And Hell Followed With It: Life and Death in a Kansas Tornado Read online

  Advance praise for And Hell Followed With It

  “I’ve covered many a tornado over the years, but after reading these chapters, it’s the first time I’ve ever been in one. Great writing.”

  —Wes Lyle, award-winning Missouri-Kansas photojournalist; member, Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame

  “Bonar Menninger has written a gripping yarn about a fateful day more than 40 years ago when thousands of Kansas residents going about their daily business were caught unaware by a freakish weather event. The narrative focuses on ordinary people caught up in the literal maelstrom of one of the most monstrous tornadoes ever to hit the continental United States, depicting the extraordinary confusion—and, in some instances, heroism—engendered by that singular event. Combining vivid character portraits with an impressive command of the science behind tornadoes, Menninger has penned a page-turner worthy of the best narrative nonfiction books produced in recent years.”

  —Dan Margolies, former reporter, Reuters

  “So many of us who have spent our careers in weather and severe storms are primarily focused on research, prediction, and concerns about the next scientific or public safety challenge. As a result, we are perhaps not as aware as we could be of the tragedy and suffering these storms cause. This book takes that awareness to a whole different level for us. It is a powerful story that should be read by everyone involved in severe storm prediction and public safety. It also provides insight into the aftermath of these events and human beings’ remarkable determination to carry on.”

  —Phil Shideler, retired meteorologist-in-charge, National Weather Service office, Topeka, Kansas

  “A beautifully written account of ordinary people under extraordinary duress. Menninger not only conjures the random chaos and violence of an EF-5 tornado, but also captures immensely human stories of endurance.”

  —Joan Dean, PhD, professor of English, University of Missouri–Kansas City

  “The 1966 Topeka tornado was a seminal event for tornado preparedness. The real-life narratives about the many people who survived this devastating storm reinforce the idea that there are things a person can do to increase the likelihood of survival, even when nature throws her most extreme storm at us.”

  —Joseph T. Schaefer, PhD, CCM, retired director, Storm Prediction Center, National Weather Service, Norman, Oklahoma

  And

  Hell

  Followed

  With It

  LIFE AND DEATH IN A KANSAS TORNADO

  BONAR MENNINGER

  Published by Emerald Book Company

  Austin, TX

  www.emeraldbookcompany.com

  Copyright ©2011 Bonar Menninger

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

  transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

  otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

  Distributed by Emerald Book Company

  For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please

  contact Emerald Book Company at PO Box 91869, Austin, TX 78709,

  512.891.6100.

  Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group LLC and Bumpy Design

  Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group LLC and Faceout Studio

  Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

  (Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

  Menninger, Bonar.

  And hell followed with it : life and death in a Kansas tornado / Bonar

  Menninger.—1st ed.

  p. : ill., maps; cm.

  ISBN: 978-1-934572-67-2

  1. Tornadoes—Kansas—Topeka. 2. Natural disasters—Kansas—Topeka.

  3. Topeka (Kan.)—History. I. Title.

  QC955.5.K2 M46 2010

  551.553/0978163 2010929150

  Part of the Tree Neutral™ program, which offsets the number of

  trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking

  proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the

  number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

  Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

  10 11 12 13 14 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  First Edition

  Dedicated to my daughter, Grace

  And I looked, and behold a pale horse:

  And his name that sat on him was Death,

  And Hell followed with him.

  — REVELATIONS 6:8

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Sources and Methods

  Warning

  Guide to Maps

  ONE Hump Day

  TWO Severe Weather Watch No. 201

  THREE Facing the Monsters

  FOUR The Legend of Burnett’s Mound

  FIVE The Guardian

  SIX To the Mound

  SEVEN “For God’s Sake, Take Cover!”

  EIGHT A Blasted Plain

  NINE A Recital Interrupted

  TEN “It Looks Like Berlin”

  ELEVEN A Knife to the Heart of the City

  TWELVE The Maelstrom

  THIRTEEN Under a Cobalt Sky

  FOURTEEN Behold the Pale Horse

  FIFTEEN A World Transformed

  SIXTEEN Awaiting the Dawn

  SEVENTEEN The Living and the Dead

  EIGHTEEN To the Stars Through Difficulties

  NINETEEN Beneath the Shadow of June 8th

  Notes

  Index

  Acknowledgments

  This book could not have happened without the assistance, cooperation and support of a large number of people. First and foremost, I wish to express my gratitude to the many survivors of the Topeka tornado who took time to share their experiences with me. Their stories are the heart of this book. I appreciate not only their willingness to revisit often-traumatic memories but also their patience in working with me to ensure that I understood the facts correctly. I am particularly grateful to the next of kin of those killed in the storm and the relatives of tornado survivors now gone. Again, the memories were difficult for all, and I felt both honored and humbled that these people would share them with me.

  Along with the individuals who had a direct connection to the tornado, numerous others provided expertise and insight in support of this project:

  Thank you to the following meteorologists for their time and patience in helping me get a handle on the complexities of severe weather: Phil Shideler, retired meteorologist-in-charge, Topeka National Weather Service office; Mike Akulow, retired warning coordination meteorologist, Topeka NWS office; Jennifer Stark, former warning coordination meteorologist, Topeka NWS office (now meteorologist-in-charge, Pueblo, Colorado, NWS); George Phillips, science operations officer, Topeka NWS office; Joseph Schaefer, retired director, NWS Storm Prediction Center, Norman, Oklahoma; and Bruce Jones, former meteorologist with KSNT-TV in Topeka. Thanks also to Mr. Shideler for his invaluable assistance in providing me with details about the early days of tornado preparedness efforts in Topeka and the role the late Richard Garrett played in that work.

  On a separate front, thanks also to Gary Wis-Ki-Ge-Amatyuk Jr., the great-great-great-grandson of Chief Abram Burnett, for his help regarding the history of the Potawatomis and Chief Burnett. (For more information on Chief Burnett, visit www.wiskigeamatyuk.com.) Thanks to historians Douglas Wallace and Don Chubb for assistance on the history of Topeka and the tornado’s impact on the city. Likewise, thanks to Martha Imparato, the archivist at Washburn University, and Jim Kelly, documentarian with
KTWU, Washburn’s public television station, for their help in tracking down sources. Thanks also to Larry Broadbent, for sharing his historical knowledge of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

  Anita Miller Fry was a major help in locating numerous individuals and was an enthusiastic supporter of this project from the beginning. A big shout-out to KTWU, WIBW, cjonline.com and, most especially, the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, for having the foresight to collect written recollections of the tornado at the time of the storm’s 40th anniversary in 2006. These documents were extremely helpful in tracking down tornado survivors.

  Thanks to the many reporters who preceded me on this story. Their hard work in chronicling the events of June 8, 1966 — both in the immediate aftermath of the storm and on subsequent anniversaries — made my job a lot easier. The same holds true for the documentary filmmakers, most notably Jim Kelly and Bill Kurtis.

  I am extremely grateful for the remarkable visual record of the tornado and its aftermath, created by an outstanding group of photographers working for the Topeka Daily Capital and the Topeka State Journal in 1966, including Rich Clarkson, Rod Hanna, Jack Kenward, George Olson, Perry Riddle, Delmar Schmidt, Barry Sweet and Hugh Tessendorf. Thanks to the current management of the Topeka Capital-Journal for generously allowing me use of the photos.

  Thanks also to Rick Schmidt, Lloyd Zimmer, B. T. Bradford, Martha Imparato and all others who provided additional photos.

  Thanks to Becky Eis of Ask Rebecca Secretarial Services for transcribing hundreds of hours of interviews, to Kim Mann for her initial design work, to Karen Alexander for her top-notch copyediting, to Topeka native Phil Thompson for his excellent maps, and to Steve Wilson Photography for key assistance with the pictures.

  Thanks to Dave Hathaway for providing me with a vast trove of documents, newspapers and other source material.

  Thanks to Bill Tiernan for his ideas, insight and support from day one.

  Thanks to Jan Hathaway for her faith.

  Thanks to Emerald Book Company and everyone at Greenleaf Book Group for all their hard work and for believing in this project.

  Finally, I am grateful to the many colleagues and friends who took time from their busy schedules to read the first draft of the book. Not only did they catch numerous typos and make helpful suggestions, but they also reinforced my convictions about the relevance of this project. Special thanks to my mom, Catherine Menninger; my dad, Roy Menninger; and my stepmom, Bev Menninger. They were my biggest supporters from first to last and dutifully read every chapter when others likely would have lost interest. I tried to make them proud. Last but not least, thanks to my wife, Ann Cain, and my daughter, Grace, for putting up with countless evenings and weekends when all I did was work on my book. Ann was my first sounding board as chapters were produced, and her observations and instincts were never wrong.

  Bonar Menninger

  Kansas City

  Sources and Methods

  The vast majority of individual experiences recounted in this book were recorded through face-to-face interviews with the persons involved or their next of kin. All historical conversations in the book, with the exception of surviving radio transcriptions, were recreated based on the recollections of participants. Most of the general information about the tornado’s aftermath was culled from newspaper articles, primarily in the Topeka State Journal, the Topeka Daily Capital, the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Times. I am especially indebted to former Capital-Journal reporter Ralph Marsh for his excellent article titled “Tornado Watch No. 201,” which appeared in the June 4th, 1967, edition of the Topeka Capital-Journal’s Midway magazine.

  Warning

  Certain scenes in this book depict persons seeking cover from an oncoming tornado beneath interstate overpasses. The National Weather Service has determined that taking shelter under highway bridges is extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. Bridge openings accelerate the already fierce winds of a tornado and leave individuals vulnerable to a killing barrage of flying debris. If caught on the highway, persons should attempt to determine which way the tornado is moving and, if time and distance permit, drive out of its path. Failing that, they should get out of their vehicles and seek shelter in the lowest spot possible.

  Guide to Maps Topeka, Kansas — 1966

  Burnett’s Mound / 29th & Gage

  Shunga Park / Washburn University

  College Hill / Central Park

  Downtown

  East Topeka / Oakland

  The Tornado’s Path

  CHAPTER ONE

  Hump Day

  Glenn Nicely filled a paper cup from the push-button thermos perched on the tailgate of his pickup, took a long, steady pull, then spat a perfect jet into the gravel near his boots. The day was getting hot. It had rained hard the night before, and lingering clouds had drifted over most of the day. Now, at 4:30, the sun was burning through and the humidity was rising. The air was thick and close.

  So summer was here. The days would grow steadily hotter. By the Fourth of July, the violent storms of spring and last night’s driving, two-inch rain would be fading memories. By mid-August, the thermometer would regularly top 100 degrees and the wind would blow like a blast furnace until the earth wilted and pulled back into itself. Glenn had watched the seasons turn enough to know that summer on the plains could be just as savage as winter — that heat, humidity and frequent drought were just as merciless as the arctic winds that knifed down from Canada from December until March.

  That was Kansas. You got used to it.

  Fortunately, given the rising heat of the day, quitting time was near. Glenn crushed the paper cup, tossed it into the pickup bed and stared intently at the little building before him. With all the rain, it was a good thing he and Bud had managed to get the roof on last week. They had set in the big front window earlier and would finish putting up plywood by day’s end. Siding would arrive tomorrow. They could get that up in a couple of days and then go inside next week: setting the toilet and sink, building the counter, insulating, hanging Sheetrock and putting up trim.

  Three months into it, maybe three to go. They were getting there.

  Office workers and deliverymen hurrying to beat the yellow light at the busy intersection of 21st Street and Kansas Avenue in Topeka no doubt paid little attention to the two men working on the small structure nearby. But the fact was, a lot went into constructing a gas station.

  You had your concrete work: pouring the slab and later, the eight-inch-thick cap for the tanks, and the island, too. You had your carpentry: framing and roofing and interior finish work. And the tanks: two 8,000-gallon steel beasts set in a hole 15 feet deep and 30 feet across. But before a crane could set them into place, you had to make sure they didn’t leak. Air was pumped in and gauges set to measure any loss over a 24-hour period. A state inspector would come out to certify the results. After that, pipefitting: hooking up one-inch copper from the tank pumps to the dispenser pumps. And finally, welding: Roof panels for the canopy were arc-welded to a steel frame erected on two heavy posts bolted to footings five feet in the ground.

  Glenn Nicely had gone through the apprentice program at Carpenters and Joiners Local 1445 after he’d been discharged from the Army in 1959. Now, seven years later, in June of 1966, there wasn’t much he couldn’t do. He’d been a cook in Germany. But Glenn was more like a Green Beret in the building and mechanical trades. Along with all the skills required to build a gas station, Glenn was qualified to do millwright work. He’d learned the trade — heavy machinery assembly, maintenance and repair — in apprentice school, and for previous employers, he’d worked on the giant steam turbines at the Kansas Power & Light power station by the river and on the big conveyors that moved tires through the Goodyear plant in North Topeka.

  All of which was hard, physical work, and Glenn wasn’t big, maybe five feet seven inches and 140 pounds. But what he lacked in size, he made up for in grit: He would attack a project wi
th a quiet fury and go flat out until it was done. If he couldn’t finesse the thing, he’d jam it, and if there was a problem, Glenn would quickly figure a way around. He worked smart and fast.

  Glenn could be funny in a droll, hard-edged, job-site kind of way, co-worker Bob Clearwater recalled. One thing he didn’t abide was ignorance. If Glenn thought something was wrong or impossible or foolish, like a schedule or a plan or a process or an idea, he wouldn’t hesitate to speak up, fixing the boss with a flat, unwavering stare that suggested utter indifference to authority, if not outright contempt. He would argue his case steadily and fearlessly, and more often than not, much to his co-workers’ silent amazement, the bosses would come around.

  But now, as he picked up his tools at day’s end, Glenn had no problem with anyone. Home was close. For three years, building service stations for the Uhl Company had meant working for one, two, even three weeks straight in far-off towns from eastern Missouri to western Kansas. At the end of the hitch, Glenn and his co-workers would drive back to Topeka and make the most of three days off before heading back out. But this particular job was right in town, not 15 miles from Glenn’s trailer near Auburn, a farm town just southwest of the city. Miracle of miracles: He’d be home another night with his wife, Inge (pronounced “Inga”), and their six-year-old daughter, Angie.