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Whether
or not the storm of May 3, 1890, was a tornado is unclear. The Dallas
Morning News reported a “cyclone accompanied by a water spout”
struck Wills Point
about 12:45 P.M, and the Fort Worth Weekly Gazette called
the storm a “tornado accompanied by a water spout and a hail storm”
as well as a “hurricane.” However, the U. S. Weather Bureau summary
of tornadoes for 1889 to 1896 does not list the storm. The ferocious
winds demolished many business buildings, including the post office,
railroad depot, hotel, and drug store, and unroofed numerous others.
Several residences were also damaged or destroyed. One young black
girl was crushed to death under a building, and several people suffered
injuries. Damage estimates were $50,000 to $100,000.
The atmosphere on the morning of March 9, 1901, had been heavy;
black clouds hung in the southwest. About noon a tornado tore a
three hundred-yard wide path through a residential section of Wills
Point. Four people died; twenty-five suffered injuries. A piece
of sheet iron from Johnson’s Gin Company fell near Cooper
in Delta County,
fifty miles northeast of Wills
Point.
On the afternoon of May 25, 1907, one of several tornadoes to devastate
East Texas cut through
the east side of Wills
Point, leaving behind three dead, twelve injured, and $50,000
in damages. Whoever said that “lightning doesn’t strike the same
place twice” had never been to Wills
Point. This was the third time in twenty years that a tornado
had struck the town. Locals claimed that all of the twisters had
formed on the same small tract of land about a mile south of Wills
Point.
© Marlene
Bradford
February 23, 2015 guest column
[Texas Tornadoes: The Lone Star State’s
Deadliest Twisters]
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