UDALL, Kan. (KAKE) - Saturday marks 69 years since the deadliest tornado in Kansas history.

More than 75 people were killed, hundreds of others injured when a tornado ripped through Udall on May 25, 1955.


Nianne Mohlstrom grew up not far from Udall. She told KAKE News in 2018 that she was graduating high school the same week the tornado hit.

"We hightailed it to my grandparents and got down in the cellar," said Mohlstrom.

At the time the tornado hit, KAKE was just under one year old.

Nearly 70 years removed from the death and destruction in Udall, we now stand as society that is flooded with weather alerts on various platforms. While our technology can't go back and save those that are gone, it can prevent future lives from suffering a familiar fate.

At one time, we couldn't even use the term "tornado" in our forecasts or during our broadcasts on KAKE. The fear was if you used the "t word" it would cause mass panic.

The ban on the term tornado was eventually lifted by the “Weather Bureau” (now the National Weather Service) in 1950.