The Wichita Falls Wedge of 1979 - An Inescapable Monster

Comments · 447

• WE

  @weatherboxstudios · 1 year ago · pinned

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• WH

  @whitneypickle · 1 year ago

  Born and raised in Wichita Falls, and still here. Family lived here during both the 79 and the 64 tornados. In true Texan fashion, my grandma called my then 12 year old dad to the front door in 64 to witness that one in person. They built and restored a house that was in its path.

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• KE

  @kelligarza5199 · 1 year ago

  watching from Wichita Falls! I was a baby when this happened. My dad was one of the people who decided to drive out of it&apos;s way. We had to bail from the car and lie in a ditch under some bleachers at the local dirt racetrack. My mom laid on top of me and my dad laid on top of my sister who was 5 at the time. Thankfully we all made it out without injuries and our house only had a few shingles missing. Storms still make me anxious after 46 years. Great content and video! Thanks for visiting!!

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• TH

  @thatsjagged2020 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Thank you for doing the Wichita Falls 1979 tornado. I am a survivor! When I was 10 years old, we lived on Southwest Parkway, and my Dad and Mom told all 9 children. 1 grandchild, and 1 large German Sheppard to get in the van, and we were able to outrun it. &nbsp;At the time, the winds were at around 250 mph (Wikipedia), which made it an F4. Today, this same tornado would be rated an EF5. It was also 1.6 miles wide! I will NEVER forget it!!! 32 years later I would survive the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak in Huntsville, AL.

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• CH

  @charlayned · 1 year ago

  1977 and 1978, the OU weather station (the one you mentioned in the video) was trying to calibrate the new doppler for tornadoes. They had science majors going out with cameras, binoculars, and maps, with CB radios, to find tornadoes they were seeing on the radar. They would photograph what they saw, notate on the map, and radio in where they were. My husband was a chemistry major at OU and was one of the volunteers who did that. He&apos;s always loved storms, having grown up in southeast Oklahoma. In 1979, he and his wife (his now ex) were moving to Freeport Tx and they had their mobile home being brought down by a moving company. He went through Wichita Falls about 10 minutes before the tornado hit, the trailer had to stop out of the way of the twister. He did see tornado, when it started coming into town. <br><br>It was great to see the breakdown of that storm knowing my husband was there to see it. <br><br>BTW, you should do some digging on the April 12, 1945 tornado that hit Antlers Oklahoma (my husband&apos;s home town). They have rated it at an F5 (before the EF scale) and it tore the heck out of the town. I do have pictures from a couple websites of that aftermath. Thing is, it was totally off the news because that is the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died and that took over the entire news cycle for days.

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• KA

  @kadekouri · 9 months ago

  Fun fact! At <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e37hd5dUEFk&amp;t=1126">18:46</a> if you look at the dillards building you can see a missing wall. Today if you look there it’s a completely different color of brick so you can still see it!

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• NO

  @northerniltree · 6 months ago

  I was on a cross-country motorcycle trip that night, and camped by a lake under a park pavilion on the outskirts of Wichita Falls. Just me, my Harley, and a sleeping bag. The sky was absolutely ablaze with lightning. The rain and wind suddenly changed direction, which woke me from my sleep. I sat up in my sleeping bag ready to move to the other side of the pavilion. But, all at once the fiercest wind I have ever experienced blew all my gear into the lake. The bike fell over, and I was sure I was a goner. Scary as hell. The next morning, I learned that it was a mile-wide funnel that even sucked up the asphalt from the interstate in some areas. I don&apos;t believe any tornado was that close to me, but the peripheral winds were mind bending.

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• WR

  @wraith3156 · 1 year ago (edited)

  You are easily the best tornado documentary channel I&apos;ve come across. It takes a lot of skill to break down the complicated aspects of these storms and to find all of the detailed accounts/photos of them. I also appreciate all the visuals added because it makes it way easier to understand.

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• TC

  @TC88Matrix · 1 year ago

  My whole family survived this tornado. My father and mother were only 17 and 16. They told me it sounded like 15 freight trains passing through the town.

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• JI

  @jimmoore2647 · 1 year ago

  I survived this 79 tornado in Wichita Falls. &nbsp;My husband was a ham radio operator and had his radio on listening to the weather spotters. &nbsp;They reported the tornado at the stadium. &nbsp;My husband got up on our roof to see the stadium, which was a couple of miles away. (Dumb idea) &nbsp; By the time he got on the roof, the tornado was just blocks away. &nbsp;He didn&apos;t have time to use the ladder and jumped off the roof. &nbsp;He ran inside just in time to put me and our 18 mo old son in a walk in closet. &nbsp;He barely shut the door and it hit. &nbsp;We had major damage and had 2 vehicles totals, but we survived without a scratch.

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• ES

  @Essentially_Leoness · 1 year ago

  I was there in 1979. I was 4 months pregnant with my oldest child. It was horrible! My uncle worked for the National Weather Service there &amp; he was absolutely devastated because of the lead time to take cover. I worked at the State Hospital &amp; my husband worked at the radio station. I can tell you I have NEVER been so scared before or even after.

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• DR

  @Dreazy26 · 1 year ago

  And when the world needed him most he returned! Seriously though, your work is absolutely amazing and you earn every view man. I look forward to every upload notification, keep killing it dude!

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