Frank LeVega was traveling down a road near 52nd Street when he heard a roaring noise. To some people, the roaring noise might be some unknown sound. However, to Mr. LeVega he knew exactly what it was, as he had heard the same roaring sound six years prior, almost to the day. He immediately abandoned his evening plans and headed home to collect his wife and kids. "It sounded like the rumbling of dozens of freight trains, the moment I heard it I knew it was a tornado. I saw the one which visited Omaha six years ago." Mr. LeVega said in an interview with the Omaha Daily Bee the morning after. He made it back in time to take his family to the storm cellar where they rode out the storm. When the family emerged, the home was destroyed, but all of them were safe.
Frank LeVega was one of hundreds who experienced the tornado that went through Dundee in central Omaha on April 6, 1919, just a little over six years after the infamous Easter Sunday Tornado of March 23, 1913. Although the 1919 tornado was much weaker by comparison, it still resonated hard with a community shaken by the events six years prior. In this installment of This Week in Weather History, we look at the 1919 tornado, its impact on Dundee, and the wider weather events that culminated in this tornado.
DUNDEE: A SHORT HISTORY
The origins of Dundee go back to the 1870s and 1880s. At this time, the city of Omaha had hardly expanded beyond 32nd St. In 1880, a wealthy landowner hired a company from Kansas City to build six large homes bounded by 48th St. to the east, Capitol Ave in the south, 52nd St. to the west, and California St. to the north. This was the beginning of Dundee Place, named after a prior successful development in Kansas City. Dundee was meant as a residential place for some of Omaha's more well-off citizens. In 1888, a set of guidelines for living in Dundee was established: 1.) All buildings must be residential; 2.) Homes had to be 25 feet from the street; 3.) Homes must cost at least $2500; and 4.) No illegal or immoral business was allowed in the neighborhood.
At first, Dundee failed to gain any real traction with only a handful of people building homes in the development. In 1894, Dundee became an incorporated community on the outskirts of Omaha. To attempt to gain more people, developers of the community purchased over 2,000 maple trees to be planted along the streets. Furthermore, newcomers were offered free lots as long as they built a home, and then $500 was paid to them in the first year. This worked, and the population of Dundee began to rise. Lavish early 20th century homes were built in several architectural styles, and a commercial district was developed in the village. By 1910, Dundee had a population of over 1,000 residents.
By the mid-1910s, the city of Omaha was looking to expand beyond its borders as the population continued to grow. It looked at the communities on its outskirts as potential avenues for annexation: South Omaha, Florence, Benson, and Dundee were all expansion opportunities. In 1915, the City of Omaha moved for expansion into Dundee, which the residents fiercely contested. After a court battle, the citizens of Omaha voted overwhelmingly for annexation in 1917, so Dundee became a part of Omaha which it is revered and admired as one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city.
THE TORNADOES
There were not that many tornadoes on April 6, 1919. Official documentation lists 4 tornadoes. Two brief tornadoes touched down near Madison, south of Norfolk in northeast Nebraska. Another tornado developed near Elmwood in Cass County, and the final tornado impacted Dundee.
Elmwood had been peppered with golf ball-sized hail before the tornado developed near the Cass/Otoe county line. The tornado moved due north, almost northwest through rural southwest Cass County. The tornado missed Elmwood itself but damaged several farms to the west of town. One farm had a fence post impaled several inches into the ground, and another farm had a tree ripped right out roots and all. One other aspect of this tornado was the fact that it was well-photographed by several people in the area. The photographs of the tornado were so numerous, that it was some of the clearest images of a tornado seen so far.
It was possibly the same storm that moved northeast into Omaha after 7:30 pm. The tornado that impacted Dundee touched down in the Westlawn-Hillcrest Cemetery near 55th and Center Streets. At the cemetery, a tree was toppled and damage was done to the garage.
The tornado then moved north-northeast into Dundee, which was still somewhat sparsely populated in 1919. A home was damaged near 52nd and Pacific, and another near Howard and 50th St. The tornado crossed Dodge around 49th St, where it moved into a more heavily populated neighborhood. Multiple homes along 48th St between California and Cuming were damaged, some severely. Roofs were torn off, windows were blown out, and in more extreme examples walls collapsed. Those inside the homes hardly had time to seek shelter before the tornado passed through. It continued northeast, crossing Military Ave near the intersection of Hamilton St. The tornado continued into the Clifton Hills neighborhood before it lifted shortly after.
Overall, the Dundee tornado of 1919 was not too intense. Modern estimates place the tornado at F-2 intensity with winds between 111-135 mph. There were no fatalities, but 20 injuries. In one home, a family of five was caught off guard when their roof and exterior walls collapsed on California St. Miraculously, all five family members escaped with no injuries. Most of the injuries were minor, with the most severe being a girl who broke her back when she was tossed by the tornado in her front yard.
Although the damage was much less severe and more localized than the tornado of 1913, it brought back reminders of that day. More eerie was the tornado path, which was less than a half mile to the west of the 1913 tornado.
