The Great Louisville Tornado of 1890

Book excerpt: The dramatic story of a devastating natural disaster in nineteenth-century Kentucky. On March 27, 1890, a devastating storm moved over the Ohio River Valley, spawning dozens of deadly tornados. The most powerful of these twisters touched down in Louisville, carving a path of unprecedented destruction from Main Street to the end of town. In the aftermath, nearly eight hundred buildings in the city were destroyed, and over one hundred people perished. In all, the storm produced over twenty-five tornados that day, and it remains the twenty-fifth deadliest storm in US history. This book chronicles Louisville’s most violent natural disaster, with tales of harrowing rescues and rebuilding.