 It was a most unusual day, from the west, a cold front, riding in high on the jet stream. From the Gulf of Mexico, a low mass of moist, warm, unstable air heading northward. And when they collided, it became the day of the killer tornadoes. From early morning, the Weather Service warnings were out. From the Gulf to the Canadian border. Tornadoes are hitting Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, two in Illinois, two more in Indiana. Another sighted near Hardensburg, Kentucky, heading toward Brandenburg, a sleepy little river town 25 miles southwest of Louisville. At the radio station, just west of town, announcer Bill Byrne receives a telephone call, telling of its coming. The only warning, a last second shout, and in 30 seconds, 31 people will die. Louisville, upriver, an alarm sounds in the newsroom at W-H-A-S, the local emergency broadcast station. The severe thunderstorm warning has been changed to a tornado warning for Metro Louisville, Jefferson County, including Mead, Hartman, Bullitt County, St. We have a tornado reported on the ground in the Brandenburg vicinity, and it's headed toward Louisville. We think the siren should be activated at the present time. OK, hit the yellow alert. Fremel touches down at the state fairground south of the city, then heads direct for downtown. 90 miles northeast at the Cincinnati airport. Attention all cars and departments and all county broadcast. Macaron, Cincinnati, Hamilton County Civil Defense. The national warning system alerts Leora Macaron, the county Civil Defense Director. Civil Defense to Weather Service, what is the location of the tornado? 13 miles southwest of greater Cincinnati airport, moving toward the northeast 50 miles per hour. OK, I'm going to sound the sirens. Is that a test? What's the matter with the sirens? Are they stuck? What do we have to do to get these damn sirens turned off? This is not a test. WCKY, the local emergency broadcast station. The National Weather Service says it has sighted a tornado near the greater Cincinnati airport. Here is the National Weather Service with the latest report. It is a funnel cloud. It looks to be a mis-touch in the ground. What is it doing now? Heading directly toward Hamilton County. Quickly, the emergency operating center is manned by Civil Defense and members of the Hamilton County Disaster Council. A huge funnel rips across the Ohio River, passes just west of Cincinnati, roars on through Hamilton County. Disaster. Lincoln Heights, will you clear on sending your fire and life squad companies to Elmwood? The storm front keeps marching north toward Dayton and the smaller city of Xenia, a dozen miles to the east. Jim, could you take care of this please? In the National Weather Service office at Dayton Airport. Hey, could you broadcast this in a hurry? Tornado warning is in effect for Montgomery and Green counties until 5 p.m. this evening. Radar report indicates a possible tornado sighted 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati. He's moving to the northeast at approximately 50 miles an hour. In the newsroom at station WHIO, weatherman Gil Whitney is watching his radar. This is what I think it is. We better do something about this here. Cameras to the studio. Cameras to the studio. Prepare for weather set. Prepare weather set. Here's a weather bulletin from WHIO's InstaWeatherRadar station. InstaWeatherRadar now shows a tornado developing in northeastern Warren County. At 50 miles, the tornado is indicated by that strong echo to the southeast corner of the center of the screen. That familiar six-hook now developing off the bottom of that tornado, that thunderstorm, rather. The track apparently is taking it from northeastern Warren County into southeastern Montgomery County into central Green County. At Miami Valley Disaster Services in Dayton, the director, Dick Burroughs, picks up the message. Central Police Department, Mrs. Link. This is Burroughs. Do you have a funnel sighted? Is it touching the ground? The storm is severe. Massive storm. The track indicated by the hook in our radar screen is now moving into the city of Xenia. Persons in the city of Xenia and along the track just south of it. Arrowhead, Xenia, central state should take cover immediately. Not many in Xenia hear his warning. One who doesn't is the engineer on a fast freight just pulling into Xenia Junction. We got one now and it's going down. The tornado hits Arrowhead Platte, a subdivision just south of Xenia. Then goes ripping and roaring toward the heart of the city. Tour into pieces. They're asking for fire equipment, police equipment and ambulances. Both City Hall and County Courthouse are wrecked and there is no emergency operating center equipped to deal with this kind of crisis. Bob Stewart and his staff find an undamaged office in the Green County Jail and go to work by flashlight. See if you can get with the Red Cross people about what kind of sources of water and food they're going to have. Okay, I'll get in touch with civil defense and the Red Cross. I'm Colonel Hartman from Red Pat. Colonel, good to see you. I'm here with a convoy of heavy equipment, about 120 men. Where do you want it? The biggest thing I want to get on right now is down on West Main Street, Bob. I've got four railroad cars across the street and I'd like to get that opened up soon. Nearly half of Xenia lies in ruins, but darkness hides the damage and rescue workers are moving through the night, searching for injured and bodies. At nightfall, a new wave of tornadoes start sweeping the south. In Alabama, they slice through Cuen, Jasper, Lafayette, heading north toward Huntsville. A hook echo indicating tornado activity is now located over in northern Lawrence County. The tornado is on the ground at Langtown, or 26 miles west of the city of Huntsville. In Huntsville, civil defense director Harris Mitchell already has the Emergency Operating Center on alert. Give it to Phillip Mather and plot it on the map. Mr. Wiseman, let me put the warning out again. Begin pouring into Huntsville Hospital. We need some help up here. We've had four different tornadoes to hit us and there's another one on the way. Can you send us up some blood by highway patrol? At 10.50, an enormous new tunnel directly toward Huntsville Hospital. A second twister has cut through the harvest area. The searchers find three victims, a mother and her two small children. Their bodies blown and tumbled a quarter mile through the muddy fields. A grieving father still alive, but with a broken back. Brandenburg, it looked like this in the morning. We had a tornado. That would be the understatement of the year. Oh my goodness, it just popped and cracked. It's like a hundred thousand tons of bomb. Xenia, miles of sheer destruction. I was in the Battle of St. Louis and the Battle of the Bulls in World War II and I never saw anything like this. We've found parts of the bodies here. We've found parts of all the bodies. We've got to go back to Huntsville for some more. It was just a big roar and I don't know. It was just terrible. It sounded like a big train whistle and we were right underneath the front of it. I've never seen anything like it and I don't want to again. This is what tornado winds can do. In less than 24 hours they counted 147 tornadoes and the damage is enormous. All in all, more than 600 million dollars, homes, businesses, stores, thousands of unsafe buildings to be searched, shuttered, marked off limits and disaster for the people who owned them. What can you do? We've lost everything that we had. Help will be needed. The presidents declared 10 states to be major disaster areas eligible for federal assistance in all its many forms. One stock disaster centers are set up to handle home, farm and small business loans, food stamps, shelter, trailers and other temporary housing and help is coming from every direction. Red Cross, Salvation Army, all the military services, Corps of Engineers, the National Guard to clean up and restore essential services. Rescue squads from hundreds of miles away, volunteers of every kind. What a mess. What a mess. Well, it'll all work out I guess. It's just too bad there's an awful loss there. My, these people, I feel so sorry for them. April 3rd, 1974. The day of the killer tornadoes. They killed 307 people in 11 states. In Brandenburg with no sirens, no weather wire, 31 death. In Xenia, 33. In Louisville, Cincinnati, Huntsville, the story was different. They had warning, planning, emergency operating centers. And Hamilton County around Cincinnati lost only four lives. Louisville 3, Huntsville, none at all. Was it just luck, coincidence? Well, quite possibly it was. The warning can save lives. And the people who lived through it will never forget. I just hope to God next time somebody lessons someone there as a tornado warning us. I know there will around here.