[54] The tornado then became extremely violent as it approached and entered Guin, with multiple areas of F5 damage noted in and around town. [51][52], While tornadoes were causing devastation in the northwesternmost corner of the state, another supercell crossing the Mississippi-Alabama state line produced another violent tornado that touched down in Pickens County before heading northeast for nearly 2 hours towards the Jasper area causing major damage to its downtown as the F4 storm struck. Numerous buildings and storefronts were heavily damaged in downtown Jasper, and many streets were blocked with trees and power lines. Xenias nightmare landscape has long been cleaned up, but Mays notes that there are still reminders of the struggle to revive the city. An aerial view of damage caused by the 1989 tornado. Multiple homes and shopping centers were damaged or destroyed in the area, resulting in one death and 36 injuries. The tornado continued northeast and struck the south sides of Atwood and Leesburg, with additional severe damage occurring at both locations. WCPO photographer Ron Fischer, who retired in 2017 after 50 years on the job, remembered flying in the station's helicopter with legendary anchorman Al Schottelkotte that day and shooting tornado damage. When the storm reached central Xenia at 4:40pm, apartment buildings, homes, businesses, churches, and schools including Xenia High School were destroyed. Ohio News; Nation & World; Election 2021; . A Fairborn medic assists after a tornado hit Xenia in 2000. [14] Some tornado myths were soundly debunked (not necessarily for the first time) by tornado activity during the outbreak. An F3 tornado also occurred in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, killing nine and injuring 30 others there, all of them at the former Windsor Curling Club. A total of 11 tornadoes were reported in those 24 hours. A powerful springtime low pressure system developed across the North American Interior Plains on April 1. [54] The tornado crossed Lewis Smith Lake and moved across the south side of Cullman at 7:40 pm. [8] This first convective band moved rapidly northeast, at times reaching speeds of about 60kn (69mph) (30.9m/s (111km/h)). A total of 319 were killed in 148 tornadoes from April 3 through April 4 and 5,484 were injured. It would be rebuilt again by January 1970. With winds up to 70 miles per hour, the F4 tornado caused major structural damage throughout the city that night, including at the fairgrounds, churches, and businesses like Groceryland (now Grocerylan), which was flattened. NBC Xenia, Ohio Tornado Documentary, 1974 - YouTube The F-5 tornado left 33 people dead and more than 1,300 injured. Another funnel cloud formed over Standiford Field Airport, touched down at The Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, and destroyed the majority of the horse barns at the center and part of Freedom Hall (a multipurpose arena) before it crossed I-65, scattering several vehicles on that busy expressway. Xenia Tornado rare footage - YouTube The entire outbreak caused more than $600 million (in 1974 dollars) in damage in the U.S. alone, and extensively damaged approximately 900 square miles along a total combined path length of 2,521 miles, according to The Weather Channel. A small pickup truck on I-71 was pickedup and dropped upside-down on the concrete barrier in the middle of the highway. 36 people perished in the storm, thousands more were injured and left homeless. Bridgecreek 1999. March 31, 2023 The Xenia tornado on April 3, 1974, was the strongest storm in the string of deadly twisters that touched down from Alabama to southeastern Canada. Hundreds of trees were down, completely blocking every campus road. 1989-4-25 - F2 Tornado: 0.3 mi. The damage became more intense continuous as the tornado entered Tuscaloosa County. Two of the fatalities in Tennessee occurred when a church was destroyed during service. [3] and became very large as it approached town. 2000-9-20 - F4 Tornado: 3.6 mi. [35] Trees and shrubbery in town were debarked and stripped, extensive wind-rowing of debris occurred, and numerous vehicles were destroyed as well, some of which had nothing left but the frame and tires. 45 years ago, a heinous F5 tornado tore through this town and changed it forever By Matthew Cappucci April 3, 2019 at 12:02 p.m. EDT Damage in Xenia, Ohio, following an F5 tornado on April. Surveyors noted that timber damage was equally severe at all elevations in this area, with numerous trees snapped both along exposed ridges and in deep gorges. [29], A total of 18 people were killed during the storm including five people from Fort Wayne when their mini-bus fell 50 feet (15m) into the Tippecanoe River near Monticello. Tornado Anniversary. Moriah, where the tornado rapidly intensified and swept away homes and hurled fleeing vehicles, and where a family of six were killed. Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana . About 6:57 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 1969, a tornado formed near the Williamsburg Apartments in Hartwell, then touched down at Galbraith and Reading near Interstate 75 at 7:20 p.m. Tanner was the first community to be hit, and many structures that were left standing after the first tornado were destroyed in the second one. Most of the damage and injuries occurred from Hartwell to Reading. Per the SPC, it continues to be in the top 10 of costliest tornadoes on record. "This boggles the mind," Ohio Gov. [8] These storms, forming after 23:00 UTC, produced some of the most powerful tornadoes of the outbreak, including a large and long-tracked F4 that struck the western and central portions of Alabama, tracking for just over 110 miles (180km), two F5s that both slammed into Tanner, causing extensive fatalities, an extremely potent F5 that devastated Guin in Alabama, and multiple violent, deadly tornadoes that affected and caused fatalities in Tennessee. Then disaster struck again on Sept. 20, 2000. We know we can pull together.. [49] Crossing the Tennessee River into Limestone County as a large waterspout, the tornado flattened a -milewide swath of trees on the opposite bank. There were recorded F2/F3 damages left throughout the area. The 1974 tornado heads toward Greene Memorial Hospital. [7] Meanwhile, a new band of scattered thunderstorms developed at 15:00 UTC over eastern Arkansas and Missouri; over the next four hours, this band became the focus for several intense supercells, starting in eastern Illinois and southern Indiana. XENIA Its an anniversary people would rather not celebrate. Photograph courtesy of United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. [12] During the peak of the outbreak, a staggering 16 tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously. The tornado ended near the junction of Interstates 264 and 71 after killing three people, injuring 207 people, destroying over 900 homes, and damaging thousands of others. The . Xenia, Ohio has a long history of severe weather, namely tornadoes. 1974 Xenia tornado - Wikipedia The Super Outbreak set in motion a host of changes to weather reporting, including outdoor warning sirens, emergency power backup, and wider use of radar at NWS stations. The Enquirer reported thousands of sightseers drove through the devastated neighborhoods, but there were few reports of looting. The adrenaline of crisis galvanized Xenia residents quickly. A RESIDENCE ON VAN EATON ROAD, APPROXIMATELY 4 MILES SOUTHWEST OF XENIA. [8], While violent tornado activity increased over the warm sector, a third band of convection developed at about 16:00 UTC and extended from near St. Louis into west-central Illinois. Xenia tornado 49 years later - The Xenia Gazette Despite the apparent connection between La Nia and two of the largest tornado outbreaks in United States history, no definitive linkage exists between La Nia and this outbreak or tornado activity in general. There were no fatalities there, a blessing that may be attributed in part to the fact that the Xenia disaster had put residents on high alert. [67], West Virginia Governor Moore declared 14 counties as disaster areas by April5 and requested the assistance of the National Guard. Residential areas in Guin suffered total devastation, with many homes swept completely away and scattered across fields. A curtain rod was found speared deeply into the trunk of one tree in town. Read all the stories here. There was $2 million damage just toCincinnati Hills Christian Academy middle and elementary schools. Yet this forgotten tornado is rarely mentioned, overshadowed by twisters that devastated Xenia, Ohio, in 1974 and Blue Ash and Montgomery in 1999. Damage at the intersection of Drake Avenue and Memorial Parkway in Huntsville. [7] However, thunderstorm activity, for the moment, remained mostly elevated in nature. Students in the school, practicing for a play, took cover in the main hallway seconds before the tornado dropped a school bus onto the stage where they had been practicing and extensively damaged the school building. In addition to the direct fatalities, two Ohio Air National Guardsmen deployed for disaster assistance were killed on April 17 when a fire swept through their temporary barracks in a furniture store. Xenia isnt alone in being struck by twisters. THE INITIAL TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN GREENE COUNTY WAS ON A GOLF COURSE APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES SOUTHWEST OF THE GREENE COUNTY AIRPORT. These aforementioned flashes were more than likely Power Flashes, which are flashes of light caused by arcing electrical discharges from damaged electrical equipment, most often severed power lines. (CVG had radar back then, but Dayton didnt.) "[62] Surveyor J.B. Elliot noted that the destruction was so complete, that even some of the foundations were "dislodged, and in some cases swept away." Pete Rose knocked in the tying run in the bottom of the ninth and scored the winning run in the 11th, and baseball, as Terrence Mann would say, would remind us of all that once was good, and that could be again. 1974 Xenia Tornado: Recalling the devastation - Yahoo News The Brandenburg tornado is the only tornado to produce F5/EF5 damage in the state of Kentucky. It is uncertain which tornado was the strongest, as most tornadoes do not have their winds measured. Overall damage according to the NOAA was estimated at US$250 million with US$100 million damage in Monticello alone. In that pre-FEMA era, help came from the Ohio National Guard, Red Cross, and regional aid workers. He told them to get under the couch - just in time. A tornado that struck near Monticello, Indiana was an F4 and had a path length of 121 miles (195km), the longest path length of any tornado for this outbreak. Im sure that 30 or 40 years from now people will be saying, Why did they make that decision?. It then traveled through Boone County, Kentucky, producing F4 damage in the Taylorsport area before crossing the Ohio River a second time into Ohio. [6], Seven F5 tornadoes were observedone each in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, three in Alabama and the final one which crossed through parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The worst tornado was an F5 that struck portions of Southeastern Ohio from Wheelersburg to Gallipolis, just north of the Ohio- Kentucky state line, killing seven people and injuring at least 93. Fifty-one years ago, on Aug. 9, 1969, a tornado struck near Galbraith and Reading roads in Reading, leaving four dead and more than 200 injured. The tornado tore directly through downtown Jasper at 6:57 PM, resulting in severe damage and at least 100 injuries. Consequently, CAPE levels in the region rose to 1,000 J/kg. [8] Several of the storms to form between 19:20 and 20:20 UTC became significant, long-lived supercells, producing many strong or violent tornadoes,[6] including three F5s at Depauw; Xenia, Ohio; and Brandenburg, Kentucky. [31] The National Guard had assisted the residents in the relief and cleanup efforts and then-Governor Otis Bowen visited the area days after the storm. The 1974 Tornado That Destroyed Xenia and Prompted Changes to Weather Due to significant moisture advection, destabilization rapidly proceeded apace; the warm front near the Gulf Coast dissipated and then redeveloped northward over the Ohio River valley. The memorial in downtown Xenia lists 34 deaths, in honor of the two Guardsmen. They were thrown 30 yards almost to the curb. Home destroyed in Piner, Kentucky, in 2012. The Xenia Tornado killed 32 people from Xenia to Wilberforce. The Cincinnati/Sayler Park tornado; photo taken near Bridgetown. 2023 www.cincinnati.com. Photograph courtesy of National Weather Service. The mid-latitude low-pressure center over Kansas continued to deepen to 980mb (28.94inHg), and wind speeds at the 850-mb level increased to 50kn (58mph) (25.7m/s (93km/h)) over portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. [6][65][66] The National Weather Service office at Huntsville Jetplex was briefly "closed and abandoned" due to the severe weather conditions. The 1974 Super Outbreak occurred at the end of a very strong, nearly record-setting La Nia event. It continues to be in the top 10 of costliest tornadoes on record. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Xenia, Ohio and its history of tornadoes. Have a few questions. The same system that spawned the Xenia tornado first came through Greater Cincinnati. Slowly,the neighborhoods recovered and rebuilt. Monday night a series of tornadoes ripped through the Miami Valley and the region killing one in Mercer County and injuring scores of others. Nick is a Riverside native and has been a journalist in the Dayton area for more than 20 years. Numerous businesses in downtown Xenia were heavily damaged or destroyed, and several people were killed at the A&W Root Beer stand as the building was flattened. >> MIAMI VALLEY TORNADOES: What you need to know now. The Guin tornado was originally believed by Fujita to have had a 132 miles (212km) long path, that went all the way from Vernon, to the small town of Hytop, just a few miles south of the Tennessee state line. [76] President Nixon signed it into federal law on May22.[77]. The Drake Motel on Reading Road sustained heavydamagewith crumbled walls and shattered windows. [18][19], The tornado that struck the city of Xenia, Ohio stands as the deadliest individual tornado of the 1974 Super Outbreak, killing 32 people and destroying a significant portion of the town. However, a warm temperature plume in the elevated mixed layer kept thunderstorms from initiating at the surface. Four classrooms were destroyed and the roof was removed from the school and placed on the cars of the faculty. Xenia tornado: Photos of the damage from the 1974 storm - dayton-daily-news Smithville 2011. [16] All but 10 homes in Martinsburg were destroyed; and in the Daisy Hill community homes were completely swept away at F5 intensity. I'm definitely feeling lucky. Past Harvest, the tornado swept away multiple additional homes in the Hazel Green area. When the tornado struck on April 3, 1974, many of the Brandenburg residents at that time had also experienced a major flood of the Ohio River that affected the area in 1937 as well as numerous other communities along the river, including Louisville and Paducah. [1][2] At one point, as many as 15 separate tornadoes were occurring simultaneously.[1][3]. By 18:00 UTC, CAPE values in excess of 2,500 J/kg were present over the lower Ohio and the Mississippi Valley. There were 18 hours of nearly continuous tornado activity that ended in Caldwell County, North Carolina, at about 7:00am on April 4. The Tri-State may not be part of "Tornado Alley," but springtime tornadoes and severe storms almost seem like a regular occurrence. The Brandenburg tornado, which produced F5 damage and took 31 lives, touched down in Breckinridge County around 3:25pm CDT and followed a 32-mile (51km) path. The 197374 La Nia was just as strong as the 199899 La Nia. At the same time, the forward-propagating MCS spread into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, where it evolved into the first of three main convection bands that produced tornadoes. The tornado approaching the city of Madison. Aerial photos of the Xenia debris fields and Cincinnatians snapshots of the Sayler Park funnel cloud helped scientists unravel what happened in the chaos. But the cataclysmic storm system wasnt done. It was pure evil," she said. Tornado Distance; 1. At one point, the National Weather Service was tracking five funnel clouds on its local radar at the airport.. "It lasted about a minute and then I looked and everything was gone the roof, the walls, everything. The fast-moving nighttime tornado that devastated the town of Guin, was the longest-duration F5 tornado recorded in the outbreak, and considered to be one of the most violent ever recorded. An F-5 tornado went straight through Xenia, Ohio's downtown. >> PHOTOS: The 1974 Xenia tornado The Montgomery/Blue Ash tornado tore through Ohio on April 9, 1999. The tornado first touched down near the small community of Mt. 6. [57] The death toll from the two tornadoes was over 45 and over 400 were injured. After devastating what was left of Tanner, the tornado continued across rural Limestone County and into Madison County, where the communities of Capshaw and Harvest were devastated once again. It flattened the western part of Xenia. Numerous homes were destroyed in residential areas, including a few that were leveled. [39][40] At a further inland area of Sayler Park, the tornado maintained F5 intensity as numerous homes were swept away at a hilly area near a lake, with only bare slabs remaining. It was also noted for the rarity in that its path was in parts of three states. The Sayler Park tornado was among a series of tornadoes that earlier struck portions of southern Indiana from north of Brandenburg, Kentucky, into southwest Ohio. The Upper Krust restaurant at 172 Reading Road had been destroyed in a fire in March 1969, and had re-opened just a few weeks before it was reduced to rubble a second time. Copyright 2016 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. He had a fractured hip. That EF3-EF4 tornado struck late on a Friday afternoon. In this area, increasing west-southwesterly wind shear at all levels of the troposphere, juxtaposed over near-parallel outflow boundaries, allowed successive supercells, all producing strong, long-tracked tornadoes, to develop unconstrained by their outflow in a broad region from eastern Mississippi to southern Tennessee. More than 100 were injured. This tornado was witnessed on television by thousands of people, as WCPO aired the tornado live during special news coverage of the tornadoes. However, the 46.5 miles (74.8km) section of the original path, from Decatur to Hytop, was determined later to be from the F3 tornado listed below. Zelphia Taylor, 45, and her husband, Norman, were in a car that was flipped several times by high winds at Reading and Galbraith. NWS surveyors noted that a pickup truck in this area was carried a half block over the roofs of five homes before being smashed to the ground. In fact, it is home to one of the strongest, if not THE strongest, ever recorded, during the Superoutbreak of '74, killing many, and leveling over half the town. [7] Storms grew rapidly in height and extent, producing baseball-sized hail by 17:20 UTC in Illinois and, shortly thereafter, in St. Louis, Missouri, which reported a very severe thunderstorm early in the afternoon that, while not producing a tornado, was the costliest storm to hit the city up to that time. All three storms swept through communities leaving a deadly and destructive wake. All rights reserved. The storms killed 307, injured 5,454, and destroyed around 1,400 buildings. For months afterwards, portions of classified documents were being returned by farmers in Tennessee and Alabama. Super Tornado Outbreak - 1974 - History - Interviews - Aftermath - Top Xenia Tornado rare footage - YouTube 0:00 / 0:09 Xenia Tornado rare footage 677 views May 20, 2021 Rare footage of the 1974 Xenia, Ohio tornado taken from an old news clip. It also killed 250 horses in Butler County on its way to Xenia. The Burger Chef sign was a mangled mess. [55], In total, the storm took three lives, but injured one hundred and fifty residents of Jasper or Cullman. But nonetheless, the Shawnee were right. The storm hit before the disaster warning systems we take for granted today. Thirty-one people have died locally in tornadoes and severe storms since 1968. It was just as much of a total wipeout as you can have. US Dept of Commerce The Monticello family consists of tornadoes labeled 7 to 14. He said his wife and three sons had called him to the front door to look at a funnel cloud crossing the Ohio River. 1997-7-2 - F2 Tornado: 5.8 mi. Crossing into Winston County, the tornado struck the small community of Delmar, destroying additional homes and killing 5 people. But neither she nor Bayless faults their predecessors. One home that was swept away sustained total collapse of a poured concrete walk-out basement wall. The tornado then crossed Dewart Lake and Lake Wawasee, destroying multiple lakeside homes and trailers. Been googling a bit, and wondered about some of the other ones. Briefing Sorry, the location you searched for was not found. Her husband and two other sons were severely injured,but survived. [52] The tornado continued northeastward through rural portions of Madison County before crossing into Tennessee, where major damage and 6 deaths occurred in Franklin and Lincoln Counties before the tornado dissipated in Coffee County. Service centers were opened at two National Guard Armories, one in Dalton and the other in Calhoun, as well as a church in Dawsonville. Heavy damage to buildings in downtown Jasper. The split was related to several factors, including a band of subsidence over eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia; local downslope winds over the Appalachians; and an inversion over the same area. 5. "That was an eerie feeling. At 5:30 p.m. another F5 touched down near Rising Sun, Indiana, passed into Northern Kentucky and knocked out power at the National Weather Service (NWS) station at CVG. When it crossed the river and blasted into Sayler Park, virtually all communication was shut down. A total of 32 people lost their lives in the tornado, and about 1,150 were injured in Xenia, several of whom took proper shelter. The F2 tornado spared lives this time but left reportedly $1.22 million of damage to clean up. 1964-6-23 - F1 Tornado: 1.9 mi. Survivors and Guard members remember deadly Xenia tornado on 45th Xenia tornado timeline: How the deadly 1974 twister tore through the city There was only one hospital left standing, and it was packed with nearly 2,000 people. A collection of dramatic photographs from the Dayton Daily News archive documents the ruin a tornado left in Xenia on April 3, 1974. [71] The West Virginia State Department of Highways provided two water trucks.
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