Wheelersburg, Ohio tornado outbreak
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| Date of tornado outbreak: | April 23, 1968 |
| Duration1: | ~5 hours |
| Maximum rated tornado2: | F5 tornado |
| Tornadoes caused: | 13 |
| Damages: | unknown |
| Fatalities: | 14 |
| Areas affected: | Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley |
|
1Time from first tornado to last tornado |
|
The Wheelersburg, Ohio tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that struck portions of the Midwestern United States and Ohio Valley on April 23, 1968. The most notable tornado was an F5 that struck portions of southeastern Ohio from Wheelersburg to Gallipolis just north of the Ohio-Kentucky state line. At least 13 tornadoes touched down in the Midwest region and caused at least 14 deaths including five in Kentucky and nine in Ohio.
Contents |
[edit] Tornado event
The outbreak started at around the noon hour in Michigan and the first deadly tornado of the outbreak took place just before 2 PM EST when an F4 travelled an outbreak-high of nearly 80 miles across Kentucky and Ohio. The storm killed at least 6 people and injured over 350. Nearly at the same time, another F4 tornado east of Cincinnati killed 1 person.
| 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 | |||
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 most of the town. Damage was estimated at around $2 million (in 1968 dollars). The storm moved east into Lawrence and Gallia counties and affected near and around the communities of Cadmus, Buckhorn, Centenary and Gallipolis were the storm dissapated 34 miles after its initial touchdown near the West Virginia state line. Some National Weather Service records shows that its starting point was in Greenup County, Kentucky making it a 38-mile long track and 400 yards wide.[1] 7 people were killed and nearly 100 others were injured.
Approximately 69 homes and 28 other buildings were destroyed and another 476 structures were damaged . 11 train cars were blown off a track while at the Scioto County Airport, 10 planes were damaged including 4 beyond repair. Then-Governor James Rhodes called in the National Guard to assist the rescue and cleanup efforts.[2] This was the first official F5 tornado in Ohio since tornado records were kept in 1950. Initially though, a tornado in Pittsfield, Ohio during the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 was the first official Ohio F5 before being lowered to an F4 thus giving the title of first Ohio F5 tornado to Wheelersburg and Gallipolis. 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, it 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.
[edit] Tornado table
| Confirmed Total |
Confirmed F0 |
Confirmed F1 |
Confirmed F2 |
Confirmed F3 |
Confirmed F4 |
Confirmed F5 |
| 13 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
[edit] Confirmed tornadoes
| 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 Shiloh | Mecosta, Osceola | 1853 | 60.9 miles (97.4 km) |
||
| F0 | SW of Livonia | Wayne | 1930 | 0.1 miles (0.16 km) |
||
| Kentucky | ||||||
| F4 | W of Falmouth, KY to E of Lucasville, OH | Pendleton, KY, Bracken, Edmonson, Brown, OH, Adams, Scioto | 1841 | 78.7 miles (125.9 km) |
6 deaths | |
| F2 | NE of Chatham | Bracken, Mason | 1930 | 0.1 miles (0.16 km) |
||
| F3 | E of South Shore | Greenup | 2055 | 0.1 miles (0.16 km) |
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| F2 | Nicholasville area | Jessamine | 2234 | 3.3 miles (5.3 km) |
||
| Ohio | ||||||
| F4 | NW of Willowville to E of Westboro | Clermont, Brown, Clinton | 1856 | 24.1 miles (38.6 km) |
1 death | |
| F1 | NE of Fayette | Fulton | 1915 | 0.1 miles (0.16 km) |
||
| F1 | N of Pataskala | Licking | 2030 | 8.2 miles (13.1 km) |
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| F2 | S of Minford | Scioto | 2030 | 4.9 miles (7.8 km) |
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| F5 | Wheelersburg to Gallipolis | Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia | 2105 | 34 miles (54.4 km) |
7 deaths | |
| Tennessee | ||||||
| F1 | Smithville | DeKalb | 2058 | 0.1 miles (0.16 km) |
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| Source: Tornado History Project - April 23, 1968 Storm Data | ||||||
