Published: April 03, 2006 03:25 pm            

Remembering Woodward’s 1947 tornado

WOODWARD — The history of Woodward is split into two parts — before and after the 1947 tornado.

Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum curator Kristin Mravinec said the tornado is repeatedly used as a reference point for the community that lost more than 100 people that fateful day in April. As such, the museum has a permanent exhibit in its south wing on the tornado and its effects.

Considered among the top 10 worst weather events in the 20th century by National Severe Storms Laboratory, the tornadic storm on April 9, 1947, started northeast of Amarillo, Texas, ripped through Woodward County and ended west of Wichita, Kan. At least six tornadoes were spawned from the storm along a 220-mile path.

The National Severe Storms Laboratory confirmed an F5 tornado struck Woodward at 8:42 p.m. that day without warning. (Southwestern Bell operators were on strike.) The west and north sides of the town were destroyed, more than 100 people were killed and at least 1,000 were injured.

The museum exhibit features photos, news stories and first-hand accounts of the tornado’s toll on Woodward County. Thanks in part by two federal grants, the museum has been able catalog transcripts, audio reports, more than 200 oral history interviews — “and we’re adding more each year,” Mravinec said — and more than 300 amateur and professional photographs.

Mravinec said many tornado survivors and/or their families still live in the Woodward area. Several bring extended family and friends to the museum to show and to remember the tornadic event. A panel has been added to allow survivors to sign and share stories.

However, Mravinec added, “There’s some who refuse to talk about it.”

Every year Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum, in conjunction with Northwestern Oklahoma State University, hosts a five-day seminar in the summer about northwest Oklahoma and the 1947 tornado is the last day’s topic. Survivors are invited as the guest speakers, Mravinec said. The seminar is meant for educators’ training and college credit, but the public is invited to attend.