1953 Flint–Beecher tornado kills 116 people 60 years ago this hour (1953)


Video: 'Weather History: 1953 Flint-Worcester Tornado Outbreak (HD)'

(Monday, June 8, 1953; 01:30 UTC) — The 1953 Flint-Beecher tornado, one of the top ten single deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history and rated as an F5 on the Fujita Scale, touched down in Genesee County, Michigan, tonight and continued on a 27 mile path, causing 116 fatalities. Most of the casualties and damage occurred in the unincorporated community of Beecher, a suburb on the northern edge of the city of Flint, Michigan.

The tornado was one of eight tornadoes that touched down the same day in eastern lower Michigan and northwest Ohio. It was also part of the larger Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak of severe weather that began over Nebraska and Iowa, before moving east across the upper Great Lakes states and Ontario, and on to New York and New England causing more deadly tornadoes.