Mattoon Tornado

On May 26, 1917, a deadly tornado disaster hit Mattoon, Illinois. This tornado passed through much of Coles County, but Mattoon and Charleston were the hardest hit with more than a hundred people killed. Approximately 2,500 Mattoon citizens were left homeless, and hundreds were injured. This event stands as the third deadliest tornado disaster in Illinois to this day. These three photos capture the devastation of the event, and help to situate it in a historic context. One is of a mother and children sitting in their destroyed home, another is of the destroyed O’Connor Bakery, and the third is of five men sitting in the rubble. In all three photographs piles of debris from destroyed buildings are visible. The men standing in the ruins of the O’Connor Bakery look as if they are trying to decide where they should even begin to clean up the damage, and the men’s posture in the third picture makes them look weary and devastated. The constant media coverage of all weather-related events that we have today gives us many images of disaster aftermath and people trying to rebuild their lives. There are fewer images of old disasters, so the ones that do exist serve as a reminder that the people of the past were everyday citizens who had to find the strength and courage to move on after catastrophic events, just as people do today.

(Damage statistics from National Weather Service Website)

-Cate LiaBraaten

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