1911 Bedford, Indiana tornado

The **1911 Bedford, Indiana tornado** was a very violent wedge tornado that occurred overnight on November 11, 1911 during the Great Norther Blue of November 11, 1911. The tornado is notable for destroying many buildings used for the oolitic limestone industry, and railroad tracks were completely ripped out of the ground and tossed.

## Meteorological history

Many cities broke record highs, going into the 70s and 80s early that afternoon. By nightfall, cities were dealing with temperatures in the teens and single-digits on the Fahrenheit scale. This is the only day in many midwest cities' weather bureau jurisdictions where the record highs and lows were broken for the same day. Some cities experienced tornadoes on Saturday and a blizzard on Sunday. A blizzard even occurred within one hour after an F4 tornado hit Rock County, Wisconsin.

The main cause of such a dramatic cold snap was an extremely strong storm system separating warm, humid air from frigid, arctic air. Dramatic cold snaps tend to occur mostly in the month of November, though they can also come in February or March. These arrivals of Continental Polar or Arctic air masses are generally called northers, and the one in question was marked by a mass of steel blue clouds in the vicinity of the surface front, hence the name. Although temperature drops of this extent have happened on other occasions, as recently as February 2009.

The Bedford tornado individually was formed from a supercell that moved in a west-east direction, cutting across the Silverville and Fayetteville areas into the northern edge of the city. The tornado had touched down just outside of the city, cutting across Northern Bedford, in a similar fashion to a tornado that touched down 102 years later on November 17, 2013, which was an EF1 tornado that cut across the same region. After moving out of town, the tornado likely dissipated as it was about to cross the Jackson County line.

## Tornado damage

The damage path of the tornado was over 1 mile in width and traversed the city from west to east. At some points, the gale dipped to demolish a fine stone plant, then would rise and leave no wreckage for a considerable distance. The south boundary of the strip could be defined a few feet south of the Bedford and Bloomfield track. While practically all of the wreckage indicated that the gale was blowing almost directly east, there were also indications of a twisting motion, especially apparent at the three large mills most severely damaged. The Shea & Donelly, Salem and Struble mills. In addition to wrecking the mills of the city, property loss to citizens in damage to dwellings and outbuildings added up to thousands of dollars (1911 USD). The Indiana Quarries Company mill, better known as the Salem or P.M. & B mill, was wrecked to such an extent that it was not fully running for more than 1 year. The onslaught was most severe at the eastern end of the plant. The tramway housing, which extended many feet beyond the other sections of the building, was razed to the ground and twelve bents of the tramway at the western end collapsed. At the end of the wrecked tramway had stood two very heavy electric travelers which, when the tornado came, were shoved one hundred feet east on the tramway. One of the heavy trucks was torn from one of the travelers as they were driven to the east by the wind. The roof and sides of the tramway housing were wrecked for a distance of probably 200 hundred feet. Though much of the machinery of the plant was covered by the debris, it was stated that there had been but little damage from this source.

Three of the four smoke stacks at the plant were also torn down and a part of the engine room badly wrecked. Practically all of the windows of the office were broken out and the building was blown out of true. Sine if the outbuildings of the mill were picked up and set down on their roofs, with little damage to the structure. William Campbell, the night watchman, was in the dynamo room when the tornado struck the mill. He had became a little worried at the storm and had sought, what he considered, the safest place. Though he heard much of the noise, he had no idea that practically the entire mill lay in ruins until John Lock, who resided just across the Monon track from the place, ran into the mill to make a search for him. At the Southeastern Shops, the two large smoke stacks which were 125 feet high from the base, were collapsed. With the wreckage of the smoke stacks came the greater part of the boiler room and the end wall of the building, constructed of twelve inch stone blocks, was practically demolished. when the storm struck the building, Engineer Grant Hally and fireman Hubert Bruce, with his wife were in the boiler room. They made a dash for the door only a few feet distant and succeeded in getting out, just as several large blocks of stone fell, missing them by only a few inches.

After assessing damages described, the tornado was given a low-end F3 rating through analogous events.

## References

1. ↑ *Bell, R.* The Rise & Fall of the Southern Indiana Railroad and Its Founder John R. Walsh. ISBN: 1-4259-4623-2