Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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On March 19, 1948 a deadly tornado struck the southwest Illinois communities of Alton, Fosterburg, Bunker Hill and Gillespie just after 6:45 a.m. 19 people died, 126 seriously injured. The tornado damage rating was estimated at F4, as this was just shy of three decades prior to the original Fujita-Pearson scale. This Universal Newsreel chronicles some of the devastation in the days after. The disaster ranks as the 6th worst in Illinois severe weather history.

http://www.wiu.edu/SevereWeather/images/presentations/anderson_bunkerhill.pdf