A Violent Storm Strikes the Yakima Valley
High winds leveled buildings and tore heavy equipment from foundations in a storm that locals described as a true tornado.
More information is daily accruing regarding the great storm that swept over Pasco and Prosser on the 3rd instant and which had all the symptoms of a full-fledged tornado. At and between those two points, many small buildings were unroofed and others completely demolished. The big store building of Nelson Rich, at Prosser, was moved from its foundation, and the artesian well derrick in the Horse Heaven country was completely wrecked. The windmills of H. W. Creason, Geo. Taylor, and Nelson Rich were blown down and destroyed. Mr. Rich’s windmill had iron flukes weighing 700 lbs., yet it was blown over Mr. Rich’s house into the street, a distance of more than 100 feet.
“Mr. Rich’s wind mill had iron flukes to it weighing 700 lbs., yet it was blown over Mr. Rich’s house into the street, a distance of more than 100 feet.”
While tornadoes are infrequent in Washington state, the intensity of regional wind events remains a significant environmental factor for agriculture and infrastructure in the Yakima Valley. The description of this 1890 storm highlights the vulnerability of early settlers' structures to the unpredictable high-desert climate.
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