initial touchdown. The tornado caused damage in and around the rural communities of Flat Hollow, Little White, Oak, East Tygart, Siloam Bottoms, Lyra, and Sunshine. Sunshine Elementary School was badly damaged. The tornado caused damage in the Gallipolis area before dissipating, where six house trailers, eight homes, and four farm buildings were destroyed. 15 buildings were damaged at Gallipolis State Institute. The tornado injured 92 people and caused at least $2,000,000 in damage. The F5 rating is disputed due to the fact that the homes that were swept away were not properly anchored to their foundations.[1][4] Some National Weather Service records show that the tornado began in Greenup County, Kentucky, making its track 38 miles (61 km) long and 400 yards (0.23 mi) wide.[5]

Outbreak death toll

State	Total	County	County total
Kentucky	5	Bracken	1
		Pendleton	4
Ohio	9	Brown	1
		Clermont	1
		Scioto	7
Totals	14
All deaths were tornado-related

In all, the tornado killed seven people and injured nearly 100 others. Approximately 69 homes and 28 other buildings were destroyed and another 476 structures were damaged. Then-Governor Jim Rhodes called in the National Guard to assist the rescue and cleanup efforts.[6] This was the first official F5 tornado in Ohio since tornado records began in 1950. Initially though, a tornado in Pittsfield, Ohio, during the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak was the first official F5 in Ohio before being lowered to an F4, thus making the Wheelersburg–Gallipolis F5 the first. Other F5s in Ohio took place in Cincinnati and Xenia (near Dayton) on April 3, 1974, and in Niles near Youngstown and Warren on May 31, 1985. In 1968, the Wheelersburg–Gallipolis F5 was one of four F5s recorded across the US—the others being in Charles City and Oelwein in Iowa on May 15 and in Tracy, Minnesota, on June 13.

See also

• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

References

1. Grazulis, Thomas P (July 1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. ISBN 1-879362-03-1.
2. US Department of Commerce, NOAA. "Tornado Listing". www.weather.gov.
3. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=10033104
4. Grazulis, Thomas P. (2001). F5-F6 Tornadoes. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project.
5. http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/techrpts/tr9902/tr9902.pdf
6. 1968 Tornado Archived 2004-08-29 at the Wayback Machine