A Memory of the 1956 McDonald’s Chapel Tornado
An F4 tornado killed 25 people along the western and northern fringes of Birmingham on this date in 1956…here is a memory from Elizabth Sheetz, who was 9 when the tornado hit…
Please send me your memories if you have them…to bill.murray@theweathercompany.com
Mr. Murray;
I was nine years old when that tornado occurred. The word tornado was not even a part of my vocabulary. I remember the day vividly. My parents, my sister and I and my two brothers were visiting by grandparents who lived on Iceland Ave. in McDonalds Chapel. A short time before three o’clock, I went outside to see what my Mother and brother were doing. They were discussing how terrible the sky looked, the eerie color and the dark, muggy stillness. My Dad, Grandfather and Uncle were in the front yard painting the house.
All of a sudden my Dad yelled “Here it comes!†The men ran into the house and my Uncle hollered that we all run to the storm shelter up the street. My Dad said we would never make it. That it was too late. At that point, it took three grown men pushing with all their might to close the back door of my Grandfather’s house.
Then, all nine of us(five adults and four children) lay face down on the floor hallway.
In the distance, I could hear a roar. This roar is just as you hear a roar of wind through the trees that eventually dies down. This roar did not die down. It just got louder and louder.
Suddenly, a blast of “emptiness†occurs. No roar; only the sound of the house creaking, and the clanging and pinging of debris being blown around. My brother and I lifted our heads to peer out a window. We saw horizontal rain and grayness.
It was over in seconds. A hard rain followed. The tornado was apparently skipping when it went by. The roof on the house across from my grandfather’s was blown off.
My grandfather’s yard was a mass of wooden splinters. My Dad’s car parked in the back was covered in millions of nicks. The old number three wash tub that once hung on the back of the house was gone. We were the lucky ones.
My Dad, Grandfather and Uncle searched for victims and cleared roads so that rescue vehicles could reach the more devastated areas. I will always remember the sirens of the ambulances and fire trucks.
The National Guard came. For awhile we all sat in the darkness of no power. Somehow, later that night, Dad got us all back to our home in Wylam. Mom and Dad turned on the radio and the list of the dead was being broadcast.
Several days later, we tried to visit our Grandfather. The road was packed with cars, bumper to bumper sight-seers.
You are right. Very little is ever mentioned about this tornado. I will never forget it.
Elizabeth Sheetz
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I was born in Ohio in 1955, so I have no memories of 1956 in Alabama. I do, however, love the effort you are making to collect these memories of local storms and their aftermath while we are still here to share them. Hopefully your research and questions and the responses will result in a book that will be an invaluable part of history.
On a more mundane note, what are the latest thoughts about the weather tonight? I have plants and a dear pet to worry about….
still asking.. thoughts on the wind, temp, frost tonight? I live in Bluff Park about a mile in from the bluff…
My father, David Jones, was Pastor of McDonald’ Chapel Methodist Church and our church was used for emergency relief. I was 8 years old and remember it very vividly. We went to the neighbor’s house next door to their basement. I remember all the sirens, medical workers, relief workers. To this day, I take notice of storms near my home. Larry Jones
These are words from my Grandparents who lived in Fulton Heights back then in Fultondale, Alabama…
Back then they didn’t have the type of weather warnings that we have today. My Grandfather worked for Alabama Power. He usually got off work around 1:30 in the afternoon. He noticed on the way home that the weather seemed Odd. Too quiet, too calm after a windy day. When he arrived home, my Grandmother was outside playing in the yard with my Mom which, was around four years old and some neighborhood kids. It was actually a bright and sunny day with occasional clouds. As soon as my Grandad drove up, the neighbor across the street came running outside screaming “THERE IS A TORNADO HEADING THIS WAY!!” Noone believed him.
A few moments later is when they heard the first noise of Thunder. The trees started to sway and things turned yellow. They had about two minutes to throw everyone that was outside into their basement. With them inside, they covered their heads with blankets my grandmom had found some blankets and covered the children the best they could with their own bodies. They heard breaking glass, splitting wood, and things being blown against the house.
My Grandparents house withstood the Tornado with minor damage. The house nextdoor and many others did not. My Grandparents had cuts from the broken glass. My Mom substained a very bad cut to her left arm, so they knew that they needed to get to the hospital as soon as they could. Car-a-way Hospital was the closest hospital to where they lived. On their way, they encountered cars that were thrown into the woods, and down trees blocking their path.. Remember I-65 was not built yet and at that time Highway 31(Car-a-way Blvd) flowed North from 4:00-6:00 for rush hour traffic.
There were no fatalities in the area where my Grandparents lived. To this day I call them heroes for their quick thinking and courage. Both my Grandparents have passed since, but anytime it comes rough weather around here in Morris, Alabama I know that they will keep me safe.
Thanks, Joshua
1956 was a very eventful year. Bill I was wanting to learn more about the 1956 tornado and came across these facts.. None are weather related but very educational..
“Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” was made the national motto
Elvis Presley had his first hit single, “Heartbreak Hotel”.
Japan joined the United Nations
Frank P. Samford, Jr commissioned a bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty for the Liberty National Building.
Bull Connor began his second term as Commissioner of Public Safety.
Cecil M. Johnson was named Birmingham Woman of the Year.
The Birmingham Community Chest changed its name to United Appeal.
WAPI-AM, WAFM-FM, WAPI-TV and the Birmingham News were sold to Newhouse.
The Jefferson County Truck Growers Association moved to Finley Avenue.
January 15: The University of Montevallo became coeducational.
Maytown was incorporated.
May 3: The Birmingham Amateur Radio Club was incorporated with Layton Dorman, president.
February 1: Autherine Lucy enrolled at the University of Alabama. She was expelled a week later for causing disruption.
April 10: Kenneth Adams, E. L. Vinson & Willis Vinson assaulted singer Nat King Cole on stage during a performance at Municipal Auditorium. They were each sentenced to 180 days in jail.
May 26: A Montgomery judge banned the NAACP from operating in Alabama.
June 5: The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights was founded by Fred Shuttlesworth at Sardis Baptist Church.
December 25: Fred Shuttlesworth’s home was bombed. He emerged from the basement unscathed.
December 26: Fred Shuttlesworth led hundreds of Blacks onto Birmingham busses in defiance of local law. 22 are arrested and Shuttlesworth files a federal lawsuit against the police.
February 15: The Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City A’s cancelled an exhibition at Rickwood Field due to segregation ordinances.
The Birmingham Black Barons played their first season in the new Negro American League.
December 1: Auburn defeated the Alabama 34-7 in the 1956 Iron Bowl at Legion Field.
Alabama’s men’s basketball team was SEC champion with a 14-0 league record (21-3 overall).
October 20: Howard College’s final homecoming game at its East Lake campus was won 25-6 by Carson-Newman under steady rain. Viola Beard reigned as queen.
Milton Graff set a Birmingham Barons single season record for at bats with 653.
The Magic City Classic ends in a 0-0 tie.
The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra debuted as a fully professional ensemble.
Notable 1956 births included: Mel Gibson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tom Hanks, Martina Navratilova, Dwight Yoakam, Bo Derek, and Larry Bird
I heard about that tornado all my life. My mother was expecting me and my brother was four. My mother took refuge under a mattress with my brother. That side of McDonald Chapel did not get the damage. They were spared. I heard a lot about the people who were injured, and about friends that had lost their entire families to the storm. But, my Daddy did not talk about it, he was a man of few words…My Daddy had helped clean up the debris and pull people who did not make it from underneath the rubble, adults and children. He was marked by this. My mother told me that he found a Mother holding onto her baby. They did not make it. A few years later, he built and home and made sure it had a basement, a dirt floor, but he wasted no time in mixing concrete and building the forms to concrete that basement floor. Many nights my dad stood in the open garage doors Eyes to the West watching the night skies and listening. He made sure that we were safe, as safe as possible. We sat on the mattresses. Don’t get off that bed, he would tell us. The floors were still dirt at that time and cold. So we huddled on the beds. Our relatives and neighbors would come and the kids thought it was a lot fun, like a party. But, to my Dad, he was making sure that we were safe from the storm. In 1998, while he lay sleeping in his den, the tornado that destroyed half of McDonalds Chapel (the other half) blewhis house completely away, and he ended up in the back yard in the pouring down rain, with a cut finger, and some scrathes. What a miracle.
I barely remember this as I had just turned six years old. We lived in Minor Heights and I was to start to school in September. Across and above the playground-baseball field at the school was a small mountain-like rise (some would call this a large hill, but to me it was a mountain) where predominantly minorities had built homes. I do not know why, but my father and I rode the five miles or so to the area and he drove up the mountain. The homes were just piles of splinters- bodies with horrible, gaping wounds lying everywhere. I shall never forget those terrible, red, gaping wounds. Never.
My grandmother lived in Macdonalds chapel in 1957 and survived the tornado. She said, she watched the tornado from her front porch go up the hill and joined another tornado.
I meant to say the 1956 tornado in Mcdonalds chapel.
I’m a freelance writer doing a piece on reoccuring tornadoes in this region. Any help in the way of eyewitness accounts or information that anyone could give me about tornado events of 1956, 1977, 1998, especially tornado events of 1936 would be deeply appreciated. To those that have lost loved ones during any of these events you have my deepest sympathy. I recently watched my nieces and nephews dig out what was left of thier belongings after the April 27, 2011 event. The image still brings tears to my eyes.
Thanks,
Trebor Larae
Harris1634@att.net
My mother grew up on Utica Place and has recounted the story many times. She said that after the storm was over she and her friend were walking in the storm ravaged part of the community when they saw what appeared to be a man hanging from a tree. Turned out to be a pair of overalls. Scared them nonetheless!
I grew up hearing the story of the 1956 tornado. My mother lived in McDonald chapel all her life (me too for that matter). She was ten years old when the tornado hit. My grandparents had gone to visit neighbors (the Hilton’s) and my mother stayed at home. My grandmother told my granddaddy that she didn’t like the way the clouds were looking and sent him to get my mom. Shortly after he returned the tornado hit and their house was destroyed and several neighbors lost their lives. My moms older brother had been out playing and survived the tornado by laying in a ditch. If not of a little mother’s tuition I might be here today!
We were home during the 1998 tornado it hit several blocks over but the sound and the change in pressure that you could feel is something I’ll never forget
Luckily I was not home for the 2011 tornado which did cause minor damage to our house but completely destroyed the rest of our street. Ironically the area were the Hilton’s lived took a direct hit and that house was one of the only ones left standing.