| The Richmond Tornado of June 13, 1951 |
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| A severe tornado (F3) cut through the heart of Richmond (which the popultion was 230,000 back in 1951) on this late afternoon. It left a four mile path of damage that sent dozen people to the hospital, injured scores more, and left over a hundred homeless. Thirty-five buildings were destoryed and 126 received major damage; a 1000 buildings in all were damaged. Damage estimates were over one million dollars. The map below shows the path of the tornado. The tornado was seen tossing a car to 30 to 40 feet into the air. Eyewitness accounts were reported in the next day's Richmond Times-Dispatch (Vol. 101, No. 165): |
| "It came on fast. It sounded to me like an earthquake. I saw rooftops flying through the air. Pieces of tim and tress were falling on South Granby Street. When it hit my house, the back of the house came down. All the houses along here got hit in the back, and they all were half ripped down." - Perl Price, 1835 Rosewood Avenue. |
| "I had spotted the twister when I was near the Jefferson Hotel. It was a great swirling mass of wind, and I thought at first that there was a huge fire somewhere. There wasn't any cone or funnel, like you expect with a tornado. The wind seemed to swirl and swoop up everything from the edges, carrying leaves and debris in and |
| up. The air seemed to be full of all kinds fo objects." - Louis J. Patterson, Richmond Times-Dispatch photographer. |
| And from the Richmond News Leader came this quote by John L. Walker: |
| "Four different clouds - all funnel-shaped - were rushing toward the city. Each one had a tail like a kie. Then the four same together in the shape of a huge auger that picked up everything in front of it." - John L. Walker, Richmond News Leader. |
| This report suggests that it was a multi-vortex tornado with, at one point, four vortices visible. The strong Petersburg Tornado in 1993 was also a multi-vortex tornado. |