(April 4, 2008)--The 55th anniversary of the Waco tornado is next month and a local artist has recaptured that dark moment in the city’s history a song that recalls the deadly storm and its impact.
Shane Howard’s song is titled “1953” and is slated for release this spring.
The powerful F5 tornado struck downtown Waco on May 11, 1953, leaving 114 dead, and more than 140 seriously injured.
The twister, which struck at 4:45 in the afternoon, destroyed almost 200 buildings and left almost 400 so heavily damaged they were later torn down.
Thirty of the victims died in the collapse of the five-story R. T. Dennis building.
Some survivors were buried for as long as 14 hours and it took searchers days to recover all of the bodies from the rubble.
The tornado destroyed about 150 homes along its path and damaged about 700 others.
It remains one of the state’s deadliest storms, and the nation’s 10th deadliest tornado.
While growing up, Howard listened to his grandmother recall her experience with the twister, which knocked down brick buildings like they were made of "Lincoln Logs" and claimed the lives of more than a hundred people.
It was a nightmare that stayed with her until she passed away just three weeks ago.
That's why Howard wanted to write the song.
"Anytime it stormed outside she would get very very scared and for something like that to devastate somebody and go with them until they were 94 is pretty extreme," said Howard, as he remembered how his grandmother would react during a thunderstorm.
During his research about the tornado he met survivors like Homer Jones.
Jones remembers it was "just a regular day, went to high school and everything was normal up until we got out."
After school Jones went to his job downtown as a parking attendant.
He remembers around 4:00 p.m. the sky started to change.
He described it as a "greenish black...rain was blowing sideways and you know we were saying that it's not even raining down it's raining sideways."
After the storm, local radio news reporters broadcast from the scene of the devastation downtown.
Howard added excerpts from the reports to his song to try to place listeners in the center of the disaster.
"I think the history of Waco gets lost sometimes. How it just ravaged the downtown of Waco and I think this is a good way to bring it back to the surface."
Click Here For Shane Howard’s Web Site
