Sikeston man remembers 1986 tornado through photos

SIKESTON, Mo. -- A lot of people remember seeing the tornado that wreaked havoc in Sikeston on May 25, 1986. Some even have pictures.

"I've actually got a half a dozen photos," said Ed Fox, 58, of Sikeston. "I've got it as it is progressing into the full-blown tornado."

Fox said with the 25th anniversary coming up, it seemed like a good time to dig out those old pictures.

He recalls clearly the events of that day.

"At the time I was working at Gold Bond Ice Cream and had just got off work," Fox said. "They had the plant shut down and had everyone in the break room."

As his machine had already been shut down, Fox was given permission to leave the plant and headed home, which was only a couple of blocks away on Glenn Drive.

"As soon as I pulled off the parking lot I saw the cloud," he said. "The only thing on my mind as I was driving home was, 'Where's my camera?' I wasn't thinking of my safety, I just wanted to take a picture of the tornado -- so I did. I got my camera and snapped a few pictures of it."

The series of photographs taken by Fox start with the dark clouds and show the twister developing from a little black tail reaching toward the ground as it moved from around the intersection of South Main and U.S. 60 toward Broadway.

By the time he was taking pictures of the big, white funnel over Miner, the tornado was clearly moving away, "but right at the beginning it was kind of hard to tell if it was coming my way or not," Fox said. "When I was taking the pictures I was scared. I remember a couple of times I took a picture and went in my apartment into the bathroom, then went out and took another picture. It was scary."

He recalled it being sunny behind him but dark in the direction of the tornado as he snapped pictures.

"They say it sounds like a freight train, but I don't remember that sound," Fox said. "I kind of remember thinking, 'Why don't I hear that freight train noise?' Maybe it wasn't close enough. It actually was kind of silent."

The final pictures in this collection "are of some of the property damage," Fox said. "It did extensive damage. There weren't any casualties in Sikeston, but it destroyed a lot of homes, businesses."

There was, however, a fatality from a different tornado that same day in Vanduser, Mo., he recalled.

"I always said I'd like to see a tornado sometime," Fox said. "Now that I've seen one, I don't really care to see another one again."

Pertinent address:

Sikeston, MO

Vanduser, MO