March 18, 2025 • 10 mins
In a new documentary, incredible weather wizard and historian Jeremy Kappell deep dives on the Legendary Tri-State Tornado of 1925.
WOWZERS! THIS ONE'S A DOOZY!
WOWZERS! THIS ONE'S A DOOZY!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good to welcome back a longtime friend. You know him
as a meteorologist on multiple stations here in Louisville years ago.
And that's Jeremy Cappell. I say it like you're some
old man, but you're not. You know, it depends. Man.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
When I woke up this morning, I tell you what
I've been around the block of time or two.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That is funny how that happens as you as you
age a little bit too, and you're like, wait a minute,
what's that paint all about? Every day? Dude? You were
totally schooling me. Jeremy. I know you love weather, and
you have a weather you have an online presence to
stay up with weather and all the various things that
go on. You're also sort of a historian, it seems like.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
More so as I get older, more interested in the past.
Is that because we have so much past to look at?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I guess. So. Anyway, you told me this and I
had no idea, but one hundred years ago, yep, there
was a massive tornado story and it does involve the
Louisville area. So in nineteen twenty five we're talking about
that's right, there was a Because we always talked about
(01:01):
the nineteen seventy four tornado April third.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That's right, the big anniversary last year, which, by the way,
thanks you for, you know, helping me promote that one.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
That was a different documentary that was last year's that's right.
And so you've got a new one put together about
what happened one hundred years ago. Right. And I don't
know why this has always escaped to me, but apparently
nineteen twenty five was pretty wretched. It was.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Now, I know you're old, but I don't think you
were around back now.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Tell people kid me. They say that you were here
to start the radio station. Close.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, In fact, radio was just I think getting started
back in the twenties. And you know that was back
during the heyday of newspapers dominated everything when it came
to media back in the twenties. And this story took
the nation by storm. It was March eighteenth, nineteen twenty five,
exactly one hundred years ago that the United States witnessed
(01:51):
an atrocity, a tornado devastation unlike we they had ever
seen previous, and unlike we've ever seen since. So it's
been a one hundred years and there's been no duplication
of what occurred back on March eighteenth, nineteen twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Was Louisville destroyed.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I'm glad you asked about Louisville, because Louisville is gonna
be It's gonna get lost in the subtext. But Louisville
was actually hit that particular day by a separate tornado
that was later rated as an EF four. Now that
storm was on the ground, I think for like twenty
five or thirty miles rolled through parts of southern Harrison
County and then plowed into the western part of Jefferson County.
(02:31):
I believe the Portland neighborhood was hit pretty hard. But again,
because Louisville was much smaller, it didn't make quite as
much national news. And because you had this great tri
state tornado, the nation didn't really realize that Louisville got hit.
Louisville now they got hit. You get outside of Louisville.
The whole nation was looking at southern Illinois, southern Missouri,
(02:51):
and southwestern Indiana where this tour this road struck.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So like in nineteen seventy four, it was a massive system,
I guess, and then one of them maybe spun off
and came from here and didn't become newsworthy, but the
trib state was the focus of America, and because this
obviously reaked havoc for a long path.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It was an incredibly long path. The storm touched down
at about one o'clock local time in Ellington, Missouri, so
that's in the Boothill area of Missouri. Touched down and
then it did not lift until three and a half
hours later near Petersburg, Indiana. So it was on the
ground for three and a half hours straight. Wow, it
covered two hundred and nineteen miles. Both of those records.
(03:36):
The only storm at the time that ever crossed or yeah,
two state lines was in three states. It was an
unbelievable atrocity in the worst part not only of the
length and the duration of this storm, but the intensity
was top of the scale. They went back with post
analysis to scientists go in there and they can look
back and they can tell you, yeah, without a without
(03:57):
a shadow of a doubt, this was a massive EF
five torny eight. You know, most tornadoes, the average lifespan
is going to be under twenty minutes. And for this
thing to be on the ground for three and a
half hours with just total devastation to all the communities involved,
and of course in nineteen twenty five Terry, they didn't
have modern radars or warning systems. You know, people were
(04:18):
more attuned to the weather back then, as the farm
arms especially had to be. But this particular storm, it'd
befuddled everybody because when they looked at it, it was
so massive and it was so wrapped in heavy sheets
of rain and hail. It didn't look like a tornado
at first. It looked like a gigantic rainstorm, heavy rainstorm.
(04:43):
And unfortunately for the folks in nineteen twenty five, they
didn't realize it was a tornado until it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Was right on top of them. And that's bad news.
Oh my goodness. That had to be just incredible as
authorities then were able to sift through and find who knows.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What well in what they found was amazing. Now, this storm,
in addition to being top of the scale EF five,
in addition to having ridiculous, you know, duration, the storm
was moving at between sixty and seventy miles per hour
for most of its life. And you're talking about a
town that's getting hit for about a minute and a half.
(05:21):
And before that minute and a half, it's a total
normal situation. Minute and a half later, there's nothing left.
I mean, it's like the nothing. And I've got a
whole bunch of photographs and some historic video from that particular,
particularly Murphy's Borough, but all across southern portions of Illinois.
It was just a death trap for anybody that happened
(05:42):
to be there at the time. I mentioned the town
of Murphy's Borough because this is the town that was
the epicenter for this storm, and unfortunately, over a thousand
people were hurt, many of them with permanent injuries, and
two hundred and thirty four people were killed in Murphy's
Borough alone, and the storm went on to destroy many, many,
(06:04):
many more cities.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
People must have thought it was the apocalypse.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Oh yeah, I mean it was unbelievable, and particularly for
Murphy's Borough, the story is so rich, so they have
no idea this thing is coming upon them. Middle of
the afternoon. It hits Murphy Burrow right at two thirty
in the afternoon, so it comes, everybody is surprised, completely
destroys the city, and within moments a massive fire breaks
(06:32):
out in the city because they had just you know,
electricity had nearly been developed at the time, so we
have all these snapping, you know, power lines everywhere, and
at the same time, gas lines busted with the when
these buildings collapsed ring the storm, gas lines busted. So
the whole town went up in a giant blaze. After
the tornado had passed and after it already totally destroyed
the time, now.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They were pumping gas to the lanterns, the street lamps
and all that business too. That's right, Yeah, that's that time. Okay,
so you said something about film or whatever, but I
mean what was available at that time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, it's interesting because you know, modern photography really has
its roots back in the early eighteen hundreds. And I
mentioned this during the documentary. First recorded tornado was in
eighteen eighty four, so they had been taking pictures of
storms for quite a while. A film came a little
bit later. They were doing film at the time, but
(07:25):
nobody had caught an actual tornado. But the interesting thing
to me is that even though modern photography had been
around almost one hundred years at the time that this
storm happened, and again there was all types of opportunity
for people to take pictures of it because it was
on the ground for three and a half hours in
the middle of the day. Yet one hundred years later,
not a single photo ever surfaced of that storm, which
(07:48):
I think is very interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
It's astounding. So anyway, you've put together a compilation of
whatever information is avatable, and some just created to show
what it could have looked like.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They really wanted to make sure that history this didn't
get lost in history. And thanks to some friends out
at the Murphy's Boro Public Library, also Jackson County Historical
Society in southern Illinois, and several other local libraries that
pitched and helped me put this piece of history together.
(08:22):
But in the heart of this documentary, I think the
best part of the whole thing is that these original
survivors from one hundred years ago. Well back in nineteen ninety,
the Jackson County Historic Society where Murphy's Borough is at,
held a sixty fifth anniversary kind of to commemorate the
Great Storm, and so they brought in actual survivors and
(08:42):
they set down about seventeen of them interviewed, and I
took the best of those interviews and put it in
the middle of the story.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Very cool, very smart of them to do that too,
because history escapes, Yeah, once people fade out. Yeah, it's
just one of those stories I heard about it, and
it's called the Tri State.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Now, the Tri State is the Tornado. Most people probably
know this as the Great Try State. That's what it's
been called for years and years and years. After I
got necked deep into the research of this thing, I
realized that great's not great enough for this thing. So
we went with a new title for the storm and
also the title of the documentary. It's the Legendary Try
State and that can be found at Legendary tri State
(09:23):
dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Okay, any other media source ne tocent. Oh yep, so
it's there.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And then if you follow me on YouTube, just go
to meteorologist Jeremy Cappel if you don't on YouTube, And
that literally just got posted within the hour, so you
can find it there on YouTube. You can find it
on the website Legendary tri State dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Holl's family everybody happy.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, you know, kids growing like weeds. I'm trying to
slow him down. They won't listen. I got a boy
that's seventeen and a half and he's bigger than me.
I don't know how that happened. Good luck with all that. Yeah,
it's tough.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Isn't it great to see again Jeremy Cappell Terry, thank you,
good to see you, and good to be all right. Legendary, right,
that's what it is. He's elevated the storm, all right.
You can find Jeremy Capital online of course for weather
information and analysis all throughout the year too. It's great
to see you, brother. An Arry back in a minute
on news radio WA forty w h A s.
Good to welcome back a longtime friend. You know him
as a meteorologist on multiple stations here in Louisville years ago.
And that's Jeremy Cappell. I say it like you're some
old man, but you're not. You know, it depends. Man.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
When I woke up this morning, I tell you what
I've been around the block of time or two.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That is funny how that happens as you as you
age a little bit too, and you're like, wait a minute,
what's that paint all about? Every day? Dude? You were
totally schooling me. Jeremy. I know you love weather, and
you have a weather you have an online presence to
stay up with weather and all the various things that
go on. You're also sort of a historian, it seems like.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
More so as I get older, more interested in the past.
Is that because we have so much past to look at?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I guess. So. Anyway, you told me this and I
had no idea, but one hundred years ago, yep, there
was a massive tornado story and it does involve the
Louisville area. So in nineteen twenty five we're talking about
that's right, there was a Because we always talked about
(01:01):
the nineteen seventy four tornado April third.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That's right, the big anniversary last year, which, by the way,
thanks you for, you know, helping me promote that one.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
That was a different documentary that was last year's that's right.
And so you've got a new one put together about
what happened one hundred years ago. Right. And I don't
know why this has always escaped to me, but apparently
nineteen twenty five was pretty wretched. It was.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Now, I know you're old, but I don't think you
were around back now.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Tell people kid me. They say that you were here
to start the radio station. Close.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, In fact, radio was just I think getting started
back in the twenties. And you know that was back
during the heyday of newspapers dominated everything when it came
to media back in the twenties. And this story took
the nation by storm. It was March eighteenth, nineteen twenty five,
exactly one hundred years ago that the United States witnessed
(01:51):
an atrocity, a tornado devastation unlike we they had ever
seen previous, and unlike we've ever seen since. So it's
been a one hundred years and there's been no duplication
of what occurred back on March eighteenth, nineteen twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Was Louisville destroyed.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I'm glad you asked about Louisville, because Louisville is gonna
be It's gonna get lost in the subtext. But Louisville
was actually hit that particular day by a separate tornado
that was later rated as an EF four. Now that
storm was on the ground, I think for like twenty
five or thirty miles rolled through parts of southern Harrison
County and then plowed into the western part of Jefferson County.
(02:31):
I believe the Portland neighborhood was hit pretty hard. But again,
because Louisville was much smaller, it didn't make quite as
much national news. And because you had this great tri
state tornado, the nation didn't really realize that Louisville got hit.
Louisville now they got hit. You get outside of Louisville.
The whole nation was looking at southern Illinois, southern Missouri,
(02:51):
and southwestern Indiana where this tour this road struck.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So like in nineteen seventy four, it was a massive system,
I guess, and then one of them maybe spun off
and came from here and didn't become newsworthy, but the
trib state was the focus of America, and because this
obviously reaked havoc for a long path.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It was an incredibly long path. The storm touched down
at about one o'clock local time in Ellington, Missouri, so
that's in the Boothill area of Missouri. Touched down and
then it did not lift until three and a half
hours later near Petersburg, Indiana. So it was on the
ground for three and a half hours straight. Wow, it
covered two hundred and nineteen miles. Both of those records.
(03:36):
The only storm at the time that ever crossed or yeah,
two state lines was in three states. It was an
unbelievable atrocity in the worst part not only of the
length and the duration of this storm, but the intensity
was top of the scale. They went back with post
analysis to scientists go in there and they can look
back and they can tell you, yeah, without a without
(03:57):
a shadow of a doubt, this was a massive EF
five torny eight. You know, most tornadoes, the average lifespan
is going to be under twenty minutes. And for this
thing to be on the ground for three and a
half hours with just total devastation to all the communities involved,
and of course in nineteen twenty five Terry, they didn't
have modern radars or warning systems. You know, people were
(04:18):
more attuned to the weather back then, as the farm
arms especially had to be. But this particular storm, it'd
befuddled everybody because when they looked at it, it was
so massive and it was so wrapped in heavy sheets
of rain and hail. It didn't look like a tornado
at first. It looked like a gigantic rainstorm, heavy rainstorm.
(04:43):
And unfortunately for the folks in nineteen twenty five, they
didn't realize it was a tornado until it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Was right on top of them. And that's bad news.
Oh my goodness. That had to be just incredible as
authorities then were able to sift through and find who knows.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What well in what they found was amazing. Now, this storm,
in addition to being top of the scale EF five,
in addition to having ridiculous, you know, duration, the storm
was moving at between sixty and seventy miles per hour
for most of its life. And you're talking about a
town that's getting hit for about a minute and a half.
(05:21):
And before that minute and a half, it's a total
normal situation. Minute and a half later, there's nothing left.
I mean, it's like the nothing. And I've got a
whole bunch of photographs and some historic video from that particular,
particularly Murphy's Borough, but all across southern portions of Illinois.
It was just a death trap for anybody that happened
(05:42):
to be there at the time. I mentioned the town
of Murphy's Borough because this is the town that was
the epicenter for this storm, and unfortunately, over a thousand
people were hurt, many of them with permanent injuries, and
two hundred and thirty four people were killed in Murphy's
Borough alone, and the storm went on to destroy many, many,
(06:04):
many more cities.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
People must have thought it was the apocalypse.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Oh yeah, I mean it was unbelievable, and particularly for
Murphy's Borough, the story is so rich, so they have
no idea this thing is coming upon them. Middle of
the afternoon. It hits Murphy Burrow right at two thirty
in the afternoon, so it comes, everybody is surprised, completely
destroys the city, and within moments a massive fire breaks
(06:32):
out in the city because they had just you know,
electricity had nearly been developed at the time, so we
have all these snapping, you know, power lines everywhere, and
at the same time, gas lines busted with the when
these buildings collapsed ring the storm, gas lines busted. So
the whole town went up in a giant blaze. After
the tornado had passed and after it already totally destroyed
the time, now.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They were pumping gas to the lanterns, the street lamps
and all that business too. That's right, Yeah, that's that time. Okay,
so you said something about film or whatever, but I
mean what was available at that time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, it's interesting because you know, modern photography really has
its roots back in the early eighteen hundreds. And I
mentioned this during the documentary. First recorded tornado was in
eighteen eighty four, so they had been taking pictures of
storms for quite a while. A film came a little
bit later. They were doing film at the time, but
(07:25):
nobody had caught an actual tornado. But the interesting thing
to me is that even though modern photography had been
around almost one hundred years at the time that this
storm happened, and again there was all types of opportunity
for people to take pictures of it because it was
on the ground for three and a half hours in
the middle of the day. Yet one hundred years later,
not a single photo ever surfaced of that storm, which
(07:48):
I think is very interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
It's astounding. So anyway, you've put together a compilation of
whatever information is avatable, and some just created to show
what it could have looked like.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They really wanted to make sure that history this didn't
get lost in history. And thanks to some friends out
at the Murphy's Boro Public Library, also Jackson County Historical
Society in southern Illinois, and several other local libraries that
pitched and helped me put this piece of history together.
(08:22):
But in the heart of this documentary, I think the
best part of the whole thing is that these original
survivors from one hundred years ago. Well back in nineteen ninety,
the Jackson County Historic Society where Murphy's Borough is at,
held a sixty fifth anniversary kind of to commemorate the
Great Storm, and so they brought in actual survivors and
(08:42):
they set down about seventeen of them interviewed, and I
took the best of those interviews and put it in
the middle of the story.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Very cool, very smart of them to do that too,
because history escapes, Yeah, once people fade out. Yeah, it's
just one of those stories I heard about it, and
it's called the Tri State.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Now, the Tri State is the Tornado. Most people probably
know this as the Great Try State. That's what it's
been called for years and years and years. After I
got necked deep into the research of this thing, I
realized that great's not great enough for this thing. So
we went with a new title for the storm and
also the title of the documentary. It's the Legendary Try
State and that can be found at Legendary tri State
(09:23):
dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Okay, any other media source ne tocent. Oh yep, so
it's there.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And then if you follow me on YouTube, just go
to meteorologist Jeremy Cappel if you don't on YouTube, And
that literally just got posted within the hour, so you
can find it there on YouTube. You can find it
on the website Legendary tri State dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Holl's family everybody happy.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, you know, kids growing like weeds. I'm trying to
slow him down. They won't listen. I got a boy
that's seventeen and a half and he's bigger than me.
I don't know how that happened. Good luck with all that. Yeah,
it's tough.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Isn't it great to see again Jeremy Cappell Terry, thank you,
good to see you, and good to be all right. Legendary, right,
that's what it is. He's elevated the storm, all right.
You can find Jeremy Capital online of course for weather
information and analysis all throughout the year too. It's great
to see you, brother. An Arry back in a minute
on news radio WA forty w h A s.
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