Relentless: The 1947 Woodward Tornado, Oklahoma's Deadliest, as Told by its Survivors

by Lakin Ragains Kastl

A book seventy years in the making, Relentless finally brings to life the gripping story of the 1947 Woodward Tornado. Before storm sirens and televised weather reports, tornadoes terrorized the heartland of the United States with little to no warning. On the evening of April 9, 1947, a massive F-5 tornado tore across the plains of the Texas Panhandle and Northwest Oklahoma and ripped through farmland, rural homes, and three cities. Peaking at an astonishing 1.8 miles wide and killing more than 170 people, this infamous tornado still ranks as Oklahoma's deadliest. Relentless intertwines over eighty personal accounts of survivors with newspaper archives into a narrative that tells how a devastated community with a lot of heart and determination fought back to overcome its greatest tragedy.

247 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 19, 2017

Reviews

[Beverly Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Well written. My father, Doyle Houston, was in High school in 1947 in Geary, Ok and was sent to help with clean-up. He moved to Woodward in late 1950's and assisted with implementation of the radar detection for tornados at the airport. He always said they had to be really confident of a tornado because if sirens were activated, people would panic because of 1947.

[Crystal Waddell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. The book is very… disorganized? Each paragraph kind of stands alone and nothing fits together. Some of the “stories” just end abruptly. “Glass started flying around so I flipped the couch on me.” Then the next paragraphs starts someone else’s story. It’s just a little odd and I cannot focus well on it.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an awful thing to experience.