This geocache is part of the West Bend GeoTour:
Twenty geocaches have been hidden throughout our historic city that highlight the best of West Bend in any season!
To earn a geocoin, teams must pick up a West Bend GeoTour Passport from the Chamber of Commerce (preferred method) or download a passport. Collect 25 points as detailed in the passport. Link to Updated Passport: West Bend GeoTour Passport.
Remember to record the password from this cache in your GeoTour Passport!
GeoTour Stop #15: Tornado of 1981
This stop on the GeoTour takes you to a memorial plaque in Muenk Playlot for the victims of the tornado that occurred on April 4, 1981.
At 12:02 am, just after midnight when many residents were asleep, an F4 clockwise-rotating anticyclonic tornado with winds estimated between 207 and 260 MPH touched down in this neighborhood, killing 3 people, and injuring 53 others. It literally hurled people through the air in their beds. The tornado was unexpected and the storm that produced it did not display features of a typical severe storm. Because of this, the National Weather Service issued only a Severe Thunderstorm Warning prior to the West Bend Tornado, causing local law enforcement to not sound the tornado sirens in time.
It was the most intense tornado to strike Wisconsin in 1981, and caused $25.0 Million in damages in just a couple minutes. Following the destruction, the American Red Cross determined that around 139 structures were damaged or destroyed by the storm. Entire apartment buildings were moved off their foundations. One of them, an eight-unit building, was lifted and dropped 15 feet back, down a sloping hill. Eleven residents were trapped inside.
"...where the wreckage was worst, it seemed impossible to even begin. Everywhere one looked, the ground was littered with every imaginable artifact of American life - barbeque grills, little girls' shoes, kitchen utensils, a copy of "The Little Engine That Could." Overhead, a TV antenna twisted into junk sculpture clattered in the wind."
"The Van Beek barn had collapsed, and the roof of the 19th century farmhouse was gone. The machine sheds had been yanked apart and strewn across the soft sod of the hayfields. Fences were down, and everything seemed mired in the mud. Cows were milling about, mooing piteously to be milked."
Many homes were leveled and winds took items to unexpected distances. The news media reported that a $1,000 US Savings Bond from the home of one of the three persons killed by the tornado was found in the yard of a home in Sheboygan Falls, about 30 miles to the northeast. Photo below taken by Patrick Golembiewski.
The Geocache: This cache is available any season. See hint for code word if cache goes missing. I'm looking into how to make a more permanent solution here. i