Emergency responders in Tracy faced their greatest test 49 summers ago in the aftermath of the June 13, 1968, Tracy tornado.
The EF5 tornado plowed a path through the heart of the community, killing nine people, obliterating some 60 houses and damaging more than 100 others. The town’s landmark 1896 elementary school at the corner of Fifth and Rowland was destroyed.
Many of the injured were brought to Tracy Municipal Hospital, where patients had to be lined up in hallways to accommodate the overflow. Nurses and doctors who flocked to the hospital in the storm’s immediate aftermath tended to patients despite a power outage and limited communications.
Responders searched through the early evening hours for survivors, to assist the injured and to recover bodies.
The National Guard arrived to cordon off the community.
The tornado formed near Lake Sarah at about 6:45 p.m., and began plowing a path of destruction in a northeasterly direction. Several farmsteads had been devastated by the time the tornado hit Tracy shortly after 7 p.m. The funnel broke up northeast of Tracy at about 7:10 p.m., after traveling 13 miles.