I received an e-mail from Judy Shaw of Canton, Ohio telling me that she had an article about the tornado. Judy works with an estate company and had the chance to clean out the attic of an old house in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. She found a scrapbook that contained this old newspaper article. She sent it to me. I have included it in the box of photographs. She said that the box she found in that attic was filled with old postcards and this scrapbook was with them. Thanks a lot, Judy! This goes really well with all the pictures.

I received this e-mail from Evan "Bud" Reed:
Hi MR. Ed, Enjoyed viewing your old Akron photos and your photos of Akron tornado. Wish to inform you I was a young 3yr old living on Packard dr. off Copley Rd , straight across from Buchtel High School when it hit. My father threw my brother and I on the couch and laid ontop of us. Anyhow the tornado came up Packard tearing all the roofs off...but skipped over our place, came back down and continued next door tearing off roofs. My mother was at her bridge club and hurried home to find police had blocked Packard off.

Bud went on to say:
My father who threw us boys on the couch later became Summit County Judge Evan J. Reed , thus my Evan Reed.

Thanks Bud!

This e-mail came from a nice lady today who remembers the tornado...

Hello,
I do remember that storm. I am 70 years old and lived at 445 W Chestnut Street, a half a block from Perkins Woods' tennis courts. It must have been a wide spread storm to have hit all of the areas mentioned. Our house had a little damage. What I remembered most was that bricks from our chimney came down and a couple of the bricks came through the landing window on the steps leading to the second story. My father worked nights at an Isaly Dairy Store. He could not drive to our house for the big trees that had fallen across the streets. It was night time and I remember going outside after it subsided and my mother taking me down the street to the corner of Chestnut Street and Rhodes Ave. The house that sat on that corner was on fire and for a child it was a scary thing to see. The house was standing but it looked as if it had blown apart because you could see into the house and it was full of flames. My picture was in the Beacon Journal a couple of days later, I was watching workers repairing damage to the neighborhood. Thanks for triggering memories.

This e-mail came from Ed Hutchinson:

Mr Ed,
I can only add a little to your blog on the tornado of 1943. I was born 11-18-41 and my dad was in the war at that time. My Mother and Grandmother and I lived at 534 Wabash Ave about 2 to 3 houses from Wooster Ave.

I can only tell you they joked about how lucky we all were as Mom panicked, grabbed me and ran upstairs instead of to the basement. They said after it passed our house was OK but most all the houses across the street the roofs were gone.

We lived there after the war till about 1951 and moved to School St near South St & Manchester Rd.

If you have any more information you want to share about Akron, please send to my home email at (private).

Wife and I now live in (private) for the past 33 years. I am sending this to our home email where I can look it over closer. Thanks for your work on this.

Ed Hutchinson

This letter came 10-21-2010

Hi,

I am 85 years old and I remember the 1943 tornado well. It did not affect our house on Ames Court near the City Hospital, however, my dad had a small farm on Gilchrist Road in Mogadore. It totally destroyed the barn; picked up five of his cows and deposited them five miles away. Thinking they all had been lost, a couple weeks later, he was informed his cows had been found and he had to go and identify them. Sure enough they were his cows and they were still alive and, supposedly, unharmed! His house was not destroyed, though. I was a senior at Central High School at the time. Peggy June

Another e-mail recieved:

Hi Mr. Ed,
I really like your blog and all of the pictures of Akron. I'm 51 and grew up in Springfield Township about a block from Ellet. After reading your article on the Mogadore Tornado I gave my mother a call and she knew all about it and was surprised that I didn't remember her ever talking about it. She was fifteen years old at the time and living off of Albrecht Ave. about midway between Mogadore and Ellet. Her family lived in a basement house at the time so they were safe and the only damage they had was some downed limbs. However, her Aunt and Uncle lived on a farm near Gilchrist Rd. and the barn was flattened with her Aunt inside. Luckily her Aunt was able to take refuge between the stalls and escaped unharmed. I can't wait to get my mother over to look at the pictures that you have posted.
Thanks,
Dave

Hi Ed -

I remember to tornado well, even though I was just a small child (4). It was night and my father was working the night shift at Goodrich in the aircraft division. He said the sheet metal lifted off the “table” where he was stationed then fell back down. At home (Valdes Avenue one block south of Copley Road) my mother picked me up from my bed, threw me in with my sister in her bed (downstairs) and crawled in with us. The windows in our house blew which probably allowed our house to stand. Our neighbor’s garage, dog house and dog were lifted and blown away. The next day the dog found his way home only to be hit by a sightseer’s car and killed. On the street behind them a car was lifted and blown into an upstairs window. A picture of this made the paper. The other side of the house was laying on the ground. The roof of the house behind us was flipped upside down and on top of the house. Destruction was all around us. For some reason, our phone was the only one working in the entire neighborhood, and we became “command central” for all activity. As a small child, I was excited (yet frightened) by all the activity. We lived in our home from 1941 to 1955. My grandparents lived at the base of Perkins hill (Maple Street) and were unharmed. I understood that one person died in Copley when a barn collapsed.

~Barb

Ed,

I ran across your Doodlebug site last night and tonight was looking at some of the other blogs, and was viewing the 1943 tornado ones. Picture #4 just blew me away. The house in the foreground is 456 Sumner St. and I lived there for four months in the spring of 1979! The house is still standing, as is that apartment building. Interestingly enough, the house to the immediate left of 456 (which is not visible in the photo) was built in 1843 - one of the oldest 'regular houses' still standing in Akron. If you go to google maps and look at the street view you can see it.The Sarah Ave. photos were interesting - those are over in my neck of the woods. I wonder if they were able to 'fix' those houses - to the best of my recollection, Sarah ave. isn't missing any houses.

Kathie

Hello....With all of the news about the horrible, devastating tornadoes that have hit many cities over the past week, I thought that I would google to see when the tornado was that I lived through since I was having flashbacks and getting emotional and upset. I am 75 and always have told my adult children about the only tornado that I have been in. I also have said that I was about 9 years old. However, in checking the date on your site, I see that I was 8. I guessed close. It was a frightening experience...one that haunts me to this day when the weather turns rough and the skys dark with the warning of possible tornadoes.I lived in Akron at 149 Palmer Street with my grandparents. When the tornado was coming, my grandmother herded us all down into the basement. At the time, we had cousins from Selma, Alabama visiting with us. All I remember is the horrible roaring sound and our house rocking from side to side while my grandmother continued to pray. Big Mama prayed all during the storm. It seemed to last forever, and the roaring, whirring sound that just wouldn't stop.When the tornado was over, we all went outside...my cousin and I had to jump back because live wires were falling down into our front yard. Someone yelled at us...don't remember who. Palmer Street was what we called a hilly street. It was level up at Grant Street, and then started its incline until it reached our house where the sidewalk leveled for a bit, and then the steep incline down to what we called "the bottom of the hill" which was where Palmer and Washington Streets intersected. At that junction there was a large company with brick buildings...The Star Drilling Machine Company. The buildings were totally leveled from the tornado. On either side of our house, our neighbors lost their garages. They were no where to be seen....Mrs. Twitty's was flattened to the south, and Miss Barbara's garage was in a pile to the north of us.Our house only lost some slate from the roof...no broken windows...with all of that whirring and rocking and noise. We were truly blessed. I am so sorry for all of the people who lost their lives in the recent tornadoes. I understand that most of them died in their homes....probably because there was really no protection from an EF-5 tornado with winds at 205 mph. How can one be protected? The experts are saying that you would have to be underground to be protected. Nevertheless, it was frightening and I will never, ever forget it. I was traumatized by the experience because just the thought of tornadoes,scares me nearly to death. My best to you, Maxine



PS: From a Google Search



April 27, 1943. Between 7 and 9 PM, a series of tornadoes battered north-central and northeastern areas in Ohio. In Akron, 955 building units were damaged or destroyed. A picture from an Akron newspaper shows a car that had been picked up and hurled into the second floor of a new home. Statistics from the storm show three deaths, 21 injured, and $9,553,000 property damage.

From: Maxine

I too tried to find information about the tornado on the internet, but couldn't find anything until I happened on your blog.

I was 12 years old when the '43 tornado struck. I was home alone, because my parents both worked, Dad, days and Mom nights. I was home alone for about an hour or so... My mother left for work, and came back because

there was a lot of thunder and lightning, and she told me to get out of the tub. We lived on 325 W. Chestnut Street in Akron. After Mom left to take the bus to work, I got into bed and was reading, when all of a sudden alll ofthe windows in our house began to break. The bathroom had a window just above the tub, and it was filled with broken glass...luckily, I was not in the tub at that time. I was terrified, and hugged a crucifix and prayed.

My parents had been arguing about which tree we should have removed. There were two, one on each side of our walkway. The tornado ripped them both off. Our congregation was divided about moving to a different location, or to just stay where we were, on Wooster Ave. The church was demolished, and the decision was taken out of our hands. You have a photo of St. Joseph's cornerstone in your photos. A new church was built at 600 W. Exchange, and is still there.

Your blog is very informative. I wanted to find information about the tornado for quite a while...your blog is great.

Thank you.

c

My mother Mabel & father William were dating. They were both soldiers in the US Army. They were walking in downtown Akron Ohio when my father felt like he couldn't breathe well. He said it was like all the "air" went out of the air. He had a strange feeling and he grabbed my mother's hand and pulled her into a theatre right by them.
They said it sounded like the roof was almost being lifted off and that the storm was very loud. I am guessing that they heard hail hitting the roof. He said that the tornado dropped straight down out of the sky and the winds were so strong that traffic poles were bent.
My father was not scared easily but that tornado scared him. My mother & father married Nov. 26th, 1946 in Lorraine, Ohio
I never forgot their story of the tornado that dropped straight down out of the sky.
I am glad to be able to talk about the tornado. I was doing research on it as my daughter lives in Kansas and they were facing tornado's for almost 2 days now. It made me remember the one in Ohio that happened before I was born.

My late mother, the then Monica Mills, worked at Goodrich Tire and Rubber at the time of the 1943 tornado. When she arrived at work the next morning, she and many other workers were sent home. She told that the names of all who had showed were taken down, however, and that all of them received pay for that day!

Robert J. Wise Jr.

There are a total of 40 pictures in all.

I received this e-mail from friend, Kathie Weigel on May 3, 2022. It contains some interesting facts about the Sarah Ave. "leaning houses".

I was always bothered by that photo you have of the leaning houses (front and back) on Sarah Ave in Akron. Because too much about the photo did not fit the location.

Anyway, it appears that by the time the unknown photographer got the photos developed, they had forgotten where that one was taken, because it is not on Sarah Ave.

The three homes, from left to right, are actually: 1554 Bauer Blvd., 1550 Bauer Blvd. and 1546 Bauer Blvd. I have a 1940 photo showing the backs of said homes and they match perfectly. The tornado passed right through there as it also took out (completely demolished) a home just across the way on Clewell (now N. Seiberling) hill.

1546 Bauer did not survive the damage and was torn down. The other two houses were repaired and stood in that location for another 10 years. In 1953 the city took the land for East High School, and many of the 30+ homes on the tract were moved to vacant lots nearby. 1550 and 1554 Bauer were moved to Cutler Parkway. 1550 is now 119 Cutler and 1554 is now 123 Cutler. If you look closely at the middle home (1550) you will note that it has a very unusual front window - it is made up of numerous little panes. 119 Cutler STILL has that original window! 😮

I got this unsigned e-mail from a person who lived through the tornado in the house below.

Hi - just wanted you to know that one of the pictures on your site is of the house I grew up in - Lee St #1 (which was really Lease St) My mother, 4 brothers, and 2 sisters were in the house when the tornado hit. Thankfully, no one was hurt. My 7 yr old brother grabbed my sister who was 4 months by her ankles and ran into the living room. My oldest brother had just taken a bath in the room with the board through the window. I am wondering who your wive's mother was - maybe it was someone we knew. Also, I am trying to place Lee St. #2, if I can figure out whose houses they are, I will let you know.

NOTE; See the end of this blog for a followup to this picture.

I got this e-mail from Bob on March 24, 2012:

Mr Ed
We knew our house was destroyed by the tornado of 1943 and we found your story and photos. What a wonderful find. While looking at the photos of Flint Ave., we found our residence. My wife and I were not born until later. My wife's parents bought 1928 Flint Avenue in 1976 and was told the Tornado took the house down to the foundation. The basement only has 4 courses of tile left which could be rebuilt upon. Sending you a picture of our home as it stands today. The tower is still standing in the rear of your posted photo. (Flint Ave. photo #3 nothing left of this house but the cement steps). Thought you may like this for a before and after photo.
Thanks
Bob

I recieved this e-mail on July 7, 2016 from Brian M. He had found a few more photos from his Uncle Joe's collection and sent them along.

Thanks a lot Brian for sending these pictures. They show even more of the devastation that this storm created.

Mark Price, historical writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, wrote a story for the 70th anniversary of the tornado. A few of the pictures on this blog were used in the article and people from this blog were interviewed. I learned a lot more about this storm from Mark's story. To read the article, click on the newspaper above.