MSSC physicians step up when tornadoes level towns
When a tornado leveled Udall late on May 25, 1955, the Medical Society of Sedgwick County went to work. Its response still stands out 70 years later, as does the Kansas record toll of 80 deaths and 270 injuries.
Notified before midnight by MSSC member Donald Trees, MD, of the local Red Cross Medical Disaster Committee, teams of more than a dozen physicians drove through heavy rain to help in both Blackwell, Oklahoma, and Udall.
“As fast as they (live tornado victims) were brought from the debris, doctors gave emergency aid,” MSSC Secretary H. Martin Baker told The Wichita Eagle. The responders also included area nurses and law enforcement, National Guard, McConnell Air Force Base and Salvation Army personnel.
Following a disaster plan dating from a 1946 storm, more MSSC members were deployed to Wichita’s hospitals. A doctor at St. Joseph said of the patients, notes pinned to their clothes describing their injuries and needs: “Frankly, most of them are either serious or critical or very, very grave.”
Four MSSC physicians remained in Udall until 9 p.m. May 26. In the aftermath, hundreds of Wichitans donated blood, food and supplies. The storm system, which also killed 20 and injured 250 in Blackwell, would lead to the National Weather Service’s warning system and volunteer spotter network.