57th Anniversary of Charles City, Oelwein May 15, 1968 EF5 Tornadoes Thursday (05.15)
The tornado that struck Charles City 57 years ago Thursday (05.15)was one of five twisters the late afternoon/early evening of May 15, 1968.
According to Weather.gov, the tornadoes included two F1s, one F2, and two F5s and were part of the May 15-16, 1968, outbreak of 39 tornadoes over ten states. The tornadoes in Iowa caused 18 fatalities, including 13 in Charles City, and two each in Oelwein and Maynard.
The Charles City tornado, impacting Franklin, Butler, Floyd, Chickasaw, Howard counties, was the first Iowa twister that afternoon and was first sighted passing over a farmstead northeast of Hansell around 4:10 PM CDT. The tornado moved through the eastern edge of Aredale where two tornadoes were seen simultaneously.
The tornado was observed to lift briefly at Marble Rock, but then grew larger and more intense as it approached Charles City, striking the city at about 4:50 PM CDT. Almost a half mile wide, the tornado passed directly through town from south to north, devastating about 60 percent of the city. Damage was estimated up to $30 million.
Debris from Charles City was found in LeRoy, Minnesota, nearly 35 miles to the north. A receipt from a service station was found in Winona, MN – about 80 miles away. The tornado damaged all of the churches in town, but left the bars standing. The tornado was on the ground for 65 miles, continuing to Elma and dissipating south of Chester, four miles south of the Minnesota border.
According to Weather.gov, while Charles City was being ravaged by its own F5 tornado on May 15, 1968, an F5 twister that leveled sections of Oelwein was touching down southwest of Oelwein at 4:57 pm that day. The warning sirens sounded for only 15 seconds before power failed. Some witnesses said that they saw more than one tornado.
This tornado then moved north through the western part of Maynard, then turned almost straight north about five more miles before lifting.
Damage estimates ranged upward to $21 million, most of which occurred in Oelwein. Four people were killed.
Tornadoes that day also touched down at 4:58 pm at Jackson Junction and at 6:15 pm near Cresco.
On May 24, 1968, Iowa Governor Harold Hughes requested just over two million dollars ($2,044,000) in supplemental federal assistance to help repair public facilities in Charles City and Oelwein. On May 29, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the state of Iowa as a disaster area.
Meteorologist Chris Nelson of St. Ansgar says EF5 twisters are defined by winds in excess of 200 miles per hour and by what they “eat.”
Nelson adds that the power of Charles City’s EF5 that day was evident some 200 miles away.
All 13 people killed during the Charles City tornado are now memorialized on a plaque on the flag memorial in Central Park.
