Thursday, May 11th, marks 47 years since an EF-5 tornado struck the city of Lubbock in 1970 and that day has certainly not been forgotten.  

Jeff Griffith, Lubbock City Councilman, told us,  “People that were here in 1970, everyone remembers that day.  I was a youth at the time and it took the roof and part of our building off of our downtown business.  I was lucky to be in my home in South Lubbock and covered up but I will tell you that it was very frightening and I remember those events quite well.” 

Griffith expressed that it’s important for the younger generation to understand just how serious it was. 

He explained, “It was an F-5  tornado, that’s swatch was very wide when it got to downtown, the north side of downtown was devastated.  Again, not only people lost their lives but a lot of buildings went away.”

The Civic Center is named after the event and there is a memorial dedicated to the 26 people who lost their lives that day but the new memorial aims to do more.  

Griffith elaborated,   “There is really more to it than just a memorial for the tornado, it does give us some green space in downtown which is needed, it does give us an entry gateway, it does give us the opportunity also to not only reflect on the 26 who lost their lives but on the city leaders of the past that helped during that recovery effort.” 

The finer details of the project are expected to be worked out at the City Council meeting on Thursday, May 11th, which is also the 47th anniversary.