April 3rd, 1974 Tornado Outbreak.....

[A 7.62 Exodus]

Holy ****! I can't believe how many of you have an experience on this day. I'm a meteorologist, and we learned about this day in about every class because of the impact in had in the field. Not just from a science aspect, but from an emergency management aspect as well. The ingredients that came together to make this happen were almost surreal, and only really compares to the April, 2011 outbreak in the south. Tornadoes got me into weather, and hearing stories from people who lived this never fail to blow me away
[video=youtube;nW8_bLG3VdI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW8_bLG3VdI[/video]

 

[Timjoebillybob]

It hit the town I live in pretty good. Took out the court house and quite a few other buildings/homes. You can see it driving down the road, old home, new home, old home, new home... Took off a church steeple but didn't damage the rest of the building, the church cooked and provided showers to I don't know how many people afterward.

A couple years ago we had a tornado go over the town, it touched down before and after but missed the town. An idiot posted a video of them standing outside videoing it going over head.

 

[indiucky]

I was 9 then. I remember traveling east on Indiana Highway 60 between Pekin and Borden not long afterwards. About a mile east of where the 2012 tornadoes hit in Pekin there was a hillside where the trees were mangled like nothing I've ever seen since. I remember thinking it looked like giants came and twisted the trees like the ties on a loaf of bread.

Yep...I know exactly where you are talking about...Years later after it had started to grow up some me and a buddy got permission and went there grouse hunting.....

Edit...The spot I was thinking of was between Salem and Borden on your left heading to Salem...It was from 1974 but yes I know the spot your talking about as well...

 

[Ben Nelson]

Holy ****! I can't believe how many of you have an experience on this day. I'm a meteorologist, and we learned about this day in about every class because of the impact in had in the field. Not just from a science aspect, but from an emergency management aspect as well. The ingredients that came together to make this happen were almost surreal, and only really compares to the April, 2011 outbreak in the south. Tornadoes got me into weather, and hearing stories from people who lived this never fail to blow me away
[video=youtube;nW8_bLG3VdI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW8_bLG3VdI[/video]

I hear ya . . . I think I analyzed every surface and upper-air map for the 3-4 April 1974 period in labs at Purdue. Well, that and AVE/SESAME I from 1979 (I think . . .)

 

[mtinner]

I was in nearby Dayton the day the tornado tore thru Xenia. I remember telling our apprenticeship instructor about tornado warnings when I came back from lunch. He said those warnings were only for women and children. He was wrong that day.

 

[WanderingSol07]

I was home in Michigan City that day (spring break or holiday weekend from Purdue). My next door neighbor drove us back to campus on Sunday about a week after the tornadoes. We detoured through Monticello (north of Lafayette) to see the damage. It was at night and I remember all the downtown buildings appears as piles of concrete block and bricks. All the huge elm trees lining the main street did not have a limb smaller that 1' diameter. For those that can remember the tv show Combat it was just like in the show showing bombed villages in Europe. Block after block of total destruction. Since then I have never lived in a house without a basement and have a tornado kit (clothes, water, money, radio, first aid kit) always up to date.

 

[ghitch75]

my dad and me got of the roof of our house and watch one go down Maplegrove rd in Monroe county and wiped out a girl i went to school with house....it was in May of 74....i was 10

 

[indiucky]

A couple of years ago a senior at Henryville High School posted this parody of the events that took place when the tornado hit Henryville....One of my customers children attended there....When I posted this the first time someone who volunteered down there for the cleanup got upset at the video..Fortunately a couple of INGOers from Henryville and Marysville got on here and said it's a parody and it was not mocking the victims but the school's response to the tornado....There are some inside jokes (the principal likes to be addressed as "Doctor") but the humor does come through even to those not from Southern Indiana....

One of my customer's trailer got wiped out and his bedside 870 was found barrel first in a neighbors field 1 mile down the road....Didn't have a scratch on it...

[video=youtube;hyz3z96C-nU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyz3z96C-nU[/video]

A little bit of lighthearted humor in regards to the recent events of 03/02/2012. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been affected. Our goal is to spread the word of the long road that lies ahead for the Henryville community. The volunteers throughout the area are greatly appreciated and we want to emphasize the need for the generosity to continue. Please help us in raising as much money as we can to help our community to become "Bigger, Better and Stronger" in the wake of this devastation.Article you might not have seen:

 

[indiucky]

Lest we forget.......

 

[ghuns]

Imagine an event of this scale today and the political consequences.

It would be pointed towards as absolute proof of climate change and that AOC chick would get her green new deal passed in days.

 

[Brad69]

April 3, 1974
Counties: Perry, Crawford, Harrison IN, Washington IN, Clark IN, Scott IN
F-scale: F5
Deaths: 6
Injuries: 76
Path width:
Path length:
Time: 1:20pm
Grazulis narrative: Moved east-northeast and northeast from three miles south of Huffman, passing southeast of Branchville, north of Sulphur Springs and Pilot Knob, south of Sulphur and Curby, across the southeast part of DePauw, hitting two miles east of Palmyra, passing through Martinsburg, crossing the southeast half of Daisy Hill, passing between Bunker Hill and New Liberty, and ending two miles north of IN 160. This tornado immediately killed a woman as it destroyed her mobile home. As the tornado passed along southeast of Branchville it killed again. Two people, riding in a school bus, saw the tornado and took shelter in a nearby ditch. The bus was thrown fifty feet into the ditch, crushing the couple and killing the woman. Moving across Crawford County, the tornado widened to over a mile, missing many small communities and levelling several farms. In Harrison County the tornado killed a woman in her mobile home in southeast Depauw. Another woman was killed in her home two miles east of Palmyra. In the southeastern corner of Washington County the tornado struck the town of Martinsburg, destroying 38 of the town's 48 homes. Homes in the Daisy Hill area were completely swept away.
Noted discrepancies: SPC and Grazulis list 6 deaths for this tornado, NCDC lists 5. SPC lists 86 injuries, NCDC 53, Grazulis 76, Storm Data 95. SPC lists a path length of 68 miles, NCDC 50 miles, Grazulis 62 miles, Storm Data 67 miles. SPC gives a path width of 10 yards (obviously incorrect), NCDC 30 yards (obviously incorrect), Grazulis 1760 yards, Storm Data 700 yards. This tornado is split into two tornadoes at SPC. Grazulis lists an incorrect ending point for the tornado. Storm Data begins this tornado between Huffman and Tarry in Perry County and lifts it a few miles northeast of Lexington in Scott County. SPC lat/lon ends the tornado southwest of Lexington, rather than northeast.

 

[JeepHammer]

F-4 or F-5 came through my side of the state and I remember it well since I was at a friend's home, a house trailer.
One of the only ones with tie down straps which tore through the roof/walls, but it doesn't go over.

As a kid, I was transfixed by the big helicopters that landed at the grade school ball diamond while setting up power line towers for weeks afterwards.
No help for our little town, but the power company sure got a lot of support, including national guard refueling the choppers.

Apr. 74/F4... Feb. 76/F3... Jun. 90/F5, and a dozen or more smaller tornados, people can't figure out why I built poured concrete & earth sheltered home...
If you choose to live in tornado alley, be prepared for tornados. (DUH!)