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At home in Udall, Lester Sweet turned on his TV set to catch the weather report: tornado warnings had been broadcast all day, and he was "deathly afraid." He heard an all-clear at 10:20 p.m. and was just settling into bed when the house cracked open. "We're in for it," he yelled to the wife, pushing her and the children under the bed. "We could hardly breathe with the vacuum and the dust," he said later. "It was like being in an echo box, with everybody yelling so loud you couldn't hear."
Against the Wall. Nearly 100 women showed up that evening for Aileen Holtje's wedding shower at the Udall Community Center, built with funds raised by turkey raffles and square dances. Men waited across the street in Eddie Taylor's pool hall. The women sang School Days, put on skits, served coffee and cup cakes and eyed Aileen's presents. The shower broke up early, and the cleanup committee put off dishwashing until the next day; only a dozen women were still there when suddenly the lights went out. Then they heard the noise. Someone said: "It's a freight train." Another voice spoke up soberly: "It's a wind acomin'." Then the building collapsed; the twelve women, clinging tightly together, were knocked down, but all survived.
Some others were lucky, too. Old Railroader Fred Dye was snatched out of his shoes, whirled outdoors and thrown alive up a tree. Barber Henry Norris went to bed, woke up unhurt in the street: "I don't know how I got there." Will Sweet and his wife cowered in a back bedroom until it was over, then opened the door and found the rest of the house gone. Norman Lanning huddled with his wife and three children a gainst the kitchen wall by the refrigerator, which skidded away; the wall was the only thing left standing in the area, and it saved them. "Oh, God," said Lanning. "How lucky we were."
At 10:29 p.m. exactly, outside phone connections with Udall were broken. It turned out that the twister had hit at that moment. Operator Mary Taylor died at her switchboard and her son Eddie died in his pool parlor. So did six other men. Of Udall's 610 people, 73 were killed. Eighty-five were missing and unaccounted for. More than 200 were injured. Of the houses, 170 were smashed to bits, 16 damaged beyond repair and only one left unscathed. Almost all property and automobiles were wrecked. The city hall, three churches, the old grade school and new $250,000 high school were destroyed. For its size, Udall had suffered the worst tornado toll in history. Paper and debris from Udall were picked up dozens of miles away, but none of Aileen Holtje's wedding presents were found, except—three days later some yellow and lavender sheeting.