Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on May 25, 1946.
TORNADO HITS NORTH COUNTY AREA
Property Destruction Most Severe At Junction of State Roads 6 and 49; Loss Heavy
Service Stations, Cabins, Dining Rooms, Farm Buildings and Vehicles Smashed By Force of Wind; Several Persons Suffer Minor Injuries
A tornado hit north Porter county in mid-afternoon Friday, leaving an angry trail of destruction at the junction of state roads 6 and 49 where thousands of dollars in property damage was done.
Typical of a twister’s freakishness, most of the storm’s wrath was visited upon the south side of highway 6, with the Lawrence Caprous property bearing the brunt of the severe loss.
A Texaco service station owned by Caprous and operated by William Berndt, who lives nearby was reduced to rubble. In addition, Blue Bird Inn was severely damaged when a huge tree smashed into the dining room. Four cabins owned by Caprous were wrecked and the old Blue Bird dance hall was partially demolished by three large trees which crashed into the rear part of the structure.
Miraculously no one was seriously injured in the vicinity, although several persons had narrow escapes from death.
Two youths, his son Everett Caprous and Jerry Pittman, were in the Texaco service station with Berndt when the tornado struck. The three ran outside and attempted to escape debris from the ravaged structure by lying down. Pittman, a recently discharged veteran, suffered severe cuts on the leg and was brought to Porter Memorial hospital for treatment. As far as could be learned, his was the most serious injury of any persons involved in the disaster.
Vale Caprous, son of the Blue Bird Inn owner, was in the kitchen of the establishment with his son, 3, Alice Hineline and Tom Sergeant of Valparaiso employees at the inn.
Caprous said he had just left the dining room with the youngster when a tree crashed into the roof of the Inn.
“I grabbed my son and dived for the floor in the kitchen,” Caprous said. “The only noise I remember other than the tree falling was a terrific rushing of wind. It was all over almost before we knew what was happening.”
Mother Periled
Caprous said he suddenly remembered that his mother, Mrs. Lawrence Caprous, was working in a laundry at the rear of the old Blue Bird dance hall that he feared for her safety.
He rushed to the building and found that although three trees had crashed into the room where his mother had been working, she was unhurt. Her husband was in Valparaiso at the time the storm hit.
The younger Caprous said an electric clock in the Inn had stopped at 3:30, indicating the time of the blow.
Scores of big trees in the wooded area just south of Roads 6 and 40 junction were splintered like broken jackstraws or uprooted by the force of the tornado.
A swath about 300 feet wide was apparent through an orchard owned by Frank Nicholas on the west side of road 49 and south of road 6 where pine, oak and fruit trees had borne the brunt of the blast. The Nicholas home was damaged, a Standard service station, owned by Nicholas and operated by Herb Stanley, was unroofed and two Indiana state highway trucks parked at the rear of the station were hurled across road 49, from west to east. Both were badly wrecked, the box being torn entirely off one.
Take Refuge in Station
Robert Prentiss, Valparaiso RFD, and Frank Johnson, Chesterton, were in charge of one truck which was completely wrecked, the dump box and cab being torn off. They had luckily left the truck and taken refuge in the Texaco service station, when the roof went off. They were uninjured. Occupants of the other truck, Ray Nicholson, Chesterton, and John Kliest, Malden, suffered injuries. Nicholson was bruised and Kliest suffered a wrenched shoulder. He will probably require hospitalization.
An army jeep, packed next to the Texaco station at the time of the tornado, was lifted across road 6 but the driver, who was unidentified, righted his vehicle and drove off with a broken windshield as the only apparent damage, according to eyewitnesses.
Damage was also done to a roadside restaurant owned by Nicholas, while advertising signs of other establishments located at the highway junction were torn, twisted, or blown away by the wind.
Narrow Escapes
Three Valparaiso painters working at the Weimer service station, directly across from Blue Bird, had narrow escapes. They were John H. Bruhn, his son, John V. Bruhn, and Max Ridgeway. With a new spraying outfit they were engaged in painting the station. The elder Bruhn was sitting in a car at the time of the blow. A tree hit the car and overturned a trailer attached. Bruhn remained in the car and was unhurt. John V. Bruhn and Ridgeway were tossed about by the wind. The spraying outfit was completely ruined. Today the younger Bruhn went to Chicago to get new equipment. Relating his experience, the elder Bruhn said: “It happened so quickly I didn’t know what had occurred until it was all over.”
Severe destruction was also done to a farm owned by Tom Rhoda. The farm is located east of the junction at the top of a grade on highway 6. The storm apparently veered slightly to the north after hitting the Caprous property, blasting its way through the Rhoda barnyard.
Barn Smashed
A barn was lifted bodily from its foundations, but a calf tied inside, was found unhurt, although the barn was demolished. Rhoda and a boy identified by neighbors as Darrell Hoover, about 13, were said to have been standing near a garage at the time the tornado struck.
Rhoda and the lad, it was said, were picked up by the twister and flung into a muddy field some distance away. The boy, it was understood, suffered a cut on his hand, while the farmer was bruised. In addition, one of two silos was blown over, although the second appeared to have escaped unscathed, and virtually every window in the Rhoda home was blown out.
So powerful was the lifting force of the wind that considerable debris from the Caprous property was found on the Rhoda farm which is about a quarter of a mile away.
Witnesses said the twister, which appeared to be “jumping around” was a black, funnel-shaped cloud. It was seen by observers a half hour earlier several miles north of highway 6 in the Crocker vicinity.
Twister Reappears
Several persons had started out in their autos to learn if damage had been done when the twister seemed to dissolve in the sky.
It reappeared, however, this time near the Roy Hanrahan farm west of the roads 6 and 49 junction, when it swooped down through the trees and dwellings east of the Hanrahan’s.
Venting its fury on the Nicholas and Caprous properties on the south side of road 49, the tornado next struck the Rhoda farm and continued through the woods southeast of the barnyard, toppling scores of trees.
A Chesterton storm approached a cloudburst. A rainfall at 2 o’clock was followed by a heavier precipitation at 3 o’clock estimated at two inches. A third rain was recorded at 4 o’clock. A high wind blew during the various downpours, but no damage was reported in the town.
At McCool airport, Louis G. Himebrook, assistant communicator, reported the wind attained a velocity of between 40 and 50 miles an hour. Himebrook said the wind, while strong, did no damage at the airport.
No Damage Here
At the Flint lake pumping station only a small amount of rain was reported, but the wind velocity was strong. No damage, however, was reported.
According to reports the storm had its inception in the 6 and 49 vicinity and extended in a straight easterly direction across Jackson township, hitting Otis Springvale and Hudson lake, where it spent its force.
Four persons were recovering in LaPorte county today from injuries suffered when the tornado cut a 30-mile swath through LaPorte county.
Mrs. William Raska, Beatty’s Corner, Peter Gorski, Otis, and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gropt, Michigan City, were injured in the storm which struck at 4 p.m.
Three houses at Otis, a filling station at Statesville, and several high tension lines were blown down in the storm.
Five homes were destroyed, 13 large barns leveled and other buildings damaged. Two power lines were down near Springville.
