E. Clark
EF0
Thank you, those images are fascinating. Especially since my father had been with SAC at Wright Patt. up into the 70's. I do remember WHIO-TV well and seeing radar such as that image being broadcast. I posted a little about my experience with the Tornadoes that day. I had forgotten that my Grandmother at the time was a supervisor at Westinghouse in Columbus and was driving a friend home who had a camera with him. He took an extraordinary image of one of the tornadoes while driving somewhere near West Broad St. to the west of Columbus and sent it the next day to the Columbus Dispatch- where it eventually ended up on the front page. It was an amazing (for the time) image of this gorgeous, perfect tornado. Since I was reminded of that by a family member I have thought about writing to the Dispatch and seeing if they have the image still. The next time I saw a tornado as close as the ones in '74 was in Cardington, Ohio in '81.
I lived just outside Xenia in 1974 on a farm. I was 13.
I remember these things: The horses were upset the night before and being strangely 'vocal' and restless so that I went to the barn to settle them late, after dark, maybe around 10pm or so.
The next day early I played with the dog in the acre of grass beside our house- tossing a ball and such. But it felt like I was in some strange alien world as the sky was just this unearthly color and it tinged everything 'stronger' like it was saturating the colors of the grass and even the skin on my arm.
I noticed my arm because the other thing was that the hairs on my arm kept sticking up with these tingles that ran up them. I was 'goosebumpy' all day.
The wind started picking up pretty strongly. It was more gusty than steady. My mom came out and had me go with her to the barn to turn the horses out and open the gates to the bigger acres out back. They ran back there like the devil was after them. I remember the dust they kicked up and how it made little swirls in the air.
Then we went to the house (and the wind was even stronger) to the basement where we had water-bottles, blankets, candles, etc. We always went to the basement before there were any alarms, 'just in case' like my mom said.
I heard alarms faintly then about the time I got to the other wall of the basement where we 'camped out' during bad weather/tornado watches.
Then I heard that sound and I saw 2 tornadoes in the distance, one that came close enough that it stripped aluminum roofing off the barn- which I could also see from the tiny basement window. I remember looking out - the window was just half above and half below ground level (if you understand what I mean) and what the grass looked like straining toward the funnels- flattened. This was in the country to the south and west of West Jefferson.
I can tell more but do not want to take up too much space here.
We moved not long after this. At my new school I saw a girl who looked familiar and we figured out that she went to the same school I had gone to in '74.
Her name was Julia and her father died in Xenia so the family moved away from the memories. Odd that we ended up at the same school again. But weird things happen with tornadoes.
I lived just outside Xenia in 1974 on a farm. I was 13.
I remember these things: The horses were upset the night before and being strangely 'vocal' and restless so that I went to the barn to settle them late, after dark, maybe around 10pm or so.
The next day early I played with the dog in the acre of grass beside our house- tossing a ball and such. But it felt like I was in some strange alien world as the sky was just this unearthly color and it tinged everything 'stronger' like it was saturating the colors of the grass and even the skin on my arm.
I noticed my arm because the other thing was that the hairs on my arm kept sticking up with these tingles that ran up them. I was 'goosebumpy' all day.
The wind started picking up pretty strongly. It was more gusty than steady. My mom came out and had me go with her to the barn to turn the horses out and open the gates to the bigger acres out back. They ran back there like the devil was after them. I remember the dust they kicked up and how it made little swirls in the air.
Then we went to the house (and the wind was even stronger) to the basement where we had water-bottles, blankets, candles, etc. We always went to the basement before there were any alarms, 'just in case' like my mom said.
I heard alarms faintly then about the time I got to the other wall of the basement where we 'camped out' during bad weather/tornado watches.
Then I heard that sound and I saw 2 tornadoes in the distance, one that came close enough that it stripped aluminum roofing off the barn- which I could also see from the tiny basement window. I remember looking out - the window was just half above and half below ground level (if you understand what I mean) and what the grass looked like straining toward the funnels- flattened. This was in the country to the south and west of West Jefferson.
I can tell more but do not want to take up too much space here.
We moved not long after this. At my new school I saw a girl who looked familiar and we figured out that she went to the same school I had gone to in '74.
Her name was Julia and her father died in Xenia so the family moved away from the memories. Odd that we ended up at the same school again. But weird things happen with tornadoes.
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