On the way to Wednesday evening service, we saw a huge cloud with a very unusual color . . . Dad commented, "Something's going on in that cloud."
When we got to the church building, no one was there. Finally a teenager who attended came and told us there had been a tornado. We went driving around and little by little news trickled in of who had been killed or injured, whose homes had been destroyed. We stopped at the hospital on the way home to check on some people.
After arriving home, another tornado, this one in our town. Mom and Dad had no idea of the extent of the storm and had gone to another hospital to check on some other people, not realizing that there was another tornado just a couple miles south of us. (For the younger readers, weather reporting was nowhere near what it is today!)
All in all, I remember having a double funeral at our church for a couple who was killed. I remember the many who came to help rebuild and who sent clothing for us to distribute. I remember that night putting a healthy respect of tornadoes in my spirit. I remember this date every year as a Night of Terror.
5 comments:
Gee, Mary - you were still a baby in 1974! From your description, I can see why it made an impression on you.
I remember seeing many funnel clouds in the sky about 20-30 years ago, when we were at Ralph's house - the big brick one down the street from us - and a hail storm was going on at the same time. We went to the basement until it was over. Then we went outside and picked up many baseball-sized balls of ice and put them in the freezer. They shrunk a little by the time we got them to Minonk, but still impressed our friends.
The first time I saw a funnel cloud was out the window of my third grade classroom and my teacher, Mrs. Seiberns, made us all get under our desks. We tried to make her get under her desk, but she was too old and big! Very nice lady, though.
Of course, I don't remember 4/3/74. However, I do remember Palm Sunday 1994 when there was a great tornado outbreak in the south, resulting in 20 deaths in Piedmont AL and others in the south.
Retta and I were living in Athens and had gone to Lavoyd and Doris Moore's house with the "usual" Sunday afternoon crowd. When the tornado sirens started, we all went to the storm shelter that Lavoyd had built under his pool deck. While the girls were in the shelter, some of us men were out looking at the clouds and we saw a tornado in the air go past us a bit to the north. I can remember later in the day when the news about Goshen United Methodist starting coming in, wondering if it was the same twister that we saw go overhead.
I have always been fascinated with tornado's and love to watch them. You're hard pressed to get me into a shelter if there is a chance I can watch the real thing. Guess that goes back to when I was born, when Dad saw a tornado before (or after) being at the hospital. (I don't know the whole story for sure). EDK
How well I remember that night. Lynn and I used to chuckle inside when people would get so hyper about a cloud. That April night made believers out of us and we now sense the gravity of tornadic weather. I shudder to think how we, unknowingly, left our own children in peril while checking on the Blankenship children (both of their parents were killed that night). When we got back Ann and Mark were watching the reports on TV and realized that tornadoes had gone through Decatur. Mary and Rhoda were sleeping in their beds and Ann or Mark said they didn't know if they should have gotten the girls up. Another indelible memory of that event is being at a funeral in a country church and watching four caskets like a train being wheeled out of the church. The deceased were Manlie Hale's brother, his wife, and their two children.
And, surprisingly, the only real funnel tornado that I've seen is the one at Ralph's that Ada writes about.
I can't believe Mary didn't tell that while Mom and Dad were at the hospital, she went to sleep, but I woke her up to tell her there was a tornado close to our house. She's never let me forget that.
I remember driving around to see the destruction and we could get into "closed" areas because Dad was clergy and people from church lived in that area. Very cool for a fifth grader.
Of course I have the same memories that Mom, Mary, & Rhoda have of the Alabama tornadoes, and I never forget April 3 either. I played the piano at the quadruple funeral and at the double funeral, and that will put an indelible impression on a teenage girl's mind. I also remember on Sunday night, after the Wednesday night tornadoes, driving through yet another area of damage on our way home from church, and bursting into tears and saying to Dad, "I don't want to see any more tornado damage!" Guess enough was enough.
And I also remember the tornadoes at Ralph's house that day. It was summer 1976, because we were there the summer before I went to ISU. The hailstones on that day were more impressive than the funnel clouds! They were huge.
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