Today is a sad anniversary for our neighbors in Jarrell, Texas. May 27th, 1997 was a day nobody in that town will ever forget.

A violent EF-5 tornado blew houses to the ground, tore trees out by their roots, and threw parked cars almost a mile down the road. The Tornado struck the town at about 3:45pm, and 27 people lost their lives.

Residents who remember describe the tornado as stripping asphalt completely off the roads, and as much as 18 inches of soil swooped up off the ground in some places. Farmers reported as many as 300 head of cattle killed as a result of the tornado.

This EF-5 started as a pencil thin cyclone at the Bell country line, and quickly grew into a vortex spanning almost three quarters of a mile wide.

 

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