I was 14 in Louisville Ky fishing in beargrass creak in cherakee park . I seen it coming and ran to a storm tunnel that went back 3 miles lucky there was a ladder 30 feet in. I watched it go by when I got out the trees were almost all gone . We lived in cresent hill my house was half gone tons of damage all around.
1:38 Wow am I OLD -- I had that boombox :-) Note on this day BTW Brandenberg, KY was a powerful F5, and poor Tanner, Harvest, and Capshaw were hit twice inside of 50 minutes: the first was F5, second F4. April 27 and April 3, 1974 hard to say, but I have to admit for the first time since 1974 we have a legitimate contender. Waiting for the NWS disaster survey. Should be GREAT reading. Love, prayers to all who died, were injured, and to your family & friends.
Dr. Fujita came down to survey the Guin tornado and then held a meeting at the NWS office in Birmingham, and said he came very close to rating the Guin tornado the first ever F-6.
I live in Guin. My name is Michael Gosa. I'm only 14 years old but my parents told me about this disaster. Just 2 days ago (April 27, 2011) we had another tornado but it only hot the towns around us.
you can see my old house in the background of this when they r walking down the street talking the white 1 on the left :) and that lady was my neighbor i was like 8 when i lived there though
I lived through this. I remember spending the night in the bathroom. We lived in Winfield 6 miles away. I remember my Dad coming back home after going to work, before we went to school, and said "Guin was blown away by a tornado last night". I remember driving the road to Yampertown and the store was blown away but the Coca-cola cooler was still standing full of cokes.
I remember seeing metal from metal roofs twisted around trees, the ones left standing.
the conditions were unusual those 2 days. dry heat from the southwest capped the moist air at the surface which continued to be warmed by the sun. a front was coming through adding instability and a strong jet added the intense power. the moist air at the surface couldn't take it anymore and just busted through the cap up to 80,000+!! the super cells started spinning suddenly and quickly off the bat. and there were so many of them. i hope i never see this.
My house in Guin was destroyed that night. I was home with my Mom. We heard it coming but didn't have a storm cellar. I told my Mom we should get under the house (no basement but we had a crawl space), but then the windows exploded. We jumped under the bed. After a few seconds it passed. "Wow, that was close" I said. "We almost got hit." Then I walked down the hall and realized the rest of the house was gone. The people across the street were killed. Like all of us in Guin, I'll never forget t
I was 8 when these tornadoes hit Louisville, we had just gotten out of school and barely made it to my grandmas basement. I got separated from my mom when we got there and almost didn't make it to the basement. I'll never forget the color of the sky (it had the weirdest green cast to it) and the wind was amazing. You could hear the freight train coming, the wind was howling so bad. It left my Grandmas house. we live very close to Cherokee park in Portland.
Im glad my family was spared in this event. Such a tragedy. I was born on April 5th, 1974 in Louisville, KY where an F4 wreaked havoc on the city just 2 days earlier.
That whole day, there was a heavy feeling in the air. I had hail stones from this storm in the freezer until 5 years ago. Some were the size of softballs. One of my best friends and her parents were killed. So many I knew, gone. I was 16 when it hit. I can still hear it as it went over. We lived in front of the hospital, but our house was spared. From just behind the hospital east, devastation. A town gone. I wish I could put the pics inside my head in print. Each year I stop to remember.
I was 12 yrs old when this happened. We lived in Louisville, KY. I remember people picking up hail the size of softballs. The state fairgrounds in Louisville has hit pretty hard, and many homes where completely gone. I remember being scared so bad that I couldn't speak a word. Great video on the horrors of that day.
My fatherinlaw was in the National Guard at this time. He has told me a lot of what it was like that night as they picked up bodies. One man was blown up in a tree, and the family mentioned here that was killed-may fatherinlaw said she had dirt driven into her skin.
I remember coming up here with my mom and dad, the saturday after it happened. I still remember how Guin looked.
A few months after this storm, there was a pic in the newspaper made from a satellite, it showed the path of this tornado. It tracked from near the Ala/Miss state line, all the way to Huntsville, before lifting up. As an 11 yr old boy growing up in Winfield, I'll never forget that evening. I watched it going thru Yampertown (Twin) from my home. Although you couldn't see the actual tornado, you could see the lightening and hear the sounds (like a dentist's suction tube). I'll never forget.
@kf4omg Thanks for coming up with a new and unique description instead of a train. I heard one in Pensacola and likened it to the way my stomach sounded, growling in church.
im glad i wasnt born when this happened. but i feel bad for everyone who lost their homes and couldnt afford to get a new home. hopefully they are still alive :(
This storm killed two senior-citizens in my towm by sending sewing needles trough every part of their body and then threw them 150 yd. It was a scary time.
I was 10 y/o and lived in Hamilton, about 10-15 miles up the road from Guin. We lived with my grandfather, and he refused to go with us across the road to the neighbor's storm cellar. So we were forced to leave him there at the house. There were my brother, 2 sisters and myself, we were ALL kids! I've never seen so many neighbors packed into a storm cellar! I remember nearly everything about that night, you could hear the roar as it approached.....one of the scariest of ny life!
What I and my family like about ABC 33/40 is that they try to teach their viewers about weather, all we need to know to better protect ouselves aganist severe weather. They do by showing us documentrys of past weather events such as this video, they go on tour around their viewing area and teach us about tornados, showing us pictures and sharing storys. I'm so greatful to have a news station such as ABC 33/40 cause I know they care and that means alot.
3:01 is absoultely perfect evidence of what F5 damage looks like. There is nothing remaining but a few pieces of the structure. It and all it's contents have been completely destroyed and carried away. If you don't see THIS, it's not an F5. And thankfully, you don't see this very often.
Thank you so much for posting this. So cool to hear from someone who worked for the NWS during this as well as the people who went to storm cellars. Every time my Granny used to take us to the storm cellar in a tornado warning she would mention this outbreak as well as a tornado that hit close to Jasper and killed the Bradfords who had just bought a new house in 1957.
I live in Decatur, al. about 7-8 mi. south of Tanner,Al. Tanner was hit by an f5 and a smaller f3 or so, but had only one fatality. A gentleman was in a mobile home park that got hit by the smaller tornado, and was slightly injured. His brother was the minister of a church a couple of mi. up the road, and brought him there. The f5 hit the church, and he died there.Parts of Tanner were totally destroyed. The tornado was close to a mile wide there. I think it was the same one that hit Guin.
No, at least a dozen people died in Tanner that night. My grandmother lived there, and my aunt still does. We were in Tanner the next few days staying at my grandmother's. My aunt taught at Tanner's school and knew several students who lost family members that night. My cousin' 5th grade class lost one student. One entire family who lived near the Swan Creek area was killed except for the father. I am from Decatur.
@bongojava21 I have a book that documented this event at Tanner Crossroads. A F-5 and an F-4 within a half hour and a half mile from each other. It churned my stomach to read this book and I felt truely sorry for the people who had to live through this but, I am glad people survived through it.
yes im from Limestone and it was alot more than 6 that came threw. my step dads home and most ever home in that area was gone he saw 7 that night himself he was out driveing in it god knows why but he came close to geting killed a few times. what was realy nice was that the amish that lives up in tennessee came down and help rebuild the homes and all they asked for was just a hot meal
other than what i heard from my parents about tornadoes and the 1 that hit Oak Lawn Il in 67 i had no experience with these
types of storms. But somehow i knew something was not right
with the weather that afternoon,later that day while in gym class we heard a clap of thunder and when we looked out the window and saw it was green outside. Someone yelled Tornado and we ran in all directions trying to get out of that gym.
I was 12 at the time and we lived about 10 miles outside of Chicago. I remember coming home from school for lunch yes we did that in those days, i noticed how warm it was outside.
And just a few days before i was wearing my heavy winter coat,but thats not unusual for springtime here in the upper midwest.
I met a friend when i was in the Air Force,who was from Xenia
and went through that tornado. She said they didn't even know it was coming until her grandmother looked out the window and saw the mile wide funnel. All she could do was grab everybody and push them under the kitchen table. they all survived but the house was blown away.
I witnessed the Xenia tornado from 5 miles west of town and saw its multiple vortexes. It was an enormous giant of a thing, but moved very quickly(50+mph). Being on the center side of the storm, I counted 8 other funnel clouds poking out of the base cloud above me, 7 narrow F1 size and one thicker F2 size, but none touched down. The base cloud/funnels passed right over me, dropping golfball hail and heavy rain. Out on the edge, friends say the sun came out in Xenia as soon as the tornado passed.
I once visited someone I knew who lived in this county, and soon noticed that almost every house had a storm shelter in the yard. She told me that a town nearby had been totally wiped out a few years back. She wasn't kidding.
I remember this one way too well. I was 6 years old. We were able to seek safety in a neighbors basement. There were tornados reforming all night long. I remember driving around my neighborhood the next morning and saw an old lady sitting on her front porch steps with her head in her hands crying. There was nothing behind her steps.
I remember this one way too well. I was 6 years old. We were able to seek safety in a neighbors basement. There were tornados reforming all night long. I remember driving around my neighborhood the next morning and saw an old lady sitting on her front porch steps with her head in her hands crying. There was nothing behind her steps.
I Wonder was the Xenia Tornado more powerful twister throughout the entire outbreak or was it Guin? Because according to meteorologist, alot of them say that it was Xenia; cuz the damage and deaths were more severe & appalling than any other tornado in the outbreak (It was so bad that they wanted it to be the 1st F6 rated tornado.)
Wind engineers were astonished by the amount of f5 damage in Xenia. I went through there two months after the tornado and what I saw is like a picture burned into my mind. I think at the time it was considered the most damaging tornado since the Tri-State Tornado of March 18th 1925.
the Guin tornado is believed to be the strongest tornado of the Super Outbreak. The Xenia tornado did the most damage in one single location. Most of Guin was upper F4 and F5 damage. Xenia was 90% F4 damage with F5 pockets (very typical of an F5 rating) The issue with Xenia was the fact it was a GIANT multi-vortex tornado. It also created an incredible amount of debris as it went thru town. The flying debris in itself inflicts MAJOR damage on structures, which in turn become MORE debris..
It was Xenia that got the most press, because it was almost wiped off the map though Guin got hit pretty hard as well i think because it was a smaller town,the media didn't focus on it as much as Xenia.
@pau3365 The Xenia twister hit a more populated area. I don't think it was stronger than the others. Many areas hit that night were small towns and rural areas.
I remember this 1974 outbreak. It went from down there in Alabama, all the way up to Canada. SW Ontario in fact. Sad to say, the city of Windsor, Ontario, lost several lives. That was on April 4, 1974.
I was 12 yrs. old we lived in Bear Creek, Al. and I vividly remember Mom and Dad put myself and my brother behind the couch and turned it over backwards to protect us. We waited for the tornado to come over us as we listened to the local radio station (WJBB) report the DOA's at the hospital. The next Spring we had a storm cellar.
Correction: it was the Tanner community near Athens, AL that was hit twice. The storms are now referred to as "Tanner One" and "Tanner Two". There is an awesome book out now about these storms in particular (and a summary of what happened elsewhere during the outbreak). It is called "F5."
man...and i'm a senior at the high school in tanner this year...we've had a few bad storms while i've been there, particularly around 2003-2004 or sometime around there. on my way to school one morning storms were around, and i could make out a funnel from the bus i was riding on...we got off the buses and into the halls immediately.
I was 8 and in Huntsville. Where we lived there were tornadoes around us in any directing we could go. We sheltered in a church basement and I remember adults pointing out the window saying they saw a tornado and everyone praying, some crying, my mom freaking out. That day my fascination with storms began.
I remember that day very well, I was 11 years old, and in the basement, as I was about 40 miles from Xenia. Xenia got the press because it was an F-5 that hit the small city and ripped half of it away. There were 6 F-5's that day and 142 tornadoes in all. One in Indiana set a record for lasting 127 miles! Anyway, I'll be out in the flatlands this spring with my Sony!
I was only 6 years old at the time, as a matter of fact, my birthday is on the 4th. We live in Michigan at the time, but were down in Huntsville, Alabama to visit my grandmother. I remember the storm that day, and how bad it was. I also remember the damage in Louisville on our way back up to Michigan. I hope an outbreak like that never happens again in my lifetime.
Very interesting. Xenia, Ohio got most of the press that day, but I've often wondered about Guin. I think it may have been even stronger than the Xenia storm.
my birthday is on april 3, born in Dayton
i might as well walk down the street and see where people died on my birthday
(1999)btw
caycay4722 1 month ago
I was 14 in Louisville Ky fishing in beargrass creak in cherakee park . I seen it coming and ran to a storm tunnel that went back 3 miles lucky there was a ladder 30 feet in. I watched it go by when I got out the trees were almost all gone . We lived in cresent hill my house was half gone tons of damage all around.
ncrdisabled 2 months ago
1:38 Wow am I OLD -- I had that boombox :-) Note on this day BTW Brandenberg, KY was a powerful F5, and poor Tanner, Harvest, and Capshaw were hit twice inside of 50 minutes: the first was F5, second F4. April 27 and April 3, 1974 hard to say, but I have to admit for the first time since 1974 we have a legitimate contender. Waiting for the NWS disaster survey. Should be GREAT reading. Love, prayers to all who died, were injured, and to your family & friends.
ChristopherSaindon 6 months ago
April 27, 2011 makes this look like nothing.
talladegajunkie1439 7 months ago
Dr. Fujita came down to survey the Guin tornado and then held a meeting at the NWS office in Birmingham, and said he came very close to rating the Guin tornado the first ever F-6.
wxman1989 8 months ago
@F5FTiger I was almost 7 years old and also spent the evening in the basement with my parents in southern Indiana.
Machi74005 9 months ago
that maybe true for now ........
jerardofierros3 9 months ago
I live in Guin. My name is Michael Gosa. I'm only 14 years old but my parents told me about this disaster. Just 2 days ago (April 27, 2011) we had another tornado but it only hot the towns around us.
Nik3WiZARD 10 months ago
This outbreak has been broken by the April 27th, 2011 outbreak
joycin123 10 months ago 2
The day the portal to hell opened up!!
mahoot81 10 months ago
you can see my old house in the background of this when they r walking down the street talking the white 1 on the left :) and that lady was my neighbor i was like 8 when i lived there though
hotpinkfairy97 10 months ago
I lived through this. I remember spending the night in the bathroom. We lived in Winfield 6 miles away. I remember my Dad coming back home after going to work, before we went to school, and said "Guin was blown away by a tornado last night". I remember driving the road to Yampertown and the store was blown away but the Coca-cola cooler was still standing full of cokes.
I remember seeing metal from metal roofs twisted around trees, the ones left standing.
berrymoore1 10 months ago
the conditions were unusual those 2 days. dry heat from the southwest capped the moist air at the surface which continued to be warmed by the sun. a front was coming through adding instability and a strong jet added the intense power. the moist air at the surface couldn't take it anymore and just busted through the cap up to 80,000+!! the super cells started spinning suddenly and quickly off the bat. and there were so many of them. i hope i never see this.
zeroair4 10 months ago
My house in Guin was destroyed that night. I was home with my Mom. We heard it coming but didn't have a storm cellar. I told my Mom we should get under the house (no basement but we had a crawl space), but then the windows exploded. We jumped under the bed. After a few seconds it passed. "Wow, that was close" I said. "We almost got hit." Then I walked down the hall and realized the rest of the house was gone. The people across the street were killed. Like all of us in Guin, I'll never forget t
mnrobertson 11 months ago
There wa an F4 that hit Murphy, NC during the outbreak... had a friend who's dad lived down there, and he said the sky was as green as grass.
talladegajunkie1439 11 months ago
Comment removed
DanilovesDrPepper 11 months ago
I was 8 when these tornadoes hit Louisville, we had just gotten out of school and barely made it to my grandmas basement. I got separated from my mom when we got there and almost didn't make it to the basement. I'll never forget the color of the sky (it had the weirdest green cast to it) and the wind was amazing. You could hear the freight train coming, the wind was howling so bad. It left my Grandmas house. we live very close to Cherokee park in Portland.
CygnusXII 1 year ago
@CygnusXII Sorry I remember incorrectly. We lived close to Shawnee Park; off north western Pkwy, in the west end of town in Portland.
CygnusXII 1 year ago
I lived in Guin,Alabama most of my growing up life, that night will always be in my memory as one horrible night indeed !!! :-/
innovision777 1 year ago
Im glad my family was spared in this event. Such a tragedy. I was born on April 5th, 1974 in Louisville, KY where an F4 wreaked havoc on the city just 2 days earlier.
kentuckygirl4574 1 year ago
Comment removed
kentuckygirl4574 1 year ago
this is a disaster
silver4765 1 year ago
That whole day, there was a heavy feeling in the air. I had hail stones from this storm in the freezer until 5 years ago. Some were the size of softballs. One of my best friends and her parents were killed. So many I knew, gone. I was 16 when it hit. I can still hear it as it went over. We lived in front of the hospital, but our house was spared. From just behind the hospital east, devastation. A town gone. I wish I could put the pics inside my head in print. Each year I stop to remember.
menopausin1 1 year ago 2
I was 12 yrs old when this happened. We lived in Louisville, KY. I remember people picking up hail the size of softballs. The state fairgrounds in Louisville has hit pretty hard, and many homes where completely gone. I remember being scared so bad that I couldn't speak a word. Great video on the horrors of that day.
62636263c 1 year ago
My fatherinlaw was in the National Guard at this time. He has told me a lot of what it was like that night as they picked up bodies. One man was blown up in a tree, and the family mentioned here that was killed-may fatherinlaw said she had dirt driven into her skin.
I remember coming up here with my mom and dad, the saturday after it happened. I still remember how Guin looked.
Spiritpup5 2 years ago
Comment removed
googybuzzy 2 years ago
3.4.1974 - It´s my Birth!
Skumringavind 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Absolutely no one cares whether it was on your birthday.... You are so fucking Ignorant.
xGFundefinedx 1 year ago
What the temprature earlier that day in xenia ohio.
johnny10301968 2 years ago
My grandmother slept through all of this. haha
MrPreacherman94 2 years ago
a super outbreak-1974 april 3-the audio recordings are so intense! thanks for sharing this video *****
thrillionsofheavens 2 years ago
A few months after this storm, there was a pic in the newspaper made from a satellite, it showed the path of this tornado. It tracked from near the Ala/Miss state line, all the way to Huntsville, before lifting up. As an 11 yr old boy growing up in Winfield, I'll never forget that evening. I watched it going thru Yampertown (Twin) from my home. Although you couldn't see the actual tornado, you could see the lightening and hear the sounds (like a dentist's suction tube). I'll never forget.
kf4omg 2 years ago
@kf4omg Thanks for coming up with a new and unique description instead of a train. I heard one in Pensacola and likened it to the way my stomach sounded, growling in church.
kperk014 2 years ago
im glad i wasnt born when this happened. but i feel bad for everyone who lost their homes and couldnt afford to get a new home. hopefully they are still alive :(
loryr405 2 years ago
This storm killed two senior-citizens in my towm by sending sewing needles trough every part of their body and then threw them 150 yd. It was a scary time.
TravisG32 2 years ago
Comment removed
BamaBeachBums9630 2 years ago
I was 10 y/o and lived in Hamilton, about 10-15 miles up the road from Guin. We lived with my grandfather, and he refused to go with us across the road to the neighbor's storm cellar. So we were forced to leave him there at the house. There were my brother, 2 sisters and myself, we were ALL kids! I've never seen so many neighbors packed into a storm cellar! I remember nearly everything about that night, you could hear the roar as it approached.....one of the scariest of ny life!
Leealee09 3 years ago
Comment removed
BamaBeachBums9630 2 years ago
What I and my family like about ABC 33/40 is that they try to teach their viewers about weather, all we need to know to better protect ouselves aganist severe weather. They do by showing us documentrys of past weather events such as this video, they go on tour around their viewing area and teach us about tornados, showing us pictures and sharing storys. I'm so greatful to have a news station such as ABC 33/40 cause I know they care and that means alot.
HighFlyingAddict 3 years ago 3
3:01 is absoultely perfect evidence of what F5 damage looks like. There is nothing remaining but a few pieces of the structure. It and all it's contents have been completely destroyed and carried away. If you don't see THIS, it's not an F5. And thankfully, you don't see this very often.
ProfessorIgor 3 years ago
Thank you so much for posting this. So cool to hear from someone who worked for the NWS during this as well as the people who went to storm cellars. Every time my Granny used to take us to the storm cellar in a tornado warning she would mention this outbreak as well as a tornado that hit close to Jasper and killed the Bradfords who had just bought a new house in 1957.
YankHoe 3 years ago
eu nasci( born) em 8 april 1974 ( from Brazil state São paulo )
here somes ef1 or ef2, but ef3 or ef4 is rare
rone100theone 3 years ago
I live in Decatur, al. about 7-8 mi. south of Tanner,Al. Tanner was hit by an f5 and a smaller f3 or so, but had only one fatality. A gentleman was in a mobile home park that got hit by the smaller tornado, and was slightly injured. His brother was the minister of a church a couple of mi. up the road, and brought him there. The f5 hit the church, and he died there.Parts of Tanner were totally destroyed. The tornado was close to a mile wide there. I think it was the same one that hit Guin.
topdog25608 3 years ago
No, at least a dozen people died in Tanner that night. My grandmother lived there, and my aunt still does. We were in Tanner the next few days staying at my grandmother's. My aunt taught at Tanner's school and knew several students who lost family members that night. My cousin' 5th grade class lost one student. One entire family who lived near the Swan Creek area was killed except for the father. I am from Decatur.
bongojava21 2 years ago
@bongojava21 I have a book that documented this event at Tanner Crossroads. A F-5 and an F-4 within a half hour and a half mile from each other. It churned my stomach to read this book and I felt truely sorry for the people who had to live through this but, I am glad people survived through it.
xRazgriz 10 months ago
yes im from Limestone and it was alot more than 6 that came threw. my step dads home and most ever home in that area was gone he saw 7 that night himself he was out driveing in it god knows why but he came close to geting killed a few times. what was realy nice was that the amish that lives up in tennessee came down and help rebuild the homes and all they asked for was just a hot meal
chrisstbtc 3 years ago
How Alabama was affected? That kind of pisses me off. :P
EMDPr0ductions 3 years ago
the town of Guin was eradicated in this event.
ProfessorIgor 3 years ago
other than what i heard from my parents about tornadoes and the 1 that hit Oak Lawn Il in 67 i had no experience with these
types of storms. But somehow i knew something was not right
with the weather that afternoon,later that day while in gym class we heard a clap of thunder and when we looked out the window and saw it was green outside. Someone yelled Tornado and we ran in all directions trying to get out of that gym.
royalfuzziness 3 years ago
I was 12 at the time and we lived about 10 miles outside of Chicago. I remember coming home from school for lunch yes we did that in those days, i noticed how warm it was outside.
And just a few days before i was wearing my heavy winter coat,but thats not unusual for springtime here in the upper midwest.
royalfuzziness 3 years ago 2
Anybody here from Limestone AL, i understand there were as many as a 6 twisters that went threw this area on 4/3/74
royalfuzziness 3 years ago
I met a friend when i was in the Air Force,who was from Xenia
and went through that tornado. She said they didn't even know it was coming until her grandmother looked out the window and saw the mile wide funnel. All she could do was grab everybody and push them under the kitchen table. they all survived but the house was blown away.
royalfuzziness 3 years ago
im watching this because there predicting something like this will occur in my area tommorow
SmithStudios 3 years ago
I witnessed the Xenia tornado from 5 miles west of town and saw its multiple vortexes. It was an enormous giant of a thing, but moved very quickly(50+mph). Being on the center side of the storm, I counted 8 other funnel clouds poking out of the base cloud above me, 7 narrow F1 size and one thicker F2 size, but none touched down. The base cloud/funnels passed right over me, dropping golfball hail and heavy rain. Out on the edge, friends say the sun came out in Xenia as soon as the tornado passed.
longlakeshore 3 years ago
Wow!
AndrewSa888 3 years ago
I once visited someone I knew who lived in this county, and soon noticed that almost every house had a storm shelter in the yard. She told me that a town nearby had been totally wiped out a few years back. She wasn't kidding.
cpc24 3 years ago
I remember this one way too well. I was 6 years old. We were able to seek safety in a neighbors basement. There were tornados reforming all night long. I remember driving around my neighborhood the next morning and saw an old lady sitting on her front porch steps with her head in her hands crying. There was nothing behind her steps.
jonaspsalter38 3 years ago
I remember this one way too well. I was 6 years old. We were able to seek safety in a neighbors basement. There were tornados reforming all night long. I remember driving around my neighborhood the next morning and saw an old lady sitting on her front porch steps with her head in her hands crying. There was nothing behind her steps.
jonaspsalter38 3 years ago
I Wonder was the Xenia Tornado more powerful twister throughout the entire outbreak or was it Guin? Because according to meteorologist, alot of them say that it was Xenia; cuz the damage and deaths were more severe & appalling than any other tornado in the outbreak (It was so bad that they wanted it to be the 1st F6 rated tornado.)
pau3365 4 years ago 6
Wind engineers were astonished by the amount of f5 damage in Xenia. I went through there two months after the tornado and what I saw is like a picture burned into my mind. I think at the time it was considered the most damaging tornado since the Tri-State Tornado of March 18th 1925.
Yarndt 4 years ago
the Guin tornado is believed to be the strongest tornado of the Super Outbreak. The Xenia tornado did the most damage in one single location. Most of Guin was upper F4 and F5 damage. Xenia was 90% F4 damage with F5 pockets (very typical of an F5 rating) The issue with Xenia was the fact it was a GIANT multi-vortex tornado. It also created an incredible amount of debris as it went thru town. The flying debris in itself inflicts MAJOR damage on structures, which in turn become MORE debris..
ProfessorIgor 4 years ago 2
It was Xenia that got the most press, because it was almost wiped off the map though Guin got hit pretty hard as well i think because it was a smaller town,the media didn't focus on it as much as Xenia.
royalfuzziness 3 years ago
Comment removed
LLJ98 1 year ago
@pau3365 Scale on the f5 was open ended. The F6 talk is 100% exaggeration.
GOODY61 1 year ago
@pau3365 u can't go by deaths and damage when xenia is more populated by over 5 times what guin is. Both were bad
heathsmith73 1 year ago
@pau3365 The Xenia twister hit a more populated area. I don't think it was stronger than the others. Many areas hit that night were small towns and rural areas.
bongojava21 5 months ago
@pau3365 The Xenia tornado had the higher death toll and catastrophic damage, but the Guin tornado was one of the longer tracked tornadoes on record.
thillwl 4 months ago
I remember this 1974 outbreak. It went from down there in Alabama, all the way up to Canada. SW Ontario in fact. Sad to say, the city of Windsor, Ontario, lost several lives. That was on April 4, 1974.
canada647 4 years ago
What an outbreak!
stormmoss 4 years ago
I was 12 yrs. old we lived in Bear Creek, Al. and I vividly remember Mom and Dad put myself and my brother behind the couch and turned it over backwards to protect us. We waited for the tornado to come over us as we listened to the local radio station (WJBB) report the DOA's at the hospital. The next Spring we had a storm cellar.
jenwatx 4 years ago
go 74!
74associates 4 years ago
i think it was guin alabama that got hit by a f5 and then 45 minutes later a f4
usgitmo38 4 years ago
Correction: it was the Tanner community near Athens, AL that was hit twice. The storms are now referred to as "Tanner One" and "Tanner Two". There is an awesome book out now about these storms in particular (and a summary of what happened elsewhere during the outbreak). It is called "F5."
buckeyesoprano 3 years ago
thanks for the correction and information
usgitmo38 3 years ago
man...and i'm a senior at the high school in tanner this year...we've had a few bad storms while i've been there, particularly around 2003-2004 or sometime around there. on my way to school one morning storms were around, and i could make out a funnel from the bus i was riding on...we got off the buses and into the halls immediately.
SirDanofSasser 3 years ago
your 13 states is correct but it wasn't 100 tornados, it was 148
5StarGeneralXeno 4 years ago
I lived through an F4 tornado that hit Hamden-New Haven Connecticut aht injured 40 people and destroyed 350 homes and 40 buisnesses.
fjeffrey10 4 years ago
I was 8 and in Huntsville. Where we lived there were tornadoes around us in any directing we could go. We sheltered in a church basement and I remember adults pointing out the window saying they saw a tornado and everyone praying, some crying, my mom freaking out. That day my fascination with storms began.
siszam 4 years ago
I was born on April 4, 1974. What a welcoming party, eh?
CyberianHusky74 5 years ago
Whoops sorry, 148 tornadoes that day. April 3 1974 is the "holy grail" to tornado chasers...the day that changed everything.
cleftronix 5 years ago 2
I remember that day very well, I was 11 years old, and in the basement, as I was about 40 miles from Xenia. Xenia got the press because it was an F-5 that hit the small city and ripped half of it away. There were 6 F-5's that day and 142 tornadoes in all. One in Indiana set a record for lasting 127 miles! Anyway, I'll be out in the flatlands this spring with my Sony!
cleftronix 5 years ago
There were 148 Tornadoes
snakes3425 5 years ago
That was an event I will never forget. I was only twelve, but that tornadic event is why I'm a storm spotter/ stormchaser today.
Pearly1961 5 years ago
I was only 6 years old at the time, as a matter of fact, my birthday is on the 4th. We live in Michigan at the time, but were down in Huntsville, Alabama to visit my grandmother. I remember the storm that day, and how bad it was. I also remember the damage in Louisville on our way back up to Michigan. I hope an outbreak like that never happens again in my lifetime.
BitterCycle 5 years ago
Great piece of History here. Thanks for posting this.
glocktoday 5 years ago
Very interesting. Xenia, Ohio got most of the press that day, but I've often wondered about Guin. I think it may have been even stronger than the Xenia storm.
ruleta74835 5 years ago
The Xenia tornado was an F5. They don't come much bigger than that. I was there and it was horrible.
fulcher33 5 years ago
it almost looks like the damage and destruction is worse than xenia in these photos.
jw870206 5 years ago
The Guin was also an F5
IceTide 5 years ago
i knew that. i was just comparing the damage between the 2 f5 tornadoes
jw870206 5 years ago