1953 Tornado Memorial

On December 5, 1953, a warm, blustery holiday-season Saturday in Vicksburg turned disastrous when a tornado struck downtown at 5:35 p.m. After a day of shifting rain and sun, with shoppers on Washington Street, plans underway for the Leo Puckett benefit game, and children attending a matinee at The Saenger Theater, tornadic winds roared in from the southwest and carved a path of destruction from the Mississippi River near the mouth of the Yazoo Diversion Canal across the main business district, through residential blocks, and into the National Military Park and beyond. Hospitals overflowed with the injured, people were lifted from their homes, motorists were killed in the streets, debris buried victims, phone and power lines fell, and children at the theater were trapped when a massive roof collapsed. The storm killed 38 people, injured more than 200, and left 1,200 or more homeless. Its impact became a dividing point in Vicksburg's history, remembered as life before and after the tornado, while the destruction reshaped downtown as upper stories were lost, many were never rebuilt, and rebuilding brought new storefronts, brick construction, reinforced steel walls, and renovated interiors.

Vicksburg, Mississippi · United States