a small village in the eastern prairies of South Dakota Manchester was just like
any other town on the plains in its hey day a local spot for farmers to trade and a
handful of community amenities like a post-office, grocery store, train
station. Even a pool hall. Manchester was once home and the place of work for Grace
Ingalls Dow--Laura Ingall's sister. Laura Grace, and their sister Mary grew up in
the next town over in De Smet, SD. The area could not be a more perfect example
of northern prairies "sod-buster" culture and that pioneer lifestyle that inspired the
"Little House on the Prairie" books. "Into the Wild Movie": And before that?
"I went to South Dakota, worked for this guy named Wayne" "What you think about all this?" "I like all this!"
like many mid 20th century Prairie towns Manchester was hit hard by the 1 2 3 punch of the
Great Depression. the Dust Bowl and post-World War II urbanization.
Manchester would lose its railroad lines to shifting demands.
After WWII new families began to move away from farming and into larger cities
as agriculture became mechanized and commercialized, fewer farmers were needed
to grow crops on ever larger pieces of land. Fewer farming families and the
emergence of corporate farms stole away the very reasons towns like Manchester existed--
A local community to get supplies, educate children, do some
old-school social networking, or just find entertainment. Hundreds of
homesteads in the areas around town had been
reduced to just dozens. This story has played out across all of the United
States from the 1930s and Beyond and is still happening rural communities are
shrinking while larger towns and cities have grown Manchester lost much of its
population to nearby Huron by the year 2000 man check his trunk to just forty
residents while here on South Dakota grew to more than 12,000 and still
modestly growing today June 24 2003 addenda lling Manchester is now just a
few dozen structures occupied by a handful of families and a post office at
2:15 p.m. a tornado watch is issued for southeast South Dakota this was expected
and storm chasers from all over the United States
the area numerous tornado producing storms would soon form the stage has
been set at winning town with little purpose left for its immediate area a
few dozen structures stood occupied by just a handful of families On June 24
2003 a day eastern South Dakotans called tornado Tuesday a nearly mile wide f4
tornado approached from the south at this time the storm chasing team known
as twist X had just deployed what they called turtle probes ahead of the
tornado a set of cone-shaped pods able to survive and gather meteorological
data and even some of the earliest tornado footage we have from inside of a
tornado Tim Samaras the twist X project's founder and engineer is
credited with recording the fastest and deepest weather-related pressure drop of
100 millibar in just 12 seconds put another way this is comparable to the
pressure drop experienced by a Thunderbird fighter pilot on a vertical
climb the equally fast return of pressure would be double the speed
experienced by a skydiver in a freefall in a matter of moments all structures in
the town of Manchester were gone the Manchester tornado received an F for
rating an f4 tornado produces devastating damage typically causing
significant damage to well-built structures in wiping older or poorly
constructed buildings completely away with all of the residents displaced the
post office and ruin all the businesses destroyed everyone lacked Manchester is
a story of a changing economic landscape combined with a natural disaster it's
very possible Manchester could have become a traditional ghost town simply
abandoned by its residents over time the f4 tornado of June 24 2003 instead
lifted Manchester to a legendary piece of Tornado history
the most notorious tornado in the record books is the tri-state tornado of March
18 1925 it's called the tri-state tornado because it has believed a single
tornado or more likely a tornado family touched down in Missouri it crossed
southern Illinois and left an unbroken damaged path deep into Indiana a tornado
family is a series of tornadoes from the same storm though these cyclic supercell
storms might have different behaviors for instance a second tornado can
touchdown before the previous tornado has fully lifted a recent example of
this happened in Dodge City Kansas in 2016 - tornadoes again the tri-state
tornado stats are absolutely staggering 1.6 billion dollars in damage the single
deadliest tornado in US history at 695 fatalities the tornado or tornado family
were on the ground for three and a half hours straight a 219 mile long damage
path 300 mile per hour estimated f5 winds in one town that would never
return perish Illinois leads all of these tornado ghost towns in fatalities
more than 20% of the population would lose their lives in this unimaginable
storm when you think of the city or town you live in even the worst natural
disasters you can imagine might take only a fraction of homes and businesses
rivers rise and flood a few structures and damaged buildings in the lower parts
of town a typical hurricane might flood out some coastal structures tear off
roofs and awnings and knock out power to parts of town extreme hurricanes like
durian and Michael might level a town but coastal cities are desirable places
to live they often get rebuilt no matter the destruction but with the worst
tornadoes up against small rural towns it's different the former town of Melvin
Missouri is located in the Ozarks in a forest south of Branson Missouri not
much is left to see of the former town today just shy of 100 years ago what was
likely at least a strong f4 tornado completely scraped the small short-lived
town of Melva founded only a few decades earlier
eleven people lost their lives in the town was never rebuilt today other than
a few foundations and some paver blocks it is nearly absorbed into its
surroundings if you're a little superstitious then you might find it a
good idea to avoid the town of Cadell Kansas on May 20th Codell Kansas isn't a
ghost town but in an example of why one tornado may not be the end of even the
smallest rural towns or in this case actually three different tornadoes three
years in a row on the same date incredibly on may 20 1916 may 20 19 17
and may 20 1918 Codell Kansas was hit by a tornado each not destroying the entire
town but certainly causing damage and creating a wild statistical anomaly
more recently the school moved out the population is shrunk and some buildings
have been abandoned not all of the town is like this of course but just as with
Manchester and another example you'll hear about soon Codell isn't alone among
slowly declining rural plains towns this is a story playing out over the entire
Great Plains so many towns are shrinking and have been losing their importance
compared to their hay days speaking of superstitions this black cat would take
an interest in me a few times while filming coincidences like this really
aren't statistically that crazy when you consider the area Cadell isn't part of
traditional tornado alley and this coincidence happened on a calendar date
that sits squarely in the middle of the statistical peak for tornadoes just to
illustrate that point even further 101 years and a few days later and only
hours after recording these videos I would film a brain wrapped monster
grinding its way near Waldo Kansas just 20 miles from where I was standing in
Kotel though I didn't really get a great look at this tornado and the damage it
caused in the road network in the area meant that I wouldn't get any closer to
mini tornadoes the storm would continue to drop later my chasing buddies would
have much better luck I blame the cat even though Codell Kansas isn't
technically a ghost town it kind of feels like one have a look around so
long as there are economically depressed pounds on the plains the danger of Moore
tornado ghost towns joining the ranks in the future is unfortunately inevitable
tornado winds are compact and they can lift objects not just tip them over and
the winds change direction quickly imagine a 200 plus mile-per-hour tempest
comes through in just seconds that is larger than the entire size of the
typical small American town and then leaves nothing behind
most people will survive by getting underground and into shelters in time
however little else remains no trees no homes no businesses totaled vehicles
there's no hospital no drugstore no dentist no water no school no jobs what
would you do
2011 was an infamous year for the plains who deep south a half-dozen ef5
tornadoes in many hundreds of fatalities one city would see a significant portion
of it completely annihilated the hospital was moved off of its foundation
high school was destroyed hundreds of homes were leveled and while this was a
mile wide an incredibly destructive tornado the city of Joplin was far
larger and economically important large cities are not immune to tornadoes and
it's extremely important that everyone understand this it's not the end of the
road for a city the size of Joplin but the human and economic toll were sober
I recommend this video from Jason purse off it's a first-hand account from a
storm chasing doctor turned on the spot emergency responder his Frank and candid
speech may blow your mind eight years later it's actually getting kind of
difficult to find evidence a tornado even happened instead this area of
Joplin looks like any brand-new suburb at the edge of a thriving city but it's
right in the middle of town there's a new hospital a new high school and
hundreds of brand new homes still those scars are there if you look closely
trees take time to grow some Lots remain empty and even some scars have become
whimsical memorials
thanks for watching the first half of this two-part series I'll be back
shortly with the finale subscribe and ring the bell so you don't miss it