Jarrell Tornado, 1997

Jarrell, Texas is located in the northern part of Williamson County, about thirty miles north of Austin. It was founded in 1909 and named for O. D. Jarrell. It has been the site of two recorded tornadoes. The first occurrence was on May 17, 1989 when an F3 tornado touched down. The second and more devastating F5 tornado struck the area on May 27, 1997.

In the first instance, the 1989 tornado touched down in Jarrell at about 4:00 a.m as a storm system raked a wide area that extended from the Rio Grande to the Red River. In Jarrell, there was one fatality and at least twenty-four people sought treatment for injuries which were described by the hospital administrator as ranging from very minor to serious. There was some property damage and eight 18 wheeler rigs were overturned, likely all on the freeway. A sheriff’s dispatcher reported that Interstate 35 was temporarily closed for a six mile stretch as the vehicles and other debris was cleared. Property damage affected eight apartments, thirty-three homes, twelve mobile homes, service stations and other businesses and the roof of the local high school gym.

A much stronger tornado struck the area on May 27, 1997, a few days after the eighth anniversary of the 1989 storm. In the early afternoon, the storm began to track from north to south taking a path toward Jarrell. It rapidly developed from a small ribbon of a tornado dropping out of the sky to a massive wedge as it neared the town. It began to destroy isolated homes and quickly approached a built out subdivision. Several accounts mention that it seemed to stall there in the neighborhood for a few minutes. Homes and other structures were completely stripped down to their foundations. Farm equipment and vehicles were completely demolished, if not picked up and thrown elsewhere. Trees and other types of vegetation were stripped of limbs, leaves, and branches, if they were not broken off at ground level. Most of the twenty-seven fatalities occurred in the one subdivision. There were some survivors who miraculously managed to avoid the worst of the power of the storm. In a matter of minutes, it was all over and the tornado dissipated.

An article in the Paris News in its issue of May 30, 1997 noted that local residents were mobilized to provide assistance for the victims. Food, clothing, and personal hygiene items were most needed. It added that livestock were left without food and that feed fencing and wheelbarrows were needed. Cash and other donations were to be collected by certain local businesses. The local Wal-Mart donated the use of a tractor-trailer to transport the donated goods to Jarrell.

The Facts, published in Clute, Texas reported in its May 31, 1997 issue that Texas merchants had begun to aid the victims. It added that Governor George W. Bush of Texas had requested federal aid from President Clinton. The official request was for Williamson and Bell counties to be declared a presidential disaster area. Gov. Bush was aided by an additional request made by United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutcheson. That day the governor was slated to attend funerals for ten of the victims. The article concluded by noting that services had been set for twenty of the twenty-seven victims. Various accounts noted that Jarrell had no funeral home, so these services were spread among nearby providers.

An article in the Galveston Daily News from June 1, 1997 listed the following tornadoes as being the state’s worst, in terms of loss of life and noted that the Red Cross had quickly raised $250,000 for its relief operation in Jarrell. The article’s tornado list is as follows.

Date	Location	Death/Injury Toll
May 18, 1902	Goliad	114 killed, 230 injured
May 30, 1909	Brown County	28 killed
April 9, 1919	Fannin County	20 killed, 45 injured
April 9, 1909	Henderson, Van Zandt, Wood, Camp and Red River counties	42 killed, 150 injured
May 14, 1923	Howard and Mitchell counties	23 killed, 100 injured
April 12, 1927	Edwards, Real and Uvalde counties	74 killed, 205 injured
May 9,1927	Collin, Hunt and Lamar counties	28 killed
May 6, 1930	Hill, Ellis and Navarro counties	41 killed
May 6, 1930	Karnes and DeWitt counties	36 killed
April 9, 1947	Carson, Hemphill and Lipscomb counties	68 killed
May 11, 1953	Waco	114 killed, 600 injured
May 11, 1970	Lubbock	28 killed, 500 injured
April 10, 1979	Wichita Falls	42 killed, 1700 injured
May 27, 1997	Jarrell	27 killed

On June 4, 1997, the Galveston Daily News reported that donations of food and materials could be halted and that storage facilities were full, due to the generous donations of interested people.

Even after twenty-seven years, this event thankfully ranks as as Texas’ most recent F5 or EF5 tornado, although there have been several others nationwide. The next F5 tornado in the United States did not occur for nearly one year.

One year after the disaster, as reported by the Orange Leader, the town of Jarrell had completed a monument dedicated to those twenty-eight individuals who were killed in the 1889 and 1997 tornadoes. The engraving listed the victims by name. The construction consisted of a granite monument and a limestone wall around it. One of the speakers acknowledged that life is uncertain and he praised those who had come to the aid of the survivors to help them recover and rebuild from the tragedy. Since that time, trees have also been planted to honor each of the victims.

Thirteen years later, the Port Arthur News reported in its issue of May 28, 2000 that a park had been dedicated as a memorial to the event. Land for the park was donated by members of one particular family who lost five individuals in the storm. It amounted to seven acres of land. At the time of its dedication it included a picnic area, playground, two lighted sports fields along with storm shelters sufficient to protect forty people.

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The original Fujita Scale (F) was adopted in 1971 and used until 2007 until it was replaced by the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF), which is still in use today. The original Fujita Scale was developed by Dr. Ted Fujita to classify tornadoes by their intensity. Dr. Fujita was a meteorologist of Japanese and American descent who had done extensive research on severe weather. The excerpt below is taken from the original Fujita Scale, which in use when the Jarrell Tornado occurred. To see the complete Fujita Scale as it was in 1997, please see the full table as presented by the National Weather Service.

F-Scale Number	F5
Intensity Phrase	Incredible Tornado
Wind Speed	261-318 mph
Type of Damage Done	Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel reinforced concrete structures badly damaged.

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