ABSTRACT
I mentioned in the preceding chapter that other news events can sometimes detract and limit coverage of a major weather story. As a classic example of that occurred in 1945 when a horrific F5 tornado struck Antler, Oklahoma. The tornado leveled the small town with over six hundred buildings completely destroyed and another seven hundred more damaged. Sixty-nine people were killed including, ironically, the owners of the town’s only funeral parlor. An awful disaster! But afterwards, surprisingly little news appeared about the tornado in the newspapers of the time. Without question, this tornado would have received more attention across the country, except that, on that exact day, President Roosevelt died. Indeed, even the newspapers nearby the devastated town issued more information on the death of the President than on the deadly tornado.
