Shudders 70 years later:

1944 Shinnston tornado

June 23, 1944, a tornado ripped through Shinnston, particularly the ironically-named Pleasant Hill section, and killed 103 people – 30 in Shinnston -- in a state that isn’t supposed to have tornadoes. 

That’s nearly half the people killed in the United States by tornadoes that year.

To illustrate the unexpected and usual point, only 2 people died in tornadoes in West Virginia from 1950 to today. 

The state ranks 38^th in number of tornadoes in America. And 35^th in number of tornado deaths.

I remember the day well.

It was so calm when we were sitting on our back porch on Church Street in Monongah, literally the calm before the storm. Then the air got very warm.

Before long, there was a steady stream of sirens-screaming ambulances heading south on U.S. 19 past our home, from Fairmont to Shinnston.

A week or so later we went up to survey the damage because my parents knew people living there. Even at the age of 12 I was appalled and still can see the destruction. 

We didn't expect tornadoes in northern West Virginia. Nobody did.

Shinnston High graduate Mary DeMary, who today lives in Williamstown, West Virginia, after a 36-year schoolteacher career, wrote:

“I will always remember this as it was the night before my birthday. I spent my birthday picking up some injured at St. Mary's Hospital and bringing them back to Shinnston with my parents.

“Marty Pulice was one of the people we picked up at the hospital. My mom went out and gathered some hailstones and put them in the freezer so my dad could see them when he came home from work. Little did she know that they pulled some of the men from the mines to help rescue many of the people who were injured.”

Frank Shroyer, a Fairmont State grad who moved from Shinnston to Fort Worth, Texas, wrote:

“My dad was a volunteer fireman in Shinnston and he used to say that he worked around the clock with rescue operations for something like four or five days.”

Marshall University grad Judith Phair, who today lives in Parkersburg, wrote: “We lived through it/lived on Clarksburg Road..talk about PTSD..My mother never got over it.”

Duane Harbert, Class of 1951, who lives in Marlboro, New Jersey, wrote:

“I remember it well.  I was visiting my grandparents (dad's parents) who lived about 4 miles from Montrose.  From Montrose the tornado went down Clover Run which is just about 1 mile behind my grandparents’ house.

“We could hear it but at the time we thought it was a train losing traction on the mountain.  Then we started hearing sirens up and down the road all night long. 

“We did not have a telephone or radio so we didn't know what was going on until the next morning when a neighbor took us to Montrose, which was devastated.  I saw one of the victims, a young mother, being pulled from the creek with grappling hooks. It was pretty scary stuff for a 10.5-year-old child. I had nightmares for a long time.”

Jim McDaniel, 1960 Monongah High graduate who lives in Behoboth Beach, Delaware, wrote: 
His sister “Joann had me out for a walk. When that storm hit, she took me over to Grandpa's house. Was not 2 years old yet.

“Just to add a little to what Duane Harbert had to say about the tornado that hit Montrose.  My future Brother-in-Law Bob Huff lived there also.  His home was blown off its foundation. 

"He married my sister Joann in the early 50's.  He worked as a mechanic for the Western MD Railroad for many years in Worthington.  They had 3 children -- Robby, Valerie and Melissa.  Robby was the only one to graduate from Monongah.  The other 2 went to Elkins High.” 

Bill Myers wrote: “My mother was pregnant with me and was buried in rubble and severely injured.”

Bill Meredith, 1957 Monongah High graduate who lives in Sarasota, Florida and Buckeye Lake, Ohio and is part of the Meredith Brothers Company in Columbus, wrote: 

“I was only 5 years old, but remember it well. My Father went to see the damage. He worked for the power company, so they let him in. I was frightened of storms for several years after that.”

Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana, wrote:

“I remember it well. There was a strange, strange metallic smell in the air. After it passed, we heard the roar.  Everybody collected the baseball and golf ball-sized hailstones. 

“A few days later my father took us to see the damage. He talked to some survivors.  I remember the brick building blown into the river just south of the Shinnston bridge.  That was hard for me to grasp that a brick building could not withstand a tornado.”

Nathaleen Cameon Oliverio, Class of 1948, wrote:

“I sure do remember that tornado . . .  I was living in Carolina at the time & the worst storm hit Carolina, the streets were flooded &  we heard of a friend’s relative who died that day, the result of the tornado. I was 14 years old.”

The 1944 Appalachians tornado outbreak hit the Midwest and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States on June 22–23, 1944. It produced several strong tornadoes in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland — areas that were falsely believed to be immune to tornadoes.

Shinnston is nine miles from the two Monongah mines where in 1907 some 362 officially but probably more than 500 lost their lives in twin mine explosions, the greatest disaster in the state and the greatest mine disaster in American history to this day.

The string of tornadoes finally died on Cheat Mountain.

No violent (F4–F5) tornado has hit West Virginia before or since the 1944 outbreak.

The tornadoes ripped through Armstrong, Indiana, Allegheny, Westmoreland, Somerset and Cambria in Pennsylvania.

Other sections visited by the tornado were Flemington, Meadowsville, Montrose, Thomas, all in West Virginia; Oakland, in Maryland; and Chartiers, McKeesport and Smithfield in Pennsylvania.

The time it took for agonizing death to roar through Shinnston was two minutes.

Summary of the damage by the American Red Cross:

West Virginia, 103 persons killed, 72 in Harrison County, nine in Barbour County, three in Marion County, seven in Randolph County; 846 persons seriously injured; 1,686 families affected; 404 homes destroyed.

There were 45 persons killed in Pennsylvania and three in Maryland. Total statistics for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia: 153 persons killed; 846 seriously injured; 1,686 families affected; 404 homes destroyed; 821 other buildings damaged. The damage was less serious in Ohio.

The place hardest hit was Pleasant Hill, a suburban section of Shinnston with about 50 homes. This group of houses just disappeared.

Numbers of bodies were recovered from the West Fork River, one of them 40 miles downstream.

Donald Book. Book, 72, one of a handful of Shinnston survivors, says: "I still have flashbacks. It's just something that will stay with you to the end."

So when Book sees the images on his TV from places like Joplin, Mo., he feels a connection with those whose lives have been torn asunder.

"Every time you see something like that, you think about the day it occurred here, and you know what those people are going through, because you went through it," he said.

"Somebody that's never witnessed it or been involved with one, they just know what the news media tell them.

"But once you've been involved with that, you know what everybody's going through."

The Shinnston tornado “sounded like 1,000 locomotives coming over that hill.

"The thing I remember, a Red Cross nurse carried me into a makeshift hospital in a church downtown.”

Book's family stayed with his brother-in-law's family for a time on their Coalbank farm, and then stayed with a local attorney who helped them find a permanent place to live.

"My mother was 94 years old when she passed away, and once she heard a rumbling of thunder (after the Shinnston tornado), she grabbed her Bible and rosary beads and went down to the basement until the rain was over," Book said.

West Virginia has had only 127 confirmed tornado touchdowns since 1950. Neighboring Ohio has seen 1,008 in the same period.

The state benefits from its rough terrain which disrupts the surface flows necessary for tornadic development.