Tornado Outbreak of 1916

In June, August, and December of 1916, Arkansas was ravaged by storm systems that resulted in devastating and deadly tornadoes sweeping across the state.

On June 5–6, 1916, a storm system traveled through Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. This system resulted in at least thirty-five confirmed tornadoes in Arkansas on June 5. Communities across Arkansas affected by these storms included Arkansas City (Desha County), Baucum (Pulaski County), Cabot (Lonoke County), Carlisle (Lonoke County), Carthage (Dallas County), Cato (Faulkner County), Conway (Faulkner County), Fayetteville (Washington County), Forrest City (St. Francis County), Heber Springs (Cleburne County), Jonesboro (Craighead County), Judsonia (White County), Marion (Crittenden County), Ozark (Franklin County), Rector (Clay County), Stuttgart (White County), and Tuckerman (Jackson County). While reports vary on the exact number of people killed during this outbreak of tornadoes, the Arkansas Gazette reported a total count of seventy-six casualties. (It is not clear if this includes those who were originally counted as missing.)

Because the Fujita Scale used to measure the strength of tornadoes was not created until 1971, replaced by the Enhanced Fujita Scale in 2007, scientists had to compare reports of damage from records from 1916 and apply the Fujita Scale’s damage measurements to those reports. The current estimate of the strength of the tornadoes that ripped through Arkansas on June 5, 1916, includes one F1 tornado, twenty F2 tornadoes, thirteen F3 tornadoes, and one F4 tornado. It is also hard to classify the June 5 tornadoes based on damage because standards for buildings have changed since 1916 and the same tornado could cause drastically different amounts of damage then compared to the present day.

Arkansas was hit by a second round of tornadoes in August of that year. On August 13, a storm system swept through the state resulting in tornadoes that hit Edmondson (Crittenden County). According to one report, a tornado that hit Edmondson destroyed twelve buildings (one being a church during service) and killed five people; four more died from their injuries at a later date (although another newspaper report gives a death toll of only two). The tornado then traveled seventeen miles and crossed the Mississippi River into Memphis, Tennessee, where it was reported to have gale-force winds that damaged buildings.

Arkansas was then hit by another round of storms on December 26 when a tornado touched down in the afternoon and left a roughly seventy-five-mile path of destruction from Grant County to Prairie County. Reports of the storm differ greatly in the total number left dead. The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs (Garland County) reported that four were known dead in England (Lonoke County) and seventeen dead in Keo (Lonoke County) just north of England, with reported deaths also at Tucker Prison. The Log Cabin Democrat in Conway reported that Carlisle suffered three deaths, with two in England, two in Sherrill (Jefferson County), three in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), and between fifteen and twenty at the Tucker Prison. The Pine Bluff Daily Graphic reported six dead in Sherrill. The Little River News in Ashdown (Little River County) reported that no deaths occurred in Keo or at Tucker Prison. From all of the differing reports, it is unclear exactly how many people were killed by the December 26 tornado, though it can be concluded that at least four people were killed in the England area and that six people were killed within the Pine Bluff vicinity.

While reports are not clear, with some newspapers reporting different death tolls than others, it can be assumed that at least eighty-seven people died from tornadoes in that year, with hundreds injured and possibly later dying of their injuries.

For additional information:
“10 Are Known to Have Been Killed and 16 Are Injured in Tornado Which Sweeps South Central Arkansas.” Arkansas Gazette, December 27, 1916, p. 1.

“14 Known Dead Is Toll of Tornado.” Arkansas Gazette, December 28, 1916, p. 1.

“41 Dead, Possible 250 Injured, in the Most Destructive Storm in the History of the State.” Arkansas Gazette, June 6, 1916, p. 1.

“76 Are Reported Dead and More Than 300 Hurt, Some Fatally, as Reports of the Storm Come In.” Arkansas Gazette, June 7, 1916, p. 1.

“Death List 77; More than 400 Hurt by Storm.” Arkansas Gazette, June 8, 1916, p. 1.

“Two Dead in Storm.” Arkansas Gazette, August 14, 1916, p. 1.

Mikaela Bailey
University of Arkansas at Little Rock