~ KERRY LIVGREN ON THE 1966 TOPEKA TORNADO ~ {Shared with the permission of the author} Memories of a Tornado by Kerry Livgren It was a fine summer day in Topeka, Kansas, June 8th 1966. It was late afternoon, and the day was a bit humid, although as a young man of seventeen I hardly noticed. School was out and life was good. The Gimlets, (my band), were all at my house on Mulvane street. Scott, Tim, Dan, John, and myself were in the garage practicing, as was our custom. The usual gang of Knollwood (neighborhood) kids were there as our audience. It was muggy outside, with an unsettled feeling in the air, but we hardly noticed. It was a typical day in Kansas. Suddenly my Dad appeared, and asked if a couple of us would help him to bring his Lowrey Organ home from the Eagles club (in Downtown Topeka), where he had played the night before. We were almost done with practice anyway, so a couple of us agreed, and we jumped in our Volkwagen bus with Dad and off we went. We loaded Dads Organ in the bus, and on the way back home we noticed it was extremely humid and still – so still that it felt creepy. There was also a greenish tint to the atmosphere. My Dad was always hyper-sensitive to weather changes, especially since he was a pilot. We were just blocks from our house when we heard the sirens going off. Their wailing was a sound I always dreaded. It was a frequent occurence in Kansas, but nothing ever came of it, at least not for us. Still, it gave me chills, and this time would be different. Dad whipped the VW into the garage, and we jumped out. The adrelanline was already pumping. My Mom stuck her head out the door and cried The TV says its a Tornado, just Southwest of Burnetts Mound! ( Burnetts Mound is a very large hill, on the Southwest side of Topeka). The Indians use to say that a Twister would never hit Topeka, because it was protected by Burnetts Mound. It appeared as though that protection was over. We all frantically ran for the basement. My Dad ordered us all to get under the pool table. My brothers and I, plus Dan and John had trouble complying with that order – we didnt all fit. Dan ended up in a bedroom closet with a clothes basket over his head. Dad was standing at the west wall, peering out through the window well. I heard a sound that I had never heard before, like the sound of a giant turbine mixed with a background of constant thunder. I climbed out from under the pool table and said Dad, I want to see, let me see! He said All right, just for a second, then get back under there. I had seen plenty of pictures and films of Tornados, but nothing I had imagined was like what I was looking at now. It was immense – and white. But very shortly it began to get very dirty. It was sucking up everything in its path – trees, houses, cars, mud, everything. At one point, I saw a house fly up the side the funnel, relatively intact, only to be reduced to a million airborne splinters. The sound was permanently embedded in my memory. One always hears it described as the sound of a freight train, but in fact the giant turbine mixed with constant thunder that I described was pretty accurate. Occasionlly, I could hear something that sounded like explosions. To cap it off, this was all blended with the wailing of the Tornado sirens. The funnel was so huge, you really couldnt tell which way it was headed. It looked like it was headed straight for our house. Get down, son, and get back under the table. I had never seen my Father afraid of anything before, but I could tell by the sound of his voice that this was something truly dangerous – our family was in peril. I scrambled back under the pool table. Dad was still at the window. He couldnt tear himself away from this awesome and terrible sight. The city of Topeka, despite the Indians legend, was being demolished. It became eerily dark in our basement then. That green sky had given way to a very dim and foreboding gray. After what must have been a couple of minutes, Dad said It looks like its headed North of us, its headed for Washburn. Washburn University was indeed about twelve blocks North of our house. We didnt know it then, but later that evening we would see the wreckage of the college. As soon as Dad was sure that the Twisters path would not hit us, he said Lets go out and see. We all vacated our shelter and ran outside to the front yard. I was absolutely transfixed. There, just to our North, was a boiling, reeling, mass of cloud, churning its way though town, vacuuming up everything in its path. Suddenly it began raining – but it wasnt rain. Get back in the basement my Father yelled. The sky over us began to pour down shingles, fragments of wood, metal, chunks of asphalt, articles of clothing, papers, toys, pots and pans, everything you can imagine, both large and small. The pieces of peoples lives were landing all around us. So back in the basement we went, for another two or three minutes. When the sky has given up its debris, Dad gave us the green light to emerge once again. Then came a truly amazing sight. As the colossal Tornado moved off to the Northeast, the sky behind it was absolutely clear. The sun popped out as though nothing had happened. I halfway expected to see a rainbow. (Some, in fact, reported seeing one). Gone was the oppressive humidity. The sky was beautiful. But on the ground – it was not a thing of beauty. The Tornado had cut a path, at times more than a quarter-mile wide, from the Southeast corner of Topeka to the Northeastern border of town. Our house, scarcely a mile and a half from the Twisters swath, had not been touched. However we were about to witness the extent of the destruction. John Pribble, our drummer, lived in a nice Subdivision just East of Burnetts mound. Ive got to get home, I have to get home!, he adamantly exclaimed. In complete agreement wih him, we got into the car and proceeded West on 29th St. The National Guard had not yet secured the streets. As we came over the hill, we all gasped. Where the subdivision had been, was just a vast mud flat. The Tornado had actually sucked the grass out of the ground. We drove this route every day to Topeka West High school when school was in session. I knew every inch of it – but not now. There was not one familiar landmark, just devastation. We had no idea how to find Johns house, or what was left of it. We began to drive slowly, around the debris, and found Johns street by dead reckoning. I shall never forget the look on peoples faces. They were just coming out of their basements. Their look of total astonishment slowly gave way to sorrow and grief. Others were praising God that they and their families had been spared. To Johns immense relief, he found his house, (or just the foundation), and his parents were all right. Tims house was barely to the North side of the destruction, just past Gage Blvd., but it was all right. There were some really strange sights to be seen. In the middle of an acre of mud on every side, stood a Grand Piano. The house where it had been was gone, but the piano was intact. Just Southeast of where Johns house had been, was a modern split-level home. The surrounding dwelling places were all gone, save this one house. But even more curious was the pillow protruding from the West wall of the house. It had somehow been sucked through a hole in the wall about the size of a grapefruit. The next day I saw a picture of an airplane propellor stuck upright in someones yard. Weird. We found out later that we had experienced a very close call. (as if being in a Tornado was not close enough!) The Tornados path took it right through downtown. There was a small bowling alley, the Pla-Land, very near to the Eagles club where we had been earlier. The owner was killed there, taking shelter under a pool table. If we had lingered there a bit longer, we would have been directly in the Tornado path. Or, if the Twister had veered only a few blocks South, it would have hit our house, and perhaps our pool table. Thank God for His mercy. In the weeks and months that followed, many more Tornado Stories would be told. The Fujita scale, the F designation, was not in use at the time. Applied retroactively, this Tornado was an F5, at the height of the scale. Now, many years later, it has left me a bit of a weather freak. Every spring I prepare a weather survival kit, and each time I hear the sirens go off, I grab Vicci and the kids and run for that old pool table in the basement! {Kerry Livgren is one of the founding members of the legendary multi-platinum progressive rock band Kansas, as well as the bands A.D. and Proto-Kaw. He continues to reside in the Topeka area. For more information, visit numavox.}
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 05:23:53 +0000
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