The ongoing flooding across central Lyon County comes on the 48th anniversary of Emporia’s most well-known natural disaster.
The 1974 tornado formed on the Emporia’s then-western edge near Hostess and Flinthills Mall, killing six people and injuring over 200 at the start of a nearly 40-mile path through Lyon, Osage and Shawnee counties.
The twister caused nearly $25 million in 1974 dollars, was ranked an F4 on the original Fujita damage scale and was one of the strongest in a regional outbreak that saw nearly 40 tornadoes total in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma that afternoon and evening. It is still overshadowed by the 1966 F-5 that hit Topeka on the same date. It also overshadows an F-2 tornado that struck far west Emporia on June 7, 1990. The 1990 twister injured close to 20 people on a 10-mile path out of town.
