Scrapbook of the 20th Century: Aug. 12, 1999: The Tornado of '99

DESERET NEWS Aug. 12, 1999: Assessment teams converged on Salt Lake City Thursday to begin calculating the terrible toll of Wednesday's tornado.

The twister hit hard and fast, tearing apart buildings, shutting down power and scattering debris for miles.One person was killed and at least 81 people were taken to area hospitals . . . At the Delta Center, one of the commercial buildings most badly damaged by the twister, Utah Jazz and Delta Center executives huddled, attempting to assess the damage and calculating whether the intiail estimate of six weeks for repairs can be shortened.

The nearby Wyndham Hotel, 215 W. South Temple, was the next large structure in the tornado's northeastern path of destruction. Dozens of windows were shattered and bed linens and other items were sucked out into the street. The hotel was closed Wednesday evening and guests . . . were shuttled to other hotels in the area.

Approximately 300 homes were damaged, many in the historic Avenues neighborhood. Forty of those suffered severe damage, 80 had moderate damage . . .

Post mortems of the damaging storm went on much much longer than the storm itself. Although not unheard of in the Beehive State, tornados were rare. For Utahns, this was one for the record books.