1989 Coldenham tornado
1989 F1 tornado in New York, US
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A destructive tornado outbreak struck a wide swath of the Southern and Eastern United States as well as Canada on November 15 and 16, 1989. It produced at least 40 tornadoes, including an F4 tornado in Huntsville, Alabama. Several other significant tornadoes were reported across 15 states.
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Tornado summary
Official records state that the tornado touched down to the south in Monroe at approximately 12:31 p.m. EST (17:31 UTC), moving north for around nine miles (14 km) to the East Coldenham area. As the storm struck the elementary school, approximately 120 children were eating lunch in the school cafeteria. One of the walls collapsed onto numerous children, killing seven instantly and injuring at least 20. Two of the injured later died in hospitals. When the tornado began to hit the school, the principal and other staff began trying to move students into the hallways in the immediate seconds before the collapse. Roughly 200 state and local police, fire fighters, and ambulance workers converged on the school to provide assistance, along with 25 ambulances, several fire rescue vans, and a helicopter. The search and rescue operations were completed by 7:15 p.m. EST (00:15 UTC) that evening.
Aftermath
Fatalities
Ten people were killed by the tornado; nine of these fatalities were direct. All ten people killed were children, and a tenth child was hit and killed by a distracted driver who was staring at the damaged elementary school. The other nine deaths occurred when a brick-laden wall that supported the cafeteria ceiling gave out while children were eating lunch, collapsing into the building and killing seven, with two more children dying at hospitals days later.
The disaster received a tremendous amount of national and international media coverage at the time of the tragedy because most major news media outlets were at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, just ten miles away, to cover the awarding of the Sylvanus Thayer Award to former President Ronald Reagan, and accordingly were on site within minutes.