Opinion

June hailstorms hit hard on anniversary of tornado

Monday, June 16, 2003

The clouds looked pretty bad around McCook on Wednesday night, but on June 10, 1943, the beautiful Victory Gardens really got pounded. The weather really was the news of the day.

Harry Strunk's editorial started out, "McCook is sad today...but not so sad as she was 15 years ago this same day. McCook is discouraged today...but not half as disheartened as she was the morning after the flood and the tornado in 1935. McCook has long since learned to "take it on the chin" and get up and ask for some more. McCook can take it." It was the 15th anniversary of the tornado of 1928 that leveled 105 homes in McCook. Gazette columnist referred to, "The inky clouds which boiled above McCook yesterday during the sultry period which preceded a brief, but violent hail and wind storm caused many anxious eyes to scan the heavens."

The editorial compared the morning after the tornado 15 years earlier to the morning of June 10, 1943. After the tornado, "debris was left in their places, but the sun came up as usual, birds sang in the trees that remained and bright and early the people were up and about the task of clearing the housetops and the sight reminded one of an ant hill, which the night before had been kicked to pieces." But the morning that he wrote this editorial was a quiet morning and the silence which covered McCook was broken only by the home owners rakes quietly cleaning up leaves "or standing silently viewing the remains of what the morning before had been the most beautiful gardens in all the world."

Hormel Chevrolet at East First and B Street

George Norris even got a mention in the Bystander column about the June storm. The columnist was talking about Charley Heber saving his Victory garden by holding his umbrella over it and went on to say, "Former Senator Norris totes an umbrella, which goes to prove that even after being in Washington for 40 years he knows this country well enough."

The boys in the local barbershop in McCook were comparing the assortments of "salads" they found in place of their gardens when they got up that morning. Willie Lages said his topped them all. "I've got lettuce, onions and all the other stuff chopped up fine, but mine is garnished with dead sparrows and robins, bits of roofing material and broken glass."

Another hailstorm later in the week hit just the McCook Army Air base on Saturday, June 12, 1943. Many of the soldiers were in McCook on short leaves. The city escaped the hail "Hailstones, some of which were described as being 'nearly as big as baseballs' pelted buildings and men at the McCook Army Air base in a brief storm about 9 p.m. Saturday and ominous whirling clouds caused a tornado alarm which resulted in an order for men on the base to clear the barracks and buildings..." Two men were sent to spread the warning to men in the barracks and other building and the men "sought the protection of ditches which border the streets at the base. Some of the men prudently donned steel helmets as a protection from the hail."

With all this lovely rain with very little hail we've had lately in 2003, and the unpredictability of Nebraska weather...we should hold our breath until the wheat harvest is in the bins!

Ben Hormel of Hormel Chevrolet (now Howard Kool Motors in the same location) apologized in the June 9, 1943, McCook Daily Gazette to his friends and customers...but he just had to work on the "essential vehicles" first. An essential vehicle was described as those "which are used directly in connection with the war effort".

Ben asked that "those of you who are not driving essential cars and trucks to please not be peeved at us if we are unable to render the prompt service to which you have been accustomed in the past." He ended the ad with, "Thank you in advance for your kind consideration and helpfulness in cooperating with us toward our MUTUAL GOAL-WORLD PEACE."

The McCook Canteen at the depot continued to operate, but not much was written up in the paper. I haven't found any big articles lately but there were small notices in the Personals column of the Gazette about the ladies who worked on a particular day. From the Wednesday, June 9, 1943 Gazette, "Danbury ladies who worked at the McCook canteen yesterday were: Mrs. Thelma Hindman, Mrs. Belle Gregory, Mrs. Marie Kellog, Mrs. Nellie Newberry, Mrs. Nellie Kelly, who brought with them 70 dozen cookies and magazines. The Why Worry club of Indianola contributed $4.25."

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