Tornado Outbreak of 1939

Thirty people were killed and more than 200 injured in a deadly tornado outbreak that ravaged southern Arkansas on April 16, 1939.

The tornado system first struck two miles west of Texarkana (Miller County) in Bowie County, Texas, then “crossed at the southern part of the state, dipping at numerous points to wreak injury and destruction.” About fifty people were injured when a twister coming from the southeast “cut a swath approximately 200 yards wide for a distance of nearly two miles between Highways 82 and 67, two miles west of Texarkana.” Forty-eight homes were destroyed there, with a value of around $50,000. One person was killed in the Texarkana area.

The twister next hit Ozan (Hempstead County), demolishing two houses and injuring one person, and dipped south of Lewisville (Lafayette County), skipped the town, and then hit the ground north of there, “destroying one house and damaging others.” Two people were seriously injured in the Sleigh Bottom community twelve miles west of Bradley (Lafayette County).

Drew County was hit particularly hard. A church in the Center Point community had finished a funeral about twenty minutes before a tornado struck, and a survivor later said the storm tore the building apart and “some of those huddled in the building were swept away as though clutched by an unseen hand. They were sent spinning dizzily 15 to 20 feet above the ground.” At least seventeen people were killed at Center Point, including pastor Thomas West, and more than sixty people were injured there—two of whom would later succumb to their wounds—and at Collins (Drew County). A local Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) company was called out to help in the search for survivors in the Center Point area, where the church and at least twenty-five homes were destroyed.

The wife of the superintendent of a plantation and two other people at Tillar (Drew and Desha counties) were killed, as were three people in Dumas (Desha County). Eleven others were injured at Tillar and thirty-three were hurt at Dumas. Twenty others were injured at Snyder (Ashley County).

A twister killed one person at Calmer (Cleveland County), and five people were injured there and near Rison (Cleveland County), the latter “while attending a birthday celebration.”

Three workers were injured when a tornado picked up a house at the Rainbow oil field ten miles east of El Dorado (Union County) “and reduced it to splinters after hurling it 100 yards.” Fifteen oil derricks valued at $15,000 were knocked over by the storm.

Two people died, and twenty-five others were hurt in Wabbaseka (Jefferson County), and eleven were injured at Noble Lake (Jefferson County). Two others suffered injuries at Glendale (Lincoln County). The storm system continued into northeastern Arkansas, where two people were wounded “by flying debris” at Marked Tree (Poinsett County).

Heavy rains associated with the outbreak threatened flooding throughout the region, and a 100-foot section of a new Public Works Administration (PWA) dam at Paris (Logan County) washed away during the storm.

The destructive tornado outbreak also killed people in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama and caused damage but no deaths in Tennessee.

For additional information:
“13 or More Die at Church after Funeral Service.” Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1939, p. 1.

“25 Persons Reported Killed as Tornado Strikes Southeast Arkansas.” Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1939, p. 1.

“29th Tornado Victim Dies at Monticello.” Arkansas Gazette, April 20, 1939, p. 2.

“30th Storm Victim Dies at Monticello.” Arkansas Gazette, April 25, 1939, p. 2.

“44 Known Dead as Storms Hit in Four States.” Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1939, p. 1.

“Heavy Loss as Dam at Paris Breaks.” Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1939, p. 1.

“Hempstead County Raked by Windstorm Sunday.” Hope Star, April 17, 1939, pp. 1, 3.

“Many Sections of State Suffer Damage.” Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1939, p. 1.

“Mass Burial of Storm Victims in Drew County.” Arkansas Gazette, April 18, 1939, p. 1.

“Storms’ Toll in Arkansas at 26 Dead, 223 Hurt.” Arkansas Gazette, April 18, 1939, p. 1

“Three Hurt as Oil Field Home Wrecked.” Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1939, p. 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas