An event remembering the 80 th anniversary of the Shinnston Tornado was held on Sunday, June 23 rd .
Museum Director Debra Herndon opened the event with a brief synopsis of the time – WWII was on everyone’s mind, the Katherine Mine Disaster had occurred a few weeks earlier and everyone was doing their best amid rationing and shortages. Herndon read from Finlayson’s book, “The Shinnston Tornado” as well as several newspapers of the time, The group then watched the video, “When the Wind Stole the River: the Shinnston Tornado,” created by Shannon Colaianni Tinnell.
Among those attending the event was a contingency of staff and volunteers from the Clarksburg History Museum. Mike Spatafore of the CHM was especially interested in weather-related events and found the event most interesting. Former Mayor Wanda F. Ashcraft was among those attending and had first hand knowledge of the day the tornado came to town. “I was ten when it happened.
My grandfather cried, ‘It’s a twister! Get Inside!’ We all gathered around the fireplace. I had a cigar box where I kept all my treasures. I held that box to me all night. We were all afraid the storm would come back around to us.”
Ashcraft fielded several questions from the attendees.
Patty Post related that her father, Tommy Greco was aboard a ship in the Pacific Theater and heard nothing about the Shinnston Tornado for some time due to highly censored communication during the war. The first headline he was privy to, some weeks later was, “Shinnston Wiped off the Map.” It took more weeks for him to find out the fate of his friends and family.
Bob Bice II’s father was also in the Pacific Theater at the time. A cable came through from his family, highly censored. “We are OK” was all it said. OK from WHAT, he didn’t know.
The Shinnston Tornado, even after 80 years is still the worst tornado in West Virginia history and the fifteenth deadliest tornado in all of the contiguous United States.
The Bice Ferguson Memorial Museum has several newspaper and magazine articles about the event as well as John Finlayson’s book chronicling first-hand experiences, “The Shinnston Tornado.”
The Museum is open May through October, Thursday – Saturday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and by appointment at 304-677-6650.