Tornado does damage to Brownfield May 13, 1933

A tornado struck at Brownfield last Saturday night doing much damage to buildings in that vicinity and killing a few head of livestock, but fortunately no one injured. The high wind of the storm came from the southwest and did its fury about 11 o'clock p. m., blowing down barns, damaging houses, killing livestock, and finally hitting a hill where the "twister" was sent too high in the air to do more damage.
The twister started at Bay Bottoms, going toward Brownfield, taking a heavy toll of damage in a strip about a tenth of a mile wide. The path of the tornado can be easily seen and was visited by many persons last Sunday who wished to see what damage had been done.
The high wind blew down a large stock barn at the Ed Melvin farm, damaging all out houses. At the Charles Cooper place the house was torn from its foundation. The house is occupied by Harry White, who is a tenant on the Cooper farm. On the farm of Adam Culver the barn was completely demolished and two head of cattle were killed by falling debris. The farm belonging to Abraham Baker was also hard hit, and although no buildings were torn down, the large barn on the place was twisted on its foundation until it will need quite a bit of repairing.
The twister went into the village of Brownfield gaining momentum all the time, where it uprooted trees and tearing limbs from from others. When it crossed the Illinois Central tracks at this point it lifted a large sheet iron granary and warehouse from the foundation, damaging it considerably. The building was the property of Cecil Broadway.
Directly across the street from the Broadway place the wind played havoc with a general repair garage belonging to Porter Hemphill. The Hemphill building was hit by the twister while it was going at its highest rate of speed, for the garage building was a total wreck after the wind hit it. This building was damaged more than any other in the path of the tornado.

Fox Family Escapes

A home belonging to Frank J. Fox, and occupied by Mr. Fox, his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Homer McDowell, was badly damaged. Mr. Fox and his daughter were visiting in West Frankfort at the time of the storm and had they been at home Mr. Fox would have been killed undoubtedly. The roof at the Fox home was taken partially off and a large timber hit on the bed ordinarily occupied by Mr. Fox. The porch and a swing from the Fox place was blown clear of the house and lodged on the bluff back of the house. The house adjacent to that of Mr. Fox, belonging to Bottle Steagall and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jefford, was badly damaged and the Jeffords escaped a very close call. Mr. and Mrs. Jefford and their twin babies were sleeping when the storm hit, and the first thing they know a large timber was blown through the upper story of the house and into the ceiling of the first floor directly over their bed. The force of the timber died before it got to the bed however, and Mr. Jefford and his family crawled under the bed to escape being hit by flying glass from the broken windows. The timber blown through this house came from the Hemphill garage some distance away.
At the Bottle Steagall store, formerly the Brownfield State Bank building, the porch was blown away and onto the roof of a two-story building, occupied by Noll's store, across the street where it tore a large hole in the roof.
The twister continued on its way to toward the northeast hitting the high bluff, where it flattened building owned belonging to the Joe Clanahan place. It also did considerable damage at the Charles Trovillion place. At the Clanahan farm the twister blew down two barns and so completely wrecked the structures that livestock kept on the ground floor was trapped beneath the shower of hay and grain and the debris from the building. Some of the livestock was caught beneath the deluge and imprisoned until morning, but fortunately for Mr. Clanahan the injury to his stock was light. The roof of Mr. Clanahan's house was also wrecked.
The wind continued up the bluff from the Clanahan place and by the time it reached the top of the hill it had spent much of its fury.

Not Much Insurance

It is understood that while quite a bit of the property damaged by the high wind, Saturday night, was covered with insurance, the biggest part of the damage will have to be paid by the owners of the property for most of the buildings were not covered with insurance.
It would be almost impossible to estimate the total damage done to Brownfield and vicinity by the tornado, in terms of dollars and cents, but the cost of rebuilding and repairs will run into a pretty large sum of money.

Copied from Trampe's Pope County Historical Review