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| Name: Danette Kirkpatrick From: Huntsville, AL E-mail: danitheirishlass@yahoo.com |
I was only 8, we lived in an apartment off of Governers'. I remember all the neighbors pulling together and grilling out everything in their fridges and sharing everything and having no power for days. The most memorable site for me: the Cadilac Car Show Room Stairs being twisted into a spiral. Scared? My mom threw me in the bathroom with an armchair over me and the horrible noise . . .
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| Name: Treabele Varela From: Hanover, IN |
I was 4 years old and still have a fear of storms to this day. I remember seeing the massive tornado coming toward us as we were running to the elderly neighbor's house to warn her and get in her cellar. I remember the wind, the look of the sky, and the sounds...and I was only 4. It was a terrifying, massive, destructive storm.
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| Name: Barry Gibson From: ALbany KY E-mail: bg30912@yahoo.com |
Don't remember a lot about that day I was only five. I can remember my dad leaving out into the storm. to look for his sister, brother in law and two nephews. they were found several miles from them home with only one nephew Lonnie surviving. Betty, Clettis, and Michael did not survive GOD BLESS THIER SOULS
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| Name: Tim From: Michigan |
I was one day shy of turning 7 years old at the time and living in Michigan, though we were visiting my grandmother in Huntsville, Alabama. All I can remember was a really nasty storm that made the tall grass on the north side of her house lay down flat almost as I looked out the side livingroom window. I remember seeing damage in Kentucky and Ohio on our trip back up to Michigan a few days later. One two story house in Kentucky had one whole exterior wall missing from both floors. I do remember April 4th(my 7th birthday) being a nice day by that afternoon. It's odd how weather so bad can just break and turn into such a beautyful day within a few hours.
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| Name: Steve Grimes From: Boston (formerly Monticello) E-mail: SLGrimes@shcta.com |
In April of 1974, I was a senior at Purdue living in Monticello, IN where my wife was the traveling art teacher for their elementary schools. On the afternoon of April 3rd, I remember taking a wild plane ride back from Cincinnati to Lafayette, IN where I'd been for a job interview. The pilot apologized, but explained his low flying & zig-zag maneuvers were to avoid storms ... giving us no clue as to the real scope of the weather conditions the Midwest faced that day. After landing in Lafayette, I remember looking north over the Purdue campus and being struck by the strange cloud formations and movements I could see in the distance. No funnel cloud but what appeared to be "fingers" of clouds breaking off from the storm clouds and passing rapidly down toward the ground. It wasn't till the ride back to Monticello from Lafayette that my wife and I heard about the tornadoes. The road home was clear going north but emergency and other vehicles filled the road southbound. At a gas station midway home, I spoke with a young man coming south in a car with windows blown out. He said he'd been in his car in a downtown Monticello parking lot "kissing leather" (i.e., his car seats) as a tornado passed overhead. There's nothing I could say that would accurately describe the extent of the devastation I saw when we returned. We were fortunate and had no damage to the apartment complex where we lived but damage was all around us ... throughout downtown and in so many neighborhoods and at the schools where my wife taught. I remember helping with the clean-up and being awestruck with each new revelation. Thanks to a community that never lost its spirit Monticello did come back.
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| Name: Kellie Walls Sharpe From: Maryville, TN E-mail: sharpek118@aol.com |
My name is Kellie Walls Sharpe. I was 7 years old and lived in Knoxville Tennessee on April 3, 1974. I remember that day like it was yesterday also. It's affected my entire family forever. We're all scared to death of storms to this day, especially my mother. Most of my Dad's brothers and sisters lived in Xenia at that time. My uncle Robert and his family actually lived in Arrowhead subdivision. My older sister, Judy, was doing her homework and she was listening to a small transistor radio in her bedroom that night. She came into the kitchen with this really strange look on her face. She looked and sounded almost in shock when she told my dad that Xenia had been completely destroyed by a tornado. My parents got on the phone and started making calls but couldn't get through to anybody in Ohio so he called his mom in Harriman Tennessee. She said that Robert, my uncle who lived in Arrowhead Subdivision, had been at her house for a couple of days to help her do some work and he had heard the news and immediately left going back to Ohio. The weather was absolutely horrible in Knoxville that night also. My mom had all of us kids (5 of us) in a closet because we were also under a tornado warning although I don't believe Knoxville had any sort of major damage or anything. While we were all packed in this tiny closet, my dad got in his car and headed for Xenia to see if his brothers and sisters were okay. My uncle Robert literally drove parallel to one of the tornados which touched down in Kentucky that evening but eventually outran that one. When my dad finally arrived in Xenia, he was greeted at the "Entrance" to the city by a whole bunch of National Guardsman. They warned him they weren't allowed to let anybody go into the city and that they were given orders to shoot if anybody tried. My dad told them that they were going to have to shoot him in the back as he walked passed them because he was going to check and see if his family was alive. This is kind of a small miracle but he actually caught up to his brother, Robert, at one of the first Redcross areas he came too. My uncle was confused and disoriented because someone had told him that the subdivision where his home was had been completely destroyed and that his son, Bobby, had been killed. They took them to where my cousins body was and it was unrecognizable except for one thing....his hand. However, his hand had a wedding band on his left ring finger and his son was just a kid. He recognized the ring...it was his wife's hand he was looking at, not his son's. Her name was Jenny Walls..I think her maiden name was Luckadoo (Indian). She had put all 3 of the kids in the bathtub in their house when they issued the tornado warning and she'd covered them all up with a mattress. She realized that she'd forgotten the battery powered radio and she got out of the bathtub and went back into the kitchen (I think the kitchen) to get it but didn't make it back to the bathroom before the tornado hit the house. Like I said, her injuries were so bad she wasn't recognizable. As young as I was I still remember how sweet of a lady she was. All three of her kids were affected terribly by this as you can imagine. Not only did they have to survive this monster of a tornado but, that monster took their mother from them too. A couple of weeks later my parents took my brothers and sisters and me to Ohio with them. I can still see in my mind lot after lot of nothing but concrete slabs with bathtubs, toilets, and sinks attached to them. That's all that was left of these houses I used to ride by on my bicycle when we'd visit up there..just concrete and plumbing. I've tried my very best not to pass my fear of storms onto my own kids, but when you have that memory carved into your mind it's kind of difficult not too. There is a memorial in Xenia with the names of every soul who lost their lives that day. My aunt Jenny's name is on that memorial. People are so busy nowadays that they're just careless and don't seem to pay attention to weather watches and warnings on the television and radio. My own kids and my husband are guilty of that even. I happen to know that bad things like what happened on April 3, 1974 don't always affect other people and other families. I keep my family safe because of that day...I pay attention. There was a story in one of the newspapers about that night which I'd really like to read again now that I'm an adult. My mom kept a copy of it but we can't seem to find it now. It was about a woman who during the tornado had something or someone tap her on her shoulder and tell her to go outside and hold on to a fire hydrant. To make a long story short, she did. Her house was completely destroyed but she lived because she listened to that voice. If anybody has this article could you please either put it on here or email it to the person who created this site so they can pass it on? Thanks
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| Name: Brad Frago From: Cincinnati, OH (in 1974) |
I have been a weather geek ever since April 3, 1974. I was 8 years old, saw the live coverage on TV and spent lots of time in the basement. We were very fortunate! Severe Wx has been a strong interest of mine for years now.
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| Name: dmbadgley From: Kempton, IN E-mail: dmbadgley@hotmail.com |
Great website. I was five years old and remember the local coverage out of Indianapolis and the old WSR-57 radar. Most of the coverage as I recall was on the Monticello (IN), Kennard (IN), and Xenia (OH) storms. Many people don't realize that the first touchdown that day was a brief EF-0 in an empty field in Boone County Indiana during the morning. It was the super outbreak that gave me my interest in severe weather. Thanks again for a great website.
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| Name: Cynthia (McKelleb) Pursch From: Indiana E-mail: cynthiapursch@q.com |
The April 3, 1974 tornado is one I will never forget. I am the sister of Jackie McKelleb who was one of the fatalities of the mini van that went into the river. I was only about 10 at the time. I remember us waiting for about a week or two to find out what happened to my sister. There was only one survivor of the van, Karen. I am sure that this affected her all of her life and still does to some extent. I hope and pray this kind of devastation never occurs again.
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| Name: Ron Muse From: Resaca Ga E-mail: ronmuse@hotmail.com |
I was 6 years old when the outbreak hit. We were at church approximately 20 miles away from our home and the power went out. The tornado #119 went through just below our house about 1 mile southeast of our house. We had to come home by a different route because the road was closed. About Six of my relatives are among the 54 that were injured, result of their house being blown off of the hill. I know I was very young but I still remember the devastation and events very well. I remember hearing sirens all day long everyday for three days responding to help the people injured in this twister. My sister in law was also in the storm. She was 12 years old and lived on the top of the next hill in front of my relatives house. She was standing at the front door and she saw the twister coming toward her house. Somebody grabbed her and pulled her into the hall of their home. She watched the roof leave her home while leaving the rest standing.
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