This event happened 43 years ago today. The Tornado Outbreak of 1974.

 

April 3, 1974

I have heard a story that that the tornado that day that hit Hanover and Madison, Indiana was "pushed" slightly north by a massive steam release when the generating plant there was destroyed...ultimately alterring the path into the western part of Hamilton County, instead of the projected trajectory into downtown Cincinnati. I've always wondered if that was true.

I remember it well.

 

Just thunderstorms in Morehead, but my first real introduction to tornadoes (didn't have them in Maryland).

Remember it well. The afternoon featured sunshine which pushed the temps upward. Very gusty winds however. I was playing in a 2on2 basketball tournment after school at a friends house and we had to alter the shots because the wind was so strong. After riding my bike home, I spent the night either outside in my driveway looking at the surrounding skies or inside at a window. Once a storm tracker, always a storm tracker!!

My mom says she's never seen the sky as black as it was that day. She was in Frankfort when Jett was hit.

I remember it well, was young though. Was right in the middle of it. Several people lost their life that night in my old hometown.

Remember it well. My mother got a call from her friend across town around 11PM that night, saying that her house had been destroyed. Mom just thought her friend Betty was drunk(because she was almost always drunk). However, it was true. Lots of damage in SE KY.

Two of the worst tornadoes in that outbreak were F-5's, I believe. One hit Brandenburg and one hit Xenia , OH. Lots of deaths.

 

Ken Rowland evening coverage on WHAS.

The Louisville tornado was an F-4. Only because of Dick Gilbert in the air that day was it not worse in terms of casualties. Families were scared for anyone commuting home from work that day. We were.

 

Also remember someone stating - No one alive today will see Cherokee park as it was - due to the trees being uprooted - mainly around the tunnels of I-64.

Richmond tornado does not get much press of that day.

 

April 3, 1974: In the Path

 

This F4 tornado touched down in Garrard County, tore across northwest Madison County, and finally lifted in Clark County. Despite remaining in rural areas it still took seven lives and injured 28 people. Thirty homes were destroyed.

 

Eerie pictures at link of this one.

 

Ken Rowland evening coverage on WHAS.

 

Its scary how behind the weather those reports were back in those days. It's amazing more people weren't killed.

Today is my sister's birthday. On that day in 1974, we stood in our front porch after celebrating her 7th birthday. We watched them in the distance, and my sister was terrified and crying. My 8 year old self told her it was all her fault.

Tornado took two of my great-grandparents in Brandenburg that day, Henry and Elizabeth O'Bryan.

 

I believe it remains the only ever confirmed F5 tornado in Kentucky history.

I remember it well, even though I was 7 at the time. A very good friend of my mom and dad lost his mother and father as their house was completely wiped off the face of the earth, just some concrete where the porch had been and some footers remained. Same friend's grandson was at home with parents across the road and after the storm was missing, he was less than a year old at the time. A rescue worker found him crying the next day a good distance from the home laying under a piece of roofing tin from a barn.

 

I think as many has 5 tornadoes touched down at some point in Pulaski County that night.