FORT SMITH - If you lived in Arklahoma in 1996, you remember the terror that Mother Nature inflicted on Fort Smith and Van Buren on the night of April 21st. It was 11:12 PM when without much warning from the National Weather Service, an F3 tornado slammed into what just an hour before had been a quiet downtown evening in Arkansas’ second-largest city.
Within a matter of seconds, historic buildings that had withstood so many storms in the hundreds of years they had been standing were reduced to rubble. The tornado would travel up the Arkansas River and over Mount Vista, and then travel north through Van Buren, decimating the fairly new neighborhoods on the west side of U.S. Highway 59. The damage numbers were estimated to have reached $300 Million, with hundreds of families left to pick up the pieces on both sides of the river.
Another Springtime Sunday Night
Arklahoma is no stranger to spring thunderstorms. This Sunday night was no different, as supercell thunderstorms roared across Southern Oklahoma, producing tornadoes near Pauls Valley and Wynnewood before moving on toward the Northeast.
At 8:18 PM, the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch for much of the region including Sebastian and Crawford Counties. In the next hour, a supercell thunderstorm blew up east of Ada, producing a tornado that would touch down near McAlester some 57 minutes later. The storm roared along Oklahoma Highway 9, catching the attention of weather professionals such as Austin Onek at KFSM Channel 5 and Fred Baker at KISR 93.7.
At 10:56 PM, the National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Northern Sebastian and Southern Crawford Counties.
Onek took the television airwaves just before 11:00 PM, warning viewers of a report from trained storm spotters near Panama that had seen a funnel cloud. With still no warning from the National Weather Service, the storm moved toward Pocola and Arkoma. Regardless, Onek still warned viewers that multiple funnel clouds were circling and that those in the area should take shelter.
“I can hear the thunder through the walls right now,” Onek said from what was then the downtown Fort Smith studios. “This is not the time for panic. It is the time for clear thinking.”
On the radio airwaves, Baker continued what he had done for the nearly three decades that his FM rocker had been on the air. When lightning struck, most people knew they could count on his reports with the same ominous “KISR weather bed” music playing in the background. With still no official warning from the National Weather Service, Baker continued to play the Top-40 music format between updates. As the memory of this author recalls, around 11:08 PM, Baker ended a report that had relayed a ham radio report of the storm approaching Arkoma, and began the song “1979” by the Smashing Pumpkins.
As the storm got closer, Baker continued to monitor ham radio. He shouted over the song as it continued to play, “There is heavy rotation near Wheeler and Zero Streets. Take cover now!” That was the last report that we remember hearing before the 100,000-watt signal went to static.
While Onek and Baker both warned their respective audiences that trouble was on the way, the National Weather Service did not issue a Tornado Warning until 11:08 PM. The warning stated, “At 11:08 pm radar indicated a developing tornado near Ft. Smith. The tornado is moving northeast at 25 mph toward Van Buren. This is a dangerous situation. Act quickly…”
Due to a breakdown in communications that was later blamed on a number of issues including downed power lines, the sirens never sounded in Fort Smith. Meteorologist Steve Piltz, who now heads the Tulsa office would later tell the Southwest Times Record that based on the radar data that they thought the storm was winding down in the moments prior, prompting them to hold off on the tornado warning.
The storm however, was just picking up.
Despite the lack of sirens, Onek and Baker continued to warn their audiences. At 11:12 PM, KISR 93 and nearly every other radio station in the city would leave the airwaves when the F3 tornado slammed first into Moffett, and then directly into downtown Fort Smith. Shortly after the tornado formed, it destroyed a high voltage transmission line that crossed the Arkansas River and supplied a power substation on the west side of the downtown area of Fort Smith. This resulted in an immediate, and widespread power outage in much of west and north Fort Smith.
The National Weather Service began to hear spotter reports, and issued a follow-up statement at 11:13 PM, finally acknowledging what those in downtown already knew.
“At 11:12 pm a funnel cloud was reported almost to the ground in Ft. Smith. Radar indicated that a tornado was developing in Ft. Smith,” the statement said. “The tornado was moving northeast at 25 mph and will move toward Van Buren. If you are in or around Ft. Smith and Van Buren seek shelter now!”
As the tornado tore through the north side of Fort Smith, KFSM was less than three city blocks from the damage path of the storm but somehow managed to limp along with the help of a backup generator.
“We are live right now, broadcasting as best we can from TV-5 in downtown Fort Smith,” Onek told viewers. “The power is out all over the place. We apparently are the only TV or radio station right now that is still on the air. We will try to stay on and keep information flowing”
KFSM fared better than their radio brethren. The equipment in Baker’s North Greenwood Avenue studios was badly damaged from the electrical storm. It would take him hours to return KISR to the airwaves, as he announced that Monday morning that he had procured an “eight channel disco board” from storage, and pieced together enough surplus equipment that he could continue to serve the community via the airwaves.
In downtown Fort Smith, popular radio stations KMAG 99.1 FM and KWHN 1320 AM were off the air when the studio transmission link tower on the top of their building literally snapped in two along Garrison Avenue. Next door, Pharis Broadcasting’s Fox 46 television had taken a direct hit and suffered thousands of dollars in damage when the winds from the nearby tornado hit the iconic Garrison Building.
The Aftermath
The tornado was rated an EF-3, which brought sustained winds of between 158 MPH and 205 MPH.
The tornado tore a swath of damage along the Arkansas River, first hitting the Fort Smith National Historic Site, causing damage to what had been Judge Parker’s courthouse. It would move north over the Garrison Avenue bridge and the Frisco Building, which at the time housed operations for nursing home operator Michael Morton’s Central Arkansas Nursing Centers. While that building survived with some damage, others across the street saw untold amounts of destruction. Gone were the Johnston Storage Warehouse at 215 Garrison, and the five-story Reynolds Davis Building across the street.
Ancillary damage would come two days later when the 99-year-old Eads Furniture building blew up in a ball of fire due to a broken gas line. It would decimate nearly an entire block that included several other businesses.
Two children were killed in two separate houses that were hit. The first, 2-year-old Angelica Fleming perished when her home collapsed at 1917 High Street. Several blocks away, a 5-year-old boy, Kyle Johnson was killed at 3419 North 23rd Street when the foundation of his house shifted during the tornado causing his home to collapse. It was believed that both of those deaths occurred around 11:15 PM.
All in all, 89 were injured by the tornado. In Sebastian County, 35 homes were destroyed, 120 severely damaged, 1133 had minor damage, and 88 businesses were damaged or destroyed. In Crawford County, 463 homes were destroyed, 500 had major damage, 142 had minor damage, 246 apartments were damaged, and 10 businesses were damaged or destroyed.
After the storm, most would agree that the damage to downtown Fort Smith pushed civic leaders toward change. A number of developments came in the aftermath of the storm, including newly developed riverfront property and hundreds of new homes built on the North side of Fort Smith to replace those destroyed in the tornado.
“The tornado was the catalyst for all major civic leaders to come together and say let’s do something,” then-City Administrator Strib Boynton told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
In Van Buren, the city came together as well, as hundreds of homes on Mount Vista and in the neighborhoods on each side of Interstate Forty were rebuilt and replaced. However, it was the spirit of the community that impressed many. Then-Mayor John Riggs estimated that 57 groups and over 13,500 volunteers spent over 63,000 hours in tornado cleanup efforts north of the Arkansas River.
April 21’s Place In History
While the April 21st, 1996 tornado ranks as the most damage producing tornado to ever hit the Fort Smith Metropolitan Area, there have been a number of larger twisters to hit the area. The larger recorded tornadoes include:
March 26th, 1976 - An F5 tornado hit Spiro, Oklahoma.
This tornado touched down 4 miles east of Bokoshe and 0.75 miles north of OK State Highway 31 in Leflore County at 3:28 pm CST. It began moving to the northeast, crossing OK State Highway 59 about 2 miles south of the intersection of Highway 59 and OK State Highway 9. A local business structure and a mobile home were destroyed in this area.
The tornado then continued its northeast path and entered the southeast portion of Spiro. Great destruction occurred in this area, and railroad cars, trailer homes, houses and business buildings were destroyed.
The tornado then crossed State Highway 9 where additional homes were either damaged or demolished. A survey of the damage in this area indicated that the tornado reached F5 intensity after crossing State Highway 9 and entering the rural Murray Spur area east of Spiro. One man was killed, seven homes were destroyed, and one mobile home was demolished in the Murray Spur area.
The tornado then turned toward the east after crossing the Lock and Dam/Fort Coffey Road where 3 mobile homes were destroyed. The eastward movement continued for about 1 mile at which point the tornado crossed OK State Highway 9 for a second time. The tornado lifted about 3/10 of a mile east of the point where it had crossed State Highway 9 at 3:45 pm CST.
Along the total path of the tornado two people were killed and another 64 persons were injured. A total of 28 homes and 2 business buildings were destroyed. Another 63 homes and a vo-tech training center building sustained major damage. Approximately 20 cattle and 20 horses were killed by the storm. Many cars and farm vehicles were also destroyed. Eye witness claimed that 2 separate funnels occasionally traveled in close proximity to each other along the path.
April 19th, 1968 - An F4 tornado hit Greenwood, Arkansas. According to TornadoTalk.Com, it lasted 4 minutes. An F4 tornado tore through the heart of Greenwood, AR on April 19, 1968. Total path length was 2 miles and the maximum width was 300 yards. In a blink of an eye, 14 people lost their lives and there were 270 injuries reported.
Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes was quoted as saying: Most of the Greenwood area was “reduced to matchsticks and kindling.” The tornado passed through downtown and residential areas, producing a “sea of rubble.”
Per the Storm Data Narrative, over 400 homes were lost or damaged. 60 business units were destroyed or damaged. At the time, it was the most destructive tornado since 111 were killed in the Judsonia tornado in March 1952.
January 22nd, 1960 - An F4 tornado hit south of Gans, Oklahoma. Massive, widespread damage occurred, and the tornado dug numerous holes into the ground. The holes were about 10 feet in diameter and about one and one-half feet deep. Ten people were killed in this event and another 20 persons were injured. The half mile wide tornado traveled for 5 miles, but dissipated before it reached the Arkansas state line. The body of one person was carried for about half mile from their home while some refrigerators were carried similar distances.
January 11th, 1898 - An F4 tornado hit downtown Fort Smith, taking a similar path to the 1996 tornado. during the night of Tuesday, January 11, 1898. It touched down about 100 miles to the southwest, and struck the city around midnight, killing 55 people and injuring 113. The twister nearly destroyed the city’s newly constructed Fort Smith High School, which had opened the year before.