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Remembering The Flint/Beecher Tornado Of 1953

WWJ-TV Chief Meteorologist Jim Madaus' Weather Fact

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file photo (credit: istock.com)

file photo (credit: istock.com)

(credit: CBS 62)

Reporting Jim Madaus

Here we are in the month of June and one thing that long-time Michigan residents won’t forget is the Flint/Beecher tornado.

It happened 58 years ago on June 8, 1953.

It is the deadliest tornado in Michigan history, striking the northern Flint community of Beecher at 8:30 p.m., killing 116 and injuring 844 along its path.

Watch Jim’s Weather Fact

The F5 tornado touched down two miles north of Flushing and from there, created a path averaging about a half-mile wide as it moved across Flint at an approximate speed of 35 miles per hour. Finally coming to an end at a point about two miles north of Lapeer.

A 23-mile-long path of death and destruction was left in its wake with more than a hundred lives lost including as many as 20 families reporting multiple deaths.

Damage was estimated at 19 million dollars. That would be more than 153 million today, factoring inflation.

More information at crh.noaa.gov.

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