By Lily
I was 11 years old when the Super Outbreak of tornadoes began on April 3, 1974. My father and brother stood near our sliding glass doors with their eyes focused on the sky. I remember the clouds being so low, that I could have touched them from our small hill in the backyard. On that day and through the next, 148 tornadoes ripped through thirteen states and Winston, Ontario. Towns were devastated and 330 people lost their lives.
The Super Outbreak canceled out any recall I had of previous severe storms. We had never seen anything like it and I wondered if future tornadoes would always be like that. I live where tornadoes are common and have had too many close experiences. I have huddled in the showers of a state park while we listened to the trees falling outside. During another tornado warning, I remember sitting in the basement listening to the hail while the storm was all around us. After a stupendous burst of thunder that kept shaking the floor and was never going to stop, I heard my former husband telling me to sit back down. Apparently, I was going somewhere, but I have no idea where. I did the same thing when lightning hit a tree close to the camper on yet another eventful camping trip. It’s the continuous pounding rain or hail that gets to me. It’s so loud, it’s all you can hear.
Some of the people just keep on doing what they’re doing unless the tornado is in sight. It was three years ago, when everyone in my building grabbed their kids and pets to head to the basement. That time, I was really sure that the tornado was going to take the whole house. Luckily, it passed right over.
If I had to pick, I’d say severe storms are my preferred natural disaster. With modern technology, there is usually ample warning to take shelter. Earthquakes occur without warning and running to the basement isn’t a fix. I never want to feel the ground moving around under my feet. While there is flooding where I live, I have been fortunate to have never lived in those areas. The strength of rushing water never ceases to amaze me. Hurricanes are also foreign to me. I can’t even imagine sitting out a storm that long. Listening to the wind for that duration would make me crazy.
What about you? Does one terrify you more than the other? What have you survived?
Loading ...
Comments
7 Responses to April 3, 1974
Having grown up living in an area that also can get some real nasty storms including tornadoes I can share some of the same feelings about storms. The Super Outbreak must have been quite frightening for you as an 11 year old. I don’t think you ever forget those type of storms and I guess we should not.
I still remember a small tornado like wind taking out a plum tree that was in our back yard and depositing it in our front yard without damaging our house. It was amazing that we did not get hurt. As a child we spent many of storms down in the basement. Our very small town had a tornado siren and I remember it going off quite a few times.
Back in the 80s, Barnveld, Wisconsin had 80% of the homes destroyed in a tornado. I remember coming home a week or so after that and driving through that town on my way to my parent’s home and just stopping and looking around in disbelief. So many lives were changed in the course of a few minutes.
A year or so ago my husband and I watched a series on Planet Green on a town in Kansas named Greensburg. It was pretty much destroyed by a massive EF5 tornado, one of the largest to touch down in United States history this series followed the citizens as they rebuilt their town with many of the structures meeting LEED platinum requirements. I really enjoyed this series and it is worth the watch. There were four one hour episodes that aired this year in May and I still need to watch those.
The only natural disaster I’m familiar with are earthquakes, and so I would say that would be the one I’m most comfortable with. Yeah, there is no warning, but in a way that decreases the anxiety – I would hate to have to deal with tornado warnings all the time!
I was in San Francisco for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It was a surreal experience, for sure. I remember vividly waiting in line for a pay phone at the Transbay Terminal (I wanted to call my family to let them know I was okay, especially since I didn’t know when I’d get back to the East Bay, as the Bay Bridge had collapsed). The lobby there was packed when an aftershock hit. There was a visceral sense of panic – like hundreds of people were thinking of bolting for the exits at once. It was this indescribable feeling – one I haven’t experienced since then. Since I waited around for hours in the hopes that BART would open, I didn’t actually get home until about seven hours after the earthquake hit – I finally caught a bus that went over the Golden Gate Bridge and then the Richmond-San Rafael bridge to get to the East Bay.
I have kind of a dread of floods. First of all, I’m afraid of drowning. Second of all, there’s something about the destructiveness of floods that I find upsetting. A fire at least obliterates everything – a flood leaves all your stuff there but ruined. I don’t know, it disturbs me.
I live in earthquake country also and have experienced quite a few good shakes over the past 30 years but the one that did the most damage and was the most costly in terms of loss of life and structural damage was the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This one is also in our “back yard” so to speak.
Jennie, you were pretty young back in 1989. That must have been somewhat scary for you. It must also be something that crosses your mind now and then when you cross over some of your bridges up in that area. I know it would cross my mind.
It happened around 4 am in the morning and it was a jolt and shake I will never forget. It also was my husband’s 40th birthday. What a present.
We sustained about $40,000 to our house. At the time I was working both for the school district and at a hospital on weekends and holidays. Our school district closed down for over a week and many of our schools were closed for the remainder of the school year and a few had to be rebuilt. The hospital I worked at closed down for over a year because it had major structural damage. You could see the floor below you on some of the floors and wings.
We had also just adopted a stray little puppy we named Millie and she was in the process of being house trained. Since Southern California’s weather is so beautiful we had her sleeping in a dog house on our back patio. When the quake hit, it emptied a good portion of our pool water out and it flooded our patio and poor Millie was no where to be found. We looked all over for her in the dark with flashlights and finally found her hiding behind and under our pool filter/heater. She was just shaking. From that point on she slept in the house on a nice big fluffy bed next to our bed every night.
Great piece, Lily!
Pam, I am on the other side of the state, but of course, Northridge was huge news here too.
It was your husband’s 40th birthday? And you sustained $40,000 dollars damage to your house?! I know that things did not get back to “normal” for many for quite a while after that quake.
Poor Millie! I am glad you kept her close after that.
All I have ever experienced is earthquakes. We have dealt with fires too, of course, but never close enough to us that I felt really in danger.
I can’t even really conceptualize what a tornado or hurricane would feel like.
Pam, your point about the bridges – it is something I think about from time to time. I am kind of anxious person anyway, so I don’t love bridges to begin with. I love the fact that it has been more than 20 years and the work to make the Bay Bridge safer is still not complete. Meanwhile the tolls have gone from $1 to $6. Gotta love California!
All I have ever experienced is earthquakes~Anya
“All”? Oh, I can’t imagine. It’s all so frightening. When playing “where I want to live”, I always end up as somewhere in CA being the perfect place except for the earthquakes. Pam, that’s so terrifying. But what a sweet story about Millie.
All tornadoes scare me, but it’s those “mile-wide” ones that make my blood run cold. The “hit and skip” factor isn’t as relevant in those.
There was a lot information that was gathered on storms after the Super Outbreak. Some towns installed warning systems and scientists studied the paths to dispel some tornado myths. One was that big cities were safe from tornadoes. Louisville, KY was hit hard in this storm. I also remember that we were told to open our windows. That was mis-information too. I am fascinated by the strength of nature. I try to catch Storm Stories on TWC now and then.
I’m kinda scared of all Natural Disasters. I’ve been in a few Hurricanes and I’ve been in two small earthquakes but nothing to leave lastest effects. I’m kinda scared of Yellowstone National Park saying it could be the next super Volcano. Okay, I’m freaking myself out here!! All you can really do is be prepared with an emergency kit and hope for the best!!
We have “modified” natural disasters here: big snowstorms that shut down the interstate, the “remains” of hurricanes that batted the Atlantic coastlines, smallish tornadoes, moderate hailstones. I have never had to take cover anywhere. We’ve had lots of the damage with little of the spectacle.