The Day the Clock Stopped: 50 years after the 1974 Xenia tornado
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- Fifty years ago, an F5 tornado devastated the city of Xenia, Ohio. Thirty-two people were killed and countless homes destroyed. Now, Dayton 24/7 Now Anchor Adam Aaro and Chief Meteorologist Natalie Walters shares the stories of survival and the science behind the April 3, 1974, storm.
#weather #tornado #outbreak #xenia #documentary #news #ohio
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As compelling as this video is, I am astonished that there was no mention of meteorologist Gil Whitney, whose immediate realization of the gravity of the approaching tornado galvanized him into action to break into the television programming to deliver an urgent warning to TV viewers, therein saving lives.
Perhaps they didn't want to seem to be promoting Dayton Channel 7, WHIO, where he worked. As for WHIO, their radio station, 1290 AM, spent the hours after the tornado reporting vital facts as the details of transporting the injured and search and rescue and everything else became less chaotic. I spent that night in Columbus before returning to the Dayton area the next morning. I am glad I was able to pick up the 1290 signal in Columbus.
Gil Whitney wasn't a meteorologist, most TV stations didn't employ one in 1974, but he was an instrumental part in saving lives. I can partly understand not wanting to promote WHIO, but they were the only ones who had TV radar in Dayton at that time, and I'll always remember him pointing at that hook echo on live TV, telling Xenians to take cover.
I was wondering if they would mention Gil or not but just like McCall they both saved a lot of lives in Daytons darkest days .
It is in his Wikipedia page: "Gil Whitney"
This video is incomplete without the mentioning of WHIO TV7 & the late Gil Whitney
I was pregnant with my first baby when this event took place. There was some minor damage at our home that night. The storm woke me up that night & we raced to the basement, wondering if we would make it. I thought sure we were gonna have a tornado. I could feel the pressure inside the house, like the walls were breathing. So weird! After the storm passed we went back to bed. The next morning the damage was around the garage & front porch overhang. I knew we'd had a close call. But the news all day was how much worse it was north of us. So many lives taken & so much damage. I will never forget it. I thank God He delivered us from what could have been. That baby will be 50 her next birthday!
This happened in Xenia around 4:40 pm in the afternoon, not at night.
Thank you for the story. Glad your baby has made it this far.
I was a college sophomore in '74, and played softball at Rio Grande College in eastern Ohio. 7 days after this tornado hit Xenia, we traveled by van to Dayton to play ball; and drove directly through Xenia on the way. Our van rides were raucous - we would sing and carry on the entire trip. When we came over the hill to the east of.town , saw the devastation, I remember vividly, the silence as we drove down the main drag . The silence remained in that van til we got
to Dayton. If you have ever seen the damage from a tornado you will never forget it
I live about 2 miles from Rio Grande College. But grewup in Fairborn, Ohio not far from Xenia.
I live in Tuscaloosa, AL.; that is so true. It took several years to recover from our 27 April 2011 EF 4 storm.
Ditto. I was away at college, but my family lived right outside of Xenia. I'll never forget the rubble that greeted me when I returned home from college.
@sharoncrawford7192 I grew up on Springfield and do remember that nasty day
I will never forget that day. One of the tornados went directly over us in Louisville. Your ears pop from the pressure change. You open your mouth to scream and it feels like the air is being pulled out of your lungs. Your eyes feel like they're "bugging out". The noise is so loud you can feel the scream in your throat, but can't hear it. My body got lighter, like being in an elevator going down. Felt like I was almost lifted up.... then just like that, it's over. We were lucky, the tornado lifted up as it went over.
The description sounds beyond terrifying.
God protected you!
Me too susan,...apr 3rd, 1974,...i remember the terror still,...9 yrs old,....my hood was skipped over,...5th and creel ave,...storms hit lennins fish fry area of west lou,..we saw funnel from rear window as dad drove us east to home,....our steet was flooded but funnels started to hit churchill downs barns,...eastern parkway, crittendan dr,....cheerokee pkwy, and park was destroyed,....sightseeing days later,..the damage to homes in highland was just incredible...
I have never heard or read a very detailed description of what it's like being in the middle of a tornado. I'm glad you and your family were ok
Reading your account terrified me. I can't imagine having to actually go through that. I'm so glad you guys were safe. Here in South Florida, we have hurricanes, but we get a few days to prepare. For those who live where tornadoes are a real threat, you barely get a few minutes. That's so scary dude. Sincerely wish all of you who live in tornadoe territory all the best.🙏🏽🫶🏽💖🫶🏽
My parents were denied a loan to build a home in Arrowhead Subdivision, in 1973.
Thank God!
God Bless those families ❤
Maybe it was the universes way of protecting your family. Works in mysterious ways sometimes.
Wow.. coincidence or fate? 🤔
Either way, thank God they didn't
@@piscesempress1978 The universe was created by the one and only God so....Yea.
My father was a police officer in our home town hours away. He was sent down to Xenia to help. He slept in a jail cell while he was there.
Damn.. did they catch him looting or something??
@@Dahn.Baern. 😩😂🤣🤣
@@Dahn.Baern. No, his name was Otis Campbell.
My dad, a fireman saw the EF five tornado that hit Sayler Park in Cincinnati that same day. Ironically, the Monday after his funeral I was in the 2019 Dayton tornado! I remember thinking about the stories he told me and I prayed to him during the night, and I am convinced he protected me. God bless all tornado victims.
That’s the one that erased our Dayton home.
Yes, no mention of Saylor Park. One of my father's co-workers lived across the river from Saylor Park. He saw the tornado hit Saylor Park, then skipped over the river and barely miss where he lived.
@@larrysorenson4789So sorry to hear that. Hope things worked out.
Pray to God for results, not a spirit of someone deceased (The Bible.)
Rob, I am so sorry about your Dad. But I am glad you are safe!
I remember this tragedy. I still think of it from time to time and what Xenia went through. I can't believe it's been 50 years. 😢
I’m a trained storm spotter, so the name Xenia is known by me for its tornado. I visited Xenia in 2007 and drove through the neighborhoods once struck by the tornado. You’d expect to find a city that was downtrodden and beat down by this disaster, but I found it to be a very friendly and inviting town both in looks and in the nice people I met there. It totally didn’t deserve this tornado, but it didn’t let this storm defeat it either. Xenia Lives!
Amen to all of that! I, too, am a storm spotter
You have never seen the movie Gummo, have you?
No, and with what I have read about, I don't want to. I know that it's based in Xenia
@@chrispinchak1511 I remember when that was being filmed. I was a kid and no one outside of the production crew knew anything beyond the fact that a movie was being made somewhere in Dayton. The buzz died down very quickly, and even after I watched it I still didn't immediately know that was the independent movie filmed in Dayton.
@@dancline2143 when I lived at The Greene, my hairstylist left Woodhouse when construction was complete on the salon she was having built close to her house in Xenia. The first time I saw her there she had me over for coffee afterward, and I'm walking through her house thinking, did I miss something? I'd always been told Xenia was a rough area, but I didn't see any of that in the two neighborhoods I visited with the $500k houses, HOAs, and professionally landscaped lawns. Ofc that was 2016, so it's safe to say those homes cost significantly more now
This is a very well done video. It's just as powerful to me in 2024 as it was when I was a 10 year old boy living in Cincinnati in 1974. Great job and interesting interviews.
You may call it "The Day the Clock Stopped", but I call it "The Day the Cows Would Fly". I grew up about 50 miles South of Xenia and I remember the day vividly. The tornadoes were everywhere! A neighboring Dairy Farm was wiped out when the tornadoes took 2 large barns full of cattle waiting to be milked. I watched it all get sucked up into the sky, cows and all. Trust me, if you ever see it happen, you'll never, ever forget it. Two of them landed in one of our fields, the rest were found scattered all over the area within a 2 mile radius. All but 3 were found, thanks to ear tags and their Brand. We suspect the other 3 were remote somewhere or grabbed up by a local before the search began. My family was well known by all of the surrounding Fire and Rescue Departments for volunteering when needed and my Aunt was an LPN, so the following day we loaded all of our vehicles full of supplies and headed for Xenia to help them recover. Your footage and photos might be enough for you to tell your story, but none of it really does any justice to the true extent of the devastation. Some neighborhoods were gone, others were in piles upon piles of rubble. War movies come to mind when I think back about that day. In the movies, they always seem to have a scene where the town is completely obliterated. That's the same scene I saw for 2 days straight. We camped overnight to continue the next day in helping people. We even worked side by side with National Guardsmen in some of the cleanup projects before packing up and heading back to our own cleanup on our small farm. To this day, I can still see those 2 barns disappearing into the sky with all of those cows flying around. It may not be my earliest memory of my life, but it's definitely the most memorable at such a young age. Happy Birthday to ME, I turned 4 years old just 3 days before this all happened. Broke my heart, too. Those storms took my tricycle I got for a birthday gift.
Great story, thanks for sharing it.
Poor cows
😢😢😢🐄🐄🐄
Stories like yours are the ones who leave the most impact
@@allanmcelroy9840 I've lived through a lot of these storms in my lifetime and I've seen some really bad ones along the way. This day still holds the top spot in that long list. Definitely a Once-In-A-Lifetime Event, without a doubt. Amazingly, 4 years later I witnessed another Weather Event that made just as big of an impact on my life. Another OIAL Event, I guess. I call it "The Year We Walked On Water". Others call it The Blizzard of 78.
@@neolithicnobody8184 i heard of that from the new york perspective (I think)
By my math, Happy Easter and Happy 54th Birthday today!
I grew up in London Ohio, but we had moved to New Carlisle in 1972 and when this tornado hit, I was in the bathtub and a bolt of lightning struck a tree right next to that side of the house sounding like a bomb and causing the tub water to slosh back and forth as my little brother ran in screaming that the back yard was on fire! My father called us from school where he worked to tell us to go to the basement and wait for him to get there. The storm went through so quickly that he didn't make it till it had passed and while my brothers and I cowered in the basement we could hear the destruction happening above. Thankfully it was just high winds and large hail balls pummeling everything. We saved several hail balls the size of baseballs in the freezer for years as a reminder of escaping the brunt of this devastating storm that wiped out Xenia. RIP those that lost their lives that day.
I was delivering the Dayton Daily News that day about 10 miles to the Southwest of Xenia. I remember taking shelter in a neighbor’s garage from hail the size of golf balls. Later I realized I was in the path of the same storm.
On this day, I was 4 years and 6 weeks old. I remember it like it was yesterday. We lived in that Arrowhead subdivision. I remember my sister (7 yrs old) standing at our front door as she watched a secondary twister break out from the main funnel as she screamed, "TORNADO!!!!" I remember peeking into our garage, where Mom was trying to retrieve something from Dad's Chevy Corvair. I remember the whole family walking along US 42, where Dad had parked Mom's Pontiac Grand Am. We eventually made it to Grandma Edgar's house in Dayton. If I live to be 150 years old, I'll remember 04/03/1974 vividly.
Great video ! I survived the 12-10-2021 Mayfield KY tornado, that was the Quad State Tornado Outbreak.I was working at the candle factory (MCP) that night ! 9 of my coworkers die , i used to work on line 2 making boxes. I don't know if this was a multiple vortices tornado but it was very powerfull, rated as a high end EF4 190 mph winds and it was rain wrapped at times !
Thank God you made it out alive.
I remember that tornado so well! I sent you all a care package and I watched the footage everyday! Thank God you survived the storm and the candle factory! ❤🙏🙏🙏
Well done, Dayton 24/7 Now.
Back in the late 2000s I met a girl who's mother lived through the 1974 Xenia🌪 and she said that when watching the movie "Twister" at movie theater, her mother bailed after the opening scene of that movie!
I had just turned 13. Our house wasn't hit, but close enough to feel the powerful pull. Forever changed me.
Living in Tuscaloosa, AL; my house was on the very edge of our December 2000 tornado that killed 11. Even so, we still had minor damage.
That sounds terrifying. I was 10 years old and lived in Kettering. I remember the sky being this horrid shade of dark green before the hail started. I remember hiding in the hallway with my mother and younger brother. Apparently the tornado went over our house but fortunately did not touch down. Can't imagine being as close as you were.
Good seeing Dr Forbes. Miss him during tornado season.
❤storm master G! 👍
The Brandenburg ky tornado missed my school by roughly 1/8 mile. It was sufficiently impressive to make me pay attention to weather 50 years on. Our bus passed through the damage path on the way home
These images remind me immediately of the Minnesota tornado outbreak of 1965. I was living in the small town of Excelsior. I'll never ever forget that ghastly f-4 wedge passing just across Galpin Lake where we lived. We were spared. The f-4 was headed toward a number of large marinas on Lake Minnetonka. They were all utterly destroyed. I was ten years old, and if I live to 100 I'll remember that day vividly. Many communities came together to help rebuild the many small towns affected.
I was fortunate to see this destruction up front being a member of the Ohio National Guard, HHC 372nd Combat Engineer unit from Kettering, Ohio. I remember getting off of work at the Metropolitan in downtown Dayton at 5pm and someone at the bus stop mentioned that a tornado hit Xenia. I walked down a little ways to the corner and looked East and saw the sky in the distance 😊was black as night. I caught the bus home and when I walked in the door and my mom told me I was to call my Guard immediately. I was told to pack up my gear with enough change of underclothing for 2 weeks. We sat around the armory all the next day and didn’t enter Xenia until 4am of the following day. I was assigned as the driver for the operations officer leading the whole unit in our jeep met by the Ohio Highway Patrol on US 35 at the Xenia border line. I got to see every bit of destruction everywhere in the city since I was driving the Officer in Charge. My unit not only had the manpower for clean-up but heavy equipment to pull, separate and demolish buildings. I will never forget what I saw up close, it was chilling and unimaginable.
My husband was graduating from high school in Antlers Oklahoma. He ended up going to the University of Oklahoma as a chemistry major. One day, the School of Meteorology at OU put out a call for science majors to come help with a project. He went. The project was chasing tornadoes with a map and a radio, to find tornadoes and help the school calibrate the new Doppler radar that was being tested at the university. The work they did on that has saved countless lives in the almost 50 years since (he graduated in 1978). He still watches weather, and, in his twilight years now, wishes he had majored in weather science. The project was an outgrowth of the Xenia tornado.
Honey, doppler radar was designed and tested on tornados in the mid to late 1950's. We even had NSSL doppler radar in 1971, years before the 1974 outbreak. Nice that your husband went on a field trip, but I believe you're very mistaken about some things!
@@scotabot7826 "Honey," there were different types of Doppler radar and refinements that came as they were developed. Synthetic-aperture radar was invented and developed circa 1951 and was based on Doppler principles but was distinct from the Doppler radar we know today. Digital filtering and microprosessors, which became available during the 1970's, were immediately applied to coherent pulsed radars, which allowed velocity information to be extracted. NSSL Doppler Radar was first deployed in 1971, but refinements were needed, and the work was accelerated as a result of the 1974 outbreak. I submit this for your reading and enjoyment, "honey:"
www.nssl.noaa.gov/about/events/40thanniversary/stories/radar.html
Perhaps in the future you might try not being condescending, or at least make sure you aren't "very mistaken about some things" before you patronize someone else.
Weatherbox just covered this yesterday. Theodore Fuijta gathered a team and surveyed the damage. So, what this person describes was explained in the documentary.
We lived north of Xenia. Some family/friends were staff and students at Central State University. The devastation on CSU & Wilberforce campuses forced students to seek shelter & support elsewhere. We were able to assist several students for as long as they needed. Our property had minor damage and no one was injured. That was a terrible day!
I have family there. They said their street was saved also. It was minor damage from blowing debris.
When violent EF5 tornadoes get together and want to scare each other, they tell Xenia Tornado stories. It wasn’t just an EF5 tornado . . . it was THE EF5 tornado! 🌪️
Yes, Xenia was historic and horrific but Jarrell has a seat at that table also.
So does Moore/Bridge Creek. 319 miles an hour was the windspeed
Pretty sure Joplin Mo was this vicious too. 😮
It too was an EF5… on the ground for 46 min and killed over 150 people. That was 2011. We drove thru there in 2014 and things were still being cleaned up and starting to rebuild.
@@louistaplin4665 What year was that? I can't remember what they named the 2013 that hit Moore. But we remembered what we went through. I along with four other ladies formed a group and we adopted 12 families that needed help. One of your local churches helped us identify those families. At first we said 6 and then found out there were 6 no one would take on so we took them. We helped them for a solid 12 months. So many of the citizens of Xenia donated money, clothing, household items and mind you, not used but brand new. We wanted to let them know that we knew what they were going through. We wanted to give back because so many helped those that needed in 1974.
@@irismania The Moore/Bridge Creek F5 tornado happened on May 3, 1999. (Jan Griffiths).
Ever been to a funeral with six caskets in the front of the church? I have. One of my best friends in 7th grade died with his entire family that afternoon in Alabama. Later learned the dad was talking to a neighbor on the phone regarding weather reports when the neighbor overheard one of the daughters yell that "it was in their backyard." God bless the Owens family, a loving family.
I was in my first year of graduate school at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. I was not from Indiana, had no television so I listened to radio, and I had no idea where the various spots they were talking about... but I eventually figured out they were generally east and north of Muncie. The next morning, I left campus in a van to go on a geology field trip to West Virginia. We went through Xenia on an interstate that overlooked the town. I'll never forget someone said it looked like a bulldozer with a 1/2-mile-long blade and gone through the town. And that was a good description. I'll never forget what Xenia looked like that morning. The normally noisy van full of students, was quiet for the next hour.
I'm from Pittsburgh but have been through Xenia. It's a wonderful town. God Bless Xenia
I had just gotten home from High School as a Junior and my Mom was in tears as she listened to the radio about the devastation that had happened in Xenia. Was very sobering for me as I was just beginning to think and act as if I was invincible and was never going to get old. Was humbling to see days later the destruction that these tornados caused and the deaths lost, homes destroyed and lives never to be the same again. That old saying of 50 years ago....and it STILL feels like yesterday! Blessings To All from COW-lumbus MOO
I remember that day; we heard about it on the radio, and I believe we also had storms later that day in PA! As I recall, that was a Sunday; possibly Easter sunday that year (?)!
@@pattymiller9040 It happened on a Wednesday!
My dad and some co- workers (Toledo Fireman) volunteered to help Xenia in the aftermath of the tornado. During the course of their duties they flipped an overturned car back upright, to their amazement there was an infant under the car still alive. Dad was never able to find out if the child made it or not. Hopefully he/she did.
Dad passed away in 1976,
Thanks for everything dad.
My aunt and uncle survived this tornado. My uncle was the pastor of the church and was there when the tornado hit. I remember coming with my parents afterwards to see the destruction and to visit my aunt and uncle.
My dad worked for FEMA and was an educator and went there and helped the rebuilding of that town with his guidance for them to get the federal help they needed.❤
My Dad and I drove to the city from Hillsboro to offer help, my dad was a carpenter and builder. We were turned back by the Natl. Guard. We did this several times in my childhood. We went down to the Silver Bridge collapse and many other devastated places in our state. But in my memories I can't remember any worse site than coming up to Xenia. My heart and prayers go out to the Survivors and to all those then and now for the Spirit of Thriving in the face of such natural destruction. I hope the community continues to thrive and pass into the future w such driving Spirit.
I remember when this happened. I still live in Ohio. Tornadoes truly terrify me!
How on earth is WHIO weatherman Gil Whitney not mentioned in this report? Had it not been for his quick thinking and warnings - rarities in those days - the xenia death toll would have been much higher.
It was initially assigned an F6 rating by Dr. Ted Fujita, but he later downgraded it to an F5. If I was Dr. Fujita, I would've let that F6 rating stand because it was even worse than all the other F5s that day!
Dr. Fujita toyed with/assigning an F6 rating to the 1977 Smithfield (Birmingham), AL tornado. That storm killed dozens & was directly responsible for the crash of Southern Airways flight 242 outside of Atlanta, GA later that afternoon.
Absolutely FANTASTIC Video!! I was 13 y.o. (living in Columbus Ohio) when it hit Xenia, but, I remember it like it was yesterday!
I was thirteen and living in Columbus too. We spent that night in our basement.
I was in my last year of high school. I grewup in Fairborn, but we had moved to Southern Ohio. But I remember that well.
I was 2 and lived in Columbus, I remember being in the basement that night.
Thank God that so many people survived.
I had never been to Xenia, til about a month before the tornado, when I bought new tires at the Michelin store there. That store was destroyed. I remember checking out the town and thinking it was very attractive. I am glad I got to see it before it became a totally different place.
To all those impacted by the 1974 Xenia 🌪: May God continue to comfort you, and keep you in His loving care. You will never be forgotten.
I’m so glad this popped up in my recommendations. What an excellent documentary about one of the most important weather events in American history. I was 21 when the tornado happened and the stories about Xenia were amazing. This storm helped create my fascination with severe weather. May the victims rest in peace.
Nice to see my old classmate Jeff Louderback, I have been gone from Xenia since 1986, but all my family is still there. This is something you never forget that’s for sure.
Outstanding job on this video!!
A Louisville resident. same thing same day..we will never forget..
1:40: For me too. I was 14 ( a month before my 15th) years old when this happened, living in southeast Pennsylvania. I became a young weather "geek" after Hurricane Camille in 1969. In that tornado outbreak of 1974 ( which still today is the second largest outbreak of all time in the US with 148 total, of which 30 were F4 or F5s), Xenia was the one place with the most media coverage and attention. In the late 1990s, I made took several road trips from Pennsylvania, going west through Ohio.. On one of them, I took a detour off I-70 and drove about 20 miles south to get to Xenia for a drive through the town before going back to my intended destination.
This is the one they always taught the kids about in elementary school during the early 1990’s.
We had "Day of the Killer Tornadoes" on reel to reel film in the 80's and, from 74 till a few years later, tornado sirens were always screaming, they were taking no chances, but it also caused complacency
Until 2011 when the Joplin Mo EF5 tornado happened. To this day its the costliest of all tornados. It was on the ground for 46 min and over 150 people died. 😢
I heard once that native Americans had called the area around Xenia "devil wind.". So, it may have a long history with tornadoes.
Very nicely done, thank you. Images here that will never leave the minds of many of us still here today of what we saw and went through that day.
I was 14 yrs old, I remember when this happened. Weather forecasting has improved so much since 1974, thank God for that! Thankful for all the meteorologist who have studied and worked in this field to help save lives. RIP to all who passed away that horrible day. God bless all those who survived.
First time I have seen any details or interviews like this. Well done
The most surprizing thing to me about this was what came down from the sky a few weeks after a Xenia tornado. My parents were living in Delaware, Ohio (to the northeast of Xenia) and I was visiting on a weekend. Out in the back yard I noticed some things drifting slowly down from the sky. I checked a few of them as they reached the ground. What I remember was those little chips of paper were identifying paper personal bank checks on Xenia banks. It took me a few moments to come to grips with this. But I had visited Xenia by car a few days after that tornado and noticed how a there was a path maybe 30 yards wide diagonally through a residential street visible from a traffic bridge. Totally empty the width of the path; houses remaining standing seemingly untouched, except for the totally destroyed path through them (like a chain saw diagonally through the house). An indelible memory. I doubt I have any souvenirs of those check chips anymore. Would this have been the 1974 tornado?
More than likely
I remember a story from the Weather Channel about this that totally touched my heart. A family of a mother and 2 daughters were at a Sonic like drive in when it hit. One of the drive ins waitresses a lady named Dorothy Rowland threw her body over the woman's oldest child because the lady had a newborn baby in her arms she was holding onto for dear life. Dorothy Rowland lost her life but the little girl who's body she covered lived and so did the woman and her children. This woman Dorothy Rowland gave her life to save the life of a child who she did not even know.
Fun fact. I was on that stage with Maureen shortly before the whole auditorium imploded, partly from the buses landing on the very spot we were in moments before. Pretty amazing experience...
Scary to think had school still have been in session what happened to the auditorium and the gyms. Do you go back in to your locker? I did.
@@irismania I don't think I went back to my locker. I remember Mr. Heath, our drama teacher, led us as a group out the front doors, climbing over the roof that had been blown off and came down in front of the doors. We were all in a bit of shock. I think we stood there staring at all the devastation around us for a bit. Then, we walked off to our various homes. We had no way to call anyone, and our families were seeing the high school destroyed on the news, knowing we were there, but not knowing if we were ok. Pretty wild...
I praise and thank God that your lives were spared! May God 🙌🏻 everyone impacted by this devastating event.
I was a high school senior in Norwood, Ohio and remember clearly this day. I did not experience what these folks did but it was still terrifying, not knowing what was going to happen. I remember it as a sunny warm spring day.
Excellent video, well done.
I live in Xenia. I was born and raised in Xenia. At one point, I lived in London, Ohio (November 2004 - March 2006). When living in London, I would tell people that I am from Xenia. All that most people would first talk to me about is the 1974 Xenia Tornado. I always had to tell people that I was not born until two and a half years after the tornado. I was born in October 1976.
Very sad event in Ohio history. God bless all of those people that survived and died that faithful day.
I was working with a brick laying crew about 15 miles northeast of Xenia. We knew there was a tornado watch since lunchtime. We were just south of where the tornado finally lifted, but we did not know it. I just remember the heavy rain, which left my car surrounded by a giant mud puddle, requiring my boss to hook a chain to pull me out.
I drove to Columbus for supper with my parents, rather than up to South Vienna, where I had just moved in late 1973. The tornado touched down twice more, first at London, then in northeast Columbus. Even though I drove just a few miles south of where the tornado had just been, I did not know about it until the 6 PM radio news came on, where they read a bulletin from the Ohio Highway Patrol saying Xenia had been hit by a catastrophic tornado and that there would be many deaths and injuries due to the extent and severity of the destruction.
I remember this like it was yesterday. I was 8 and wasn't in Xenia but was at church on Far Hills in Kettering/Centerville and looked outside to see clouds that looked like rows and rows of cotton candy in the sky. It was something to see. Not even aware of the destruction that happened just miles away.
I remember too my school, Dayton Christian received books from Simon Kenton school library, many of which had a tar like substance on them which now I know was most likely tar from the roof of the school. There were other marks on them too, town pages and things like that. One devastating situation led to donations to our school.
Great story by the way. Thank you!
I was 10 years old in Kettering! We hid in the hallway at home. I remember the sky being dark green before the hail started.
My Sister, Catherine Wilson ❤
I am a member of the historical society, although I am from extreme Northwest Ohio, so I have talked to her many time. She is a very nice, friendly person
I can still remember my late uncle telling me of how he parked Conrail railcars outside of the school, and then surveying the damage the day after. Years later I ran across a picture of those railcars sitting in the school yard, just like my uncle had told me. I'm from the Cincinnati area, but was living in Phoenix when the storm hit.
Fantastically well done documentary, thank you so much for sharing it.
Well done documentary! Great interviews, well described by citizens affected. I can’t even begin to imagine how terrifying this must have been!
I was almost 11 years old. I lived in Miami co. I'll never forget it.
I lived in Troy, Ohio. I was a freshman in high school. Scared to death we were going to get hit.
I was 15 and living in Columbus Ohio. I was babysitting my younger sisters and brother chilling after school watching I love Lucy. All at once the show was interrupted by special report. There was nothing said except this. “This is the weather service. Get in the basement or take shelter NOW. A tornado is in Zenia headed North to Columbus. REPEAT TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. Never was I so starteled or scared. I looked out the picture window and the sky was a pea green in parts and dark yellow in others. I have never seen it liked that EVER AND HAVE NEVER SEEN IT LIKE THAT SINCE. I GRABBED MY KIDS AND RAN DOWN. TO THE BASEMENT LESS THAN 5 minutes later it went over our house. The wind was so loud and strong. I held my brother and sisters. That day traumatized me for years. Until I was 24 I had panic attacks every time we got a bad storm. And I didn’t even see it. The noise was deafening the kids were screaming. I had them in the north west corner. Thought we were all going to die. I cured myself of these panic attacks. I had moved to the country where you can see storms coming for miles. I went out on the sidewalk and waited for a huge storm and stayed outside from beginning to end. I remember screaming at the storm and the wind was howling thunder crashing come on mother fucker if you want me take me now with my hands to the sky. I am 65 now and am not afraid I had to face my fear. That’s how bad that storm was. I live in Texas now. Been through Ike Rita and Harvey. Didn’t faze me a bit
Excellent program!!! Nice job!
50 Years ago today. I don't remember anything about the storms but I remember a lot of talk about tornados in the weeks following.
I was in a tornado when I was 4. (1989) It was in Greenville/Spartanburg SC, an EF4. Nobody had any warning. Even after all this time, I'll never forget that day.
Great video. What a horrifying event. Nature's sheer power is breathtakingly beautiful and terrifying all at once. Respect Mother Nature.
Respect and love God, Who shields His children always.
@@dianefarley37 I'll respect mother nature 😊 You are welcome to respect whomever you'd like, just the same as I am.
I dated a guy from Xenia in 1971. I hope he made it through that tornado ok. Havent seen him since before the tornado hit.
Crazy how RUclips recommends this now with the Tornado outbreak likely tomorrow in ohio and with the 50 year anniversary being Wednesday
I know I’m scared 😭😭
@bubblegumlemonade159 No need to be scared. Also, I just saw Reed Timmer's post saying there is a lot of bust potential with these storms. Just have to be prepared if anything pops off.
@@nicksttrs thanks 💓☮️
@bubblegumlemonade159 hope all was good in your neck of the woods!
I was born there and 14 years old at the time, living in Springfield a few miles away. We drove over there the day after it hit, never forget looking out across all the devastation.
Learning that the majority of the victims were children, my heart broke. I began to cry. That makes me so sad because these kids never got to live. They never got to live their lives and become who they wanted to be. It makes me so sad. Rest in Peace little babies 💔
maby they were sinners and did not belive in Jesus.
God's wraith!!
@@JohnnyDanger36963 ……are you high or something? As a Christ Follower myself, your comment makes no sense. God wouldn’t send death to anyone unless he absolutely needed to. This was just nature taking its course. Also, babies aren’t sinners, their babies. Children are only evil if raised wrong.
@@EquineMetalhead you need to watch " the bad seed" kids can be devils. God's wraith!!
19:18 Great shot of Doc Fujita and a flight crew 🛫🌪️
We were living in a small town in the foothills of the Applachia - Burkesville KY. I was 13. The sky was eerie - orange, like the sun was setting, but in the wrong direction. We were new in town. Everhone on the street went to a neighbor's basement, but no one called us to join them. We had no idea anything was going on. We didn't know until the next morning that a tornado has struck outside of town, across KY and destroyed Xenia.
I remember that tornado. I grewup in Fairborn, Ohio.
I grew up about 70 miles from Xenia, I was about 11 years old and me and my little sister was standing outside watching all kinds of funnel clouds coming up and down out of the clouds. It was a scary day.
No internet or cellphones? In 1974? Hell, calculators still used gears and lever arms, eh? And AT&T still charged extra for "long distance."
Thank you for sharing!
Xenia is a nice lil town. Drove through it several times in my OTR truck driver career. Shame what happened to those poor folks.
There's still debris from that tornado in a woods South of Findlay, Ohio, across from my parents' cemetery (Bishop's).
I was 11 then and lived in Sharonville and we had a f4 which sat down right behind our house and destroyed around 40 homes and still remember that sound and the fear!!
I remember it well. I was serving in the Ohio national guard W.C.H. Only had been to 1 monthly meeting when i got the call.
On my 10th birthday, I still remember it well.❤
FANTASTIC video, thanks for making and sharing it 🙏. Those are some hardy/resilient folks, God bless ‘em!
I was 6years old when this happened, my family and i were living in Benton Arkansas. Hello from Tyler Texas!
I was in Wilmington, Ohio near Xenia and we walked home from school at 3....we had heard from teachers that tornados were on the way and we were told to keep an eye out and they reminded us to go into the basement or hallway bathroom. Many of us back then walked home, and maybe our mom was home or perhaps at the grocery store (very few mothers worked then) but it was not uncommon....I was in the 4th grade...9 years old. Will never forget the green/yellow hue of the sky and the movement of the clouds. We all knew something bad was approaching.
What I learned from my first tornado encounter is that you don't leave the shelter during the first calm. That could be the eye of the storm, especially if the storm was right on top of you. I am very thankful to have a family member who knew that and knew how to spot a forming tornado. Of course, we had no idea what the sky would look like in the morning as that gives more clues, but we knew enough to make it to shelter and stay there till it passed. Due to radar, I later learned what a supercell thunderstorm looks like, and thankfully, what did try to drop didn't have enough to register as a f0, but it certainly taught me a valuable lesson. Even the last cloud formations in the line of storms still have enough power to form something.
Excellent reporting, well done.
My family were driving down from my grandparents farm when the weather got really weird. My father was considering stopping until the storm had passed but I wanted to get home. I just felt like the storm was going to get worse. My dad cussed me out but continued to drive all the way to Milwaukee. That’s when we found out that the area that we had just left had been destroyed by a tornado. I forgot to mention, it was on April 21, 1974.
I remember that day. Fortunately for me, I lived in Cincinnati and we were spared. But the horror of Xenia and, to a lesser degree, many smaller areas were horribly scarred by this act of nature.
Excellent reporting.
Excellent Documentary, Thank You for sharing this.
Great documentary here by Dayton 24/7 Now! One of the better pieces I've seen or read about the Xenia Tornado. Xenia lives!
Was a nice little doc to run upon. I always enjoy seeing these types of videos that are made by the locals to the region.
I’m not from OH, just a neighboring sister state instead (WV), so I don’t really know firsthand how these tornados can be. However, I do enjoy learning about these events that happen elsewhere.
Well, not enjoy in the sense of taking great pleasure seeing a disaster, but I like learning about such, how and where it formed, where it went through, what the locals have to say, how they survived and picked up the pieces to continue on, etc.
Thanks for sharing their stories.
I lived in Xenia n had just moved outside of town to Beavercreek. I was 14 at the time. Watched the tornado go across the country and imto Xenia
I was 10 years old. My heart goes out to the victims of that multi-vortex monster and I'm also thankful we haven't been hit like that here in Columbus, Ohio. I pray I'm able to leave the area in time if one does come this way.
The official end of the path of the Xenia tornado was just south of South Vienna. I went from Columbus to my home in South Vienna early April 5th. I remember a dump truck was slowly driving, with a man shoveling debris that had sprinkled down from the sky onto the road. I remember finding many shreds of 3/4 inch plywood, shredded to about the size of a quarter, scattered in my front yard. I drove back to work then south to where we were laying bricks, which took me across the final mile or so of the Xenia tornado path. The farm houses there were moderately damaged.
Most violent tornado outbreak to this day .
Wonderful documentary......heart wrenching....i will never forget this day. How beautiful Xenia is today. Hard to imagine the massive destruction that existed then. ....
I'm 72 years old and have lived in Vermont all my life, and I still remember the news coverage of the Xenia tornado and how devastating it was. I was horrified by the destruction.