1902 Goliad tornado

Weather event in Texas, United States May 2025 February 2025 1902 Goliad, Texas, tornado Goliad damage.jpg Violent damage after the tornado May 18, 1902 F4 F4 equiv. tornado 114 ≥279 $125,000 (1902 USD) Goliad, Texas, US The 1902 Goliad, Texas, tornado was a F4 tornado that struck the town of Goliad, Texas, United States, on Sunday, May 18, 1902. A total of 114 people died, 250 were injured, and $125,000https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/87218617/ The Waxahachie Daily Light from Waxahachie, Texas on May 20, 1902 · Page 2 Newspapers.com 2017-04-22 en damage occurred. Inflation adjusted puts it at $3.4 million.http://www.in2013dollars.com/1902-dollars-in-2017?amount=125000 $125,000 in 1902 → 2017 Inflation Calculator www.in2013dollars.com en 2017-04-22 Storm development and track thumb|left|Historical marker remembering the Goliad tornado of 1902 (Darrylpearson) During May 17 to 19, thunderstorms occurred from the lower Missouri Valley to Texas. On the 18th at 12:15pm, the Galveston weather office issued a special warning of "Squalls, with brisk and occasionally high winds are indicated for the west gulf this afternoon and to-night." https://books.google.com/books?id=S8RGAQAAIAAJ&q=goliad&pg=PA245 Monthly Weather Review, May 1902 30 5 1902-09-04 U.S. Weather Bureau en That afternoon, Beeville, which is 30 miles to the southwest of Goliad, had considerable damage by high winds.https://newspaperarchive.com/fort-wayne-journal-gazette-may-19-1902-p-1/ Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Newspaper Archives, May 19, 1902 NewspaperArchive 1902-05-19 NewspaperArchive.com 2017-04-21 en The tornado is believed to have first touched down near Berclair, about 15 miles southwest of Goliad, and moved toward the northeast.National Weather Service A list of the top 10 worst tornadoes in Texas history https://www.weather.gov/ama/top10_tornadoes www.weather.gov EN-US The tornado was on the south side of town, across the San Antonio River about 3:35 p.m.https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/5175002207 Details - Goliad Tornado of 1902 - Atlas Number 5175002207 - Atlas: Texas Historical Commission atlas.thc.state.tx.us 2017-04-18 It continued traveling northeast and wrecked the steel bridge across the river at San Patricio Street. The tornado then destroyed the filled Fannin Street Methodist Church at Mt. Auburn Street, killing about 50 people. It went on to destroy the brick factory.Starr Raymond Goliad 2009 Arcadia Publishing 9780738578736 https://books.google.com/books?id=CIeBJ5qKe4oC&q=tornado en Witness Browne reported it sounded like a "million-ton [train] engine".Cox Mike Texas Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival 2015-07-15 Rowman & Littlefield 9781493013173 57–66 https://books.google.com/books?id=UkwiCgAAQBAJ&q=goliad+1902&pg=PA57 19 May 2017 en The tornado was a couple of blocks wide when it moved up the west side of town destroying more homes, businesses and churches. The tornado path was 1/8 to 1/2 mile wide and traveled for about a mile. Reports say the tornado lasted only 5 minutes. Aftermath Within a few hours, 85 people were reported dead and 29 more over the next several days. Across the city, 150 homes, 100 businesses, a Baptist church and parsonage, a black Methodist church, a white Methodist church, and the second story of the county courthouse were destroyed. At least 50 people were in the black church, none survived. Dr. Louis Warren Chilton, a young doctor whose wife was injured and whose daughter was lifted into the tornado funnel but survived, set up a temporary hospital and morgue in the first floor of the county courthouse. The Dr. L.W. and Martha E.S. Chilton House was built starting in June and included an underground shelter.https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972131 Texas SP Chilton, Dr. L.W. and Martha E.S., House Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (3/2/1934 – ) 1998-04-09 File Unit: National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records: Texas, 1964–2013 2018-07-08 After the tornado, several dozen were buried in a communal grave along the eastern border of Lott Cemetery. At the time, it was the fourth deadliest tornado in the United States and the worst in Texas history. The Waco tornado of May 11, 1953 tied as the deadliest in Texas history and is now eleventh overall in the United States. References https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/24178956/ The Corpus Christi Caller-Times from Corpus Christi, Texas on May 16, 1965 · Page 26 Newspapers.com 2017-04-18 en Further reading A Goliad Horror: The Great Tornado of 1902 https://books.google.com/books?id=3AsLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22A+Goliad+Horror:++The+Great+Tornado+of+1902%22 South Texas studies 2001-01-01 Fritz Karen E. 21–53 Victoria College Press en Tornado Victims of the Goliad Tornado of 1902, Victoria – Crossroads of South Texas Quarterly XXIII, no. 2 (2002) by Karen E. Fritz The 1902 Goliad Tornado: A Remembrance of Horror by Kenneth Carter. External links Wicked Skies: Days of Peril segment on Goliad from KABB San Antonio Goliad Tornado, 1902 Category:Tornadoes in Texas Category:F4, EF4 and IF4 tornadoes Category:20th-century tornadoes Category:Meteorological events in 1902 Category:1902 natural disasters in the United States Goliad, Texas, Tornado Category:Goliad County, Texas