MURPHYSBORO, Ill. (WLS) — One-hundred years ago Tuesday, America’s deadliest tornado on record scraped across three states, including Illinois.
Among the hardest hit areas was the downstate town of Murphysboro, where 234 people were killed by the 1925 Tri-State Tornado.
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A public commemoration was held there on Tuesday afternoon to remember the victims.
The finger of God.” That’s the phrase used to describe the 1925 Tri-State tornado.
It left nearly 700 people dead in its more than 200-mile path.
The deadliest tornado in U.S. history came without a warning.
“All the girls take their seats, and the boys close the windows. Now, I remember that, and it was over. I was lying in a pile of bricks,” recounted survivor Bettye Maroni.
Then 7 years old, Maroni was in class in DeSoto, Missouri when the Tri-State Tornado hit on March 18, 1925.
Maroni recalled the tragedy in an interview from 2016.
She would go on to live to 103 years old. But on that day, Maroni lost 33 schoolmates, including her own two sisters.
The twister first touched down near Annapolis, Missouri. It then tracked into Illinois before dissipating in southern Indiana.
The tornado was on the ground for 219 miles and lasted for over three-and-a-half hours, making it the longest tornado ever recorded.
In all, 695 people were killed and 2,000 were injured. Many towns were destroyed.
“There wasn’t a house left, you know, standing,” Maroni said.
There are no pictures or video of the actual tornado, only photos of the destruction it caused.
Christine Wielgos serves as the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, located not far from the path of the historic 1925 tornado.
“Towns were pretty much wiped off the map. There were towns that had many hundred casualties and so much devastation,” Wielgos said.
She says back then, there was no way for people to know what was coming toward them.
“They didn’t even have a watch. They didn’t have a warning. They didn’t have weather radio. They didn’t have telephones or cell phones. They didn’t have any way to know that this was coming. All they saw was a big black massive cloud and debris heading toward them,” explained Wielgos.
Maroni recalled climbing out of the rubble and running into a business owner on the street.
“I said, ‘Mr. Tippey. Did the world come to an end?’ He said, ‘No, we had a tornado.’ I said, ‘What’s a tornado?’ said Maroni.
Fast-forward to 2025. We now have an average of 13 minutes’ warning for a tornado and a 99% survivability rate.
“So much has changed over the last 100 years in our ability to forecast, to communicate, the technology that we have,” Wielgos said.
ABC7 Chicago AccuWeather Meteorologist Larry Mowry read so many firsthand accounts of survivors, and this was not what most people thought a tornado was supposed to look like. It was a mile-wide wall of clouds, debris and wind racing toward you. It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
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