The Watkins Museum will soon open a free photography exhibition focused on destruction and recovery in the aftermath of two infamous natural disasters: the 1911 Lawrence tornado and the 1951 Kansas River flood.
The 1911 tornado moved northeast through Lawrence, heavily damaging Massachusetts Street near the Kansas River. Four decades later, the river flooded extensively for a full summer.
July 13, 1951 is known as “Black Friday” because “North Lawrence and rural farmland suffered great damage, while the entire community was impacted by the flooding,” according to a museum news release.
“Kansas is known for its severe weather, and these two destructive events impacted many throughout Douglas County,” said Andrew Stockmann, curator of exhibitions. “The museum’s rich photography collection allows us to share photographs of the storm and flood damage with our visitors this summer. While the photographs, newspaper accounts, and survivors’ quotes are heart-wrenching, the recovery effort also showcases the still-present community spirit necessary to rebuild after tragedy.”
The exhibition, called “Lawrence in the Path of Destruction,” opens Tuesday, May 19 and runs through Saturday, July 18 on the third floor of the Watkins, 1047 Massachusetts St. The museum is always free to visit and is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
The show also includes severe weather awareness tips and historical weather forecasting information courtesy of Daniel Reese, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Topeka office.
The National Weather Service and Douglas County Emergency Management are teaming up for a Watkins event on severe weather and preparedness in Kansas. That talk will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. Friday, June 12 at the museum.
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Severe weather resources
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call Evergy’s emergency line, 800-383-1183, if above-ground lines are arcing or making contact with trees or vegetation. Call 911 immediately if overhead power lines are on the ground or a fire starts. Do not go near the line.
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and where snowplows have been. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Highway conditions beyond Lawrence:
• KanDrive, an app and website from the Kansas Department of Transportation, has info on highway conditions statewide. KanDrive is available online at KanDrive.gov, and its app is available for download free on the App Store and Google Play.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
Latest Lawrence news:
Amy Wulfemeyer/Contributed photo
Jacob Rice / Lawrence Times
Jacob Rice / Lawrence Times
