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| The outbreak started with twin tornadoes outside of Lisbon and Mount Vernon |
June 3, 1860, was hot and sticky. Nothing
unusual for an Iowa Sunday. Then the sky turned wrong.
The
storm came out of nowhere. No warning. No time to think. Just a low, growing
roar—like a freight train.
By
the time it was over, over 150 people were dead. About a hundred in Iowa. Fifty
more across the river in Illinois. The storm carved a 150-mile path from Cedar
Rapids to Sterling in less than two hours. Entire towns—Camanche and
Albany—were wiped out in minutes.
