WHAS 1994 Tornado Special

WHAS News 1974 Tornado 20th Anniversary Special from March 31, 1994 with WHAS' Paul Miles and John Asher.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
It took the grass off of thebob wall, off the fence boast.
There was a lot of streets youcouldn't even go on because trees had fallen
and there was debris everywhere. Well, it's a spectacular site. The hull
clouds, very black, low clouds. I thought there would be hundreds of
people killed. There was no funnelin it didn't tell it. Doctor got

(00:28):
right to the airport. Then afunnel developed right in the parking lot of
neighborhoods on either side of the park. Just suffered massive devastation and went into
Indiana Hills and angled right on acrossthrough the ice seventy one and the waters
in the interchanged. I kind ofprave Lord. I don't know why I
was spared, and so many peopleweren't, but thank you. It was
just a complete disaster, exactly unbelievable. Chicken Little was right, so read

(00:54):
the sign tacked to the door ofa battered brick home, and Jefferson got
He's rolling Field subdivision. There wereno doubters or disbelievers as in the children's
tales. The evidence was everywhere,and it was staggering. April third,
nineteen seventy four, a date thatbrings an instant nod of recognition from tens
of thousands of people in Kentucky,Indiana, the Midwest, and the South.

(01:15):
On that day, more tornadoes dippedfrom the angry early spring sky than
on any other day in recorded weatherhistory. By the time nature's rampage ended,
destruction and debris stretched from Alabama toOntario, and a deadly onslaught that
started in early afternoon and lasted untiljust before the next daybreak. And when
first light arrived on April fourth,many in Kentucky and Indiana were faced with

(01:40):
the undeniable evidence that some of nature'sangriest blows on the previous day had been
directed at them all right. Lookingat sports this afternoon tonight, game number
two in the Kentucky Carolina ABA firstround playoffs rush was building toward its peak.
Wednesday, April third, Listeners tuneto WHAS Radio for this jockey Jeff

(02:06):
Douglas's usual mix of music in theafternoon pattern. But the afternoon broadcast had
also been interspersed with the shrill tonesthat precedes severe weather watches and warnings.
As for thirty approach, there wasan increasing urgency in those advisors thick cloles
west southwest of Brandenburg, close toMidway at Carnada near US Highway sixty.

(02:28):
Tornadoes had been reported earlier in theday in southern Indiana, and now there
was evidence that such storms were possiblehere. It had been eighteen nineties since
Louisville has last suffered major tornado damage. Seventy six people had died in that
storm, but since then there hadbeen little reason to get worked up about
the tornado threat, and for themost part, Louisville went on about its

(02:50):
business that afternoon, at least untilit was forced to do otherwise. Chuck
Paddock whas News County police report atornado sighted at Terry in Greenwood, in
the southwest section of Jefferson County.Dick Gilbert's, a retired Air Force pilot
now tracking traffic in a normally peacefulsky for whas radio looked from the cockpit

(03:12):
of his helifactor down on highways filledwith the reflection of headlights glistening on wet
pavement, and he cast a glanceto the darkening southwest sky. I don't
actually physically see any tornado activity atthe moment, but it does look highly
suspicious down there. Beha. Asthe blackting clouds rolled towards the northeast.
Meteorologists in charge John Burke, wasat his desk and the offices of the

(03:32):
National Weather Service at Stanford Field Airport. He was on the phone with WAHAS
Radio and a conversation that was beingaired live. It was four thirty five
winds up the good, gracious fake. So how high is the wind speed
at this tires? Fifty right there? My gollyea, the whole fame going
here. I'm gone good. Theforecasters saw the telltale funnel descending as the

(03:57):
inky black swirl of clouds approached theairport. The cloud met the ground of
the Kentucky State Fairgrounds, sending Debreeddancing into the air. The storm's northeast
march through Louisville and Jefferson County wasunderway. It's four forty. Bob Johnson
has joined us bomb jeff The citypolice say that a tornado is moving across
the southern part of the city.From the Fairgrounds, the tornado rolled across

(04:19):
Interstate sixty five, flipping several vehicleson their tops, then had brushed Ontovan
Park, downing trees power lines beforeheading across Popular Level Road. Much of
Stephens Avenue was demolished as the stormcareen through the highlands. In an instant
Bartstown Road was a massive tangled utilitypoles, wires debreathed, and the storm
descended upon the stately forest that wasCherokee Park. Cherokee Park received its inconceivable

(04:46):
two thousand mature trees eighty years oldin that range, and so there they're
gone. Louisville aldeman and local historianTom Owen remembers how the tornado of seventy
four saw Cherokee Park as a pointto unleash some of its worst fury.
The twister seemed to gain strength asit moved across Bargestown Road, and when

(05:06):
it passed the Daniel Boone statue atEastern Parkway, it muscled its way into
the elegant, green forested landscape.Just unbelievable, just to like taking a
giant, cosmic lawnmower and mowing themdown and splintering. What was so unusual
about this storm was the fact thatit did not skip across the landscape like

(05:28):
many other tornadoes are known to do. Instead, this twister stayed on the
ground. It rolled up and downthe hills trying to touch every piece of
earth it could reach. It wouldhave been from Daniel Boone Statue at the
head of Eastern Parkway literally all theway over to Cochrane Tunnel and beyond.
So that is a pretty broad swathe, perhaps a little less than a mile

(05:50):
wide, but it's a gigantic pieceof real estate. Neighborhoods on either side
of the park felt the winds aswell. In Bonnie Castle, power line
littered the streets and Crescent Hill turnedThe Century homes were turned into rubble.
The water company's pumping station knocked out, and those neighborhoods. Neighborhoods on either
side of the park just suffered massivedevastation. After blasting the water company plant,

(06:14):
the tornado rumbled across the Crescent Hillgolf course and took dead aim on
the new homes in pricey subdivisions ineastern Jefferson County, Rolling Fields, Northfield,
Indian Hills. Some of Louisville's mostexpensive homes were reduced to rubble and
splinters, or simply swept off oftheir foundations. The power transformers have been
flowing irregularly in the path of thisthing. Big large explosions of blue white

(06:39):
light that helped crock it pretty well. Third nineteen seventy four began as just
another afternoon for the Whas traffic trackers. But what was different about this day
were the dark clouds that hovered overthe city as Dick Gilbert flew overhead at
five hundred feet ahead of him.A deadly storm, and it was packing
a punch that even Gilbert couldn't believe. It looks like a smoke underneath it.

(07:01):
There is no real, tight,definitive tornado as such. It's still
turning it alarm, Yes, there'sone now started, yes, dipping down
from the bottom of the cloud addup until the time and I got around
behind it and actually threw over thefair grounds. I still did not think
it was a quote tornado unquote.It was a violent windstorm perhaps, but

(07:25):
not a tornado. Dig Gilbert gothis first real glimpse of the tornado as
it slammed into the fairgrounds, butbecause the tornado was so big, he
couldn't actually see the damage until itcrossed over the interstate. Now, the
wind damage hit the roof of FreedomHall and it tore three big holes in
the roof. Then it moved overon the eastern end of the building and

(07:46):
ripped off about a third of theroof. Here the horse barns are no
more. It totally wiped out thehorse barns, all of the mobile homes,
and as the tornado cut across Interstatesixty five, it toppled cars onto
their roofs and then ham At AutobonPark, Dick Gilbert began a chase that
would last nearly fifteen minutes and takehim more than twelve miles across town,

(08:07):
neighborhood after neighborhood, leaving a pathof destruction. It went between Barrett Junior
High School and the Baptist Seminary.It hit Stilts, Frankfort, Pennsylvania Hillcrest,
the Preston Hill Golf Club, itwent into Indiana Hills. Obviously,
it wasn't rehearsed or written down oranything else. It was strictly off the
cuff the whole bit here. Gilbert'sreports are one of the most memorable sounds

(08:30):
of that day in nineteen seventy four. For many people who were in the
path of that tornado, his voicewas their only source of warning and comfort.
But looking back, Dick Gilbert remembersfollowing the storm to its end and
then flying home just another day onthe job. Or a veteran pilot,
he wouldn't realize the impact until thenext day at the office. Awaiting him
were phone calls and letters, includingone from the White House. I mean,

(08:54):
I've never somebody tried to make ahero out of me about this thing,
and I never considered it that Ihave to dodge thunderstorms anytime they come
through. Suburban hospital here in Louisvillereports that at least twenty five persons have
been received for treatment of injuries.The water supply in Louisville is critical at

(09:15):
this time. We have at besteight hours supply. We have been asked
to urge all members of Headquarters Battaliontwenty third Artillery Corps to report to the
Fairground's armory immediately or police send Louisvilleand Jefferson County moved quickly to cordon off
the storm damaged areas, but thesearch for victims would be complicated by the
rapidly approaching darkness. When County PoliceChief Russell McDaniel got his first look at

(09:37):
the devastation from a helicopter, hewas stunned. I thought there would be
hundreds of people killed. Safety concernsprompted McDaniel to close off those damaged cities
and suspend the search for victims untildawn. I kept thinking at the morning
when they were come and we couldget in and we could see, when
the heavy equipment finally moved in andthe rubble was moved away, the news

(10:01):
was good. The death toll wasamazingly low. Two were killed in the
storm, three had died from heartattacks. Jack Devon, who was a
still new Louisville police chief on thatday and now serves as director of the
city's Disaster and Emergency Services, saysthat in a way, Louisville was very
lucky. When you look at thetrack of the tornado took across the city,
it couldn't have crossed many more openareas than what it crossed between Cherokee

(10:26):
Park and the area there between populLevel and Newburgh Road where the hospital is
now and the water company property.If that track had been half mile in
either direction from the track of tug, we would have had twice the destruction
of home to the property because itwould have been going through populated areas instead
of going through Broadway open area.Elect Cherokee Park. If things like that

(10:50):
so it was as bad as itwas, it certainly could have been considered
the words, And in the hoursthat followed the Louisville storm, reports from
Anotherentucky city proved just how fortunate Kentuckyand I had been. Dark ominous clouds
gathered to the southwest of the MeadCounty city of Brandenburg. It was close
to four o'clock in the Ohio Rivertown of seventeen hundred and Monk. Ross

(11:11):
had joined the county school superintendent tolook at a drainage problem on the proposed
site of a new football field atthe county High School. His companion cast
a wary glance to the approaching darknessand suggested they take shelter. Ross,
who had been mayor for three monthsand four days, had been elected on
a pledge that he would clean upBrandenburg. That job was about to become

(11:31):
more enormous than anyone could have imagined. About that time, we looked over
to our right from where we werestanding, and we saw Dowden's dairy barn
go in the air. Then wesaw the Ari station building go in the
air. The angry swirling cloud hadalready battered Irvington to the west and was

(11:54):
now smashing homes on the north endof Brandenburg. Beautiful old homes on the
city's west hill were simply swam away. Cars were tossed about like toys,
and towering old trees were stripped andsnapped like toothpicks. Reverend Billy Markham knew
nothing of the on rushing horror ashe prepared to take a bath after mowing
the lawn of his parsonage. Thatplan was interrupted by a phone call from
his wife, who insisted that hepick her up from work. I headed

(12:16):
out to get her. I lefthouse at four oh five, and it
blew away four away. The stormcontinued its rampage toward the river, the
hilly terrain providing no obstacle. Thetornado simply hugged the hillsides, dipping down
to batter The main street business districtand the county courthouse, which had looked
out on the Ohio River as anold friend for a century, was obliterated

(12:37):
in seconds. It looked like thatyou were up in the air in an
iron lane as high as you couldsee, and you had spread out a
piece of black plastic a half amile wide and you were just dragging that
piece of black plastic to the monkRoss like a big black piece of plastic,

(13:03):
dragging on the breath taking it tookthe grass off of that bob war
off the fence, folks. Thecries of the injured greeted Ross and others
as they arrived in the battered sectionof the city. Carl Wells, now
Brandenburg's mayor, but then working atthe nearby Olin chemical plant, rushed to
the scene and realized that casualties wouldbe high. It was just a complete

(13:24):
disaster. It was just practice unbelievable. Meanwhile, Billy Markham and his wife
were on their way back home,finding their path blocked by rubble and debris.
His venerable old church was gone,so was his parsonage. The tub
he was seconds away from stepping intowhen his wife had called him away was
filled with concrete, auto tires,wood and other debris. I kind of

(13:46):
prayed, Lord. I don't knowwhy I was spared, and so many
people weren't, but thank you Lord, didn't help me try to make a
better uSell in my life that sinceshe spared me for some purpose. Evidently,
throughout the long night, the searchfor victims and survivors continued. Event
there were thirty one bodies and themakeshift Morgan and the old high school.
Twenty four were from Brandenburg itself.Survivors credit quick medical help from nearby Fort

(14:09):
Knox for keeping that toll from risingeven higher. The youngest victim was three
months old, the oldest ninety three. A mother and her three young sons
were among the dead. There werecousins, brothers, sisters, mothers,
fathers, grandparents, friends. Itseemed that everyone in Mead County suffered a
loss well beyond what the winds hadunder their homes and property. A proportionate

(14:30):
loss of life in the Louisville tornadowould have left nearly five thousand dead.
Monk Ross had served in two foreignwars, but nothing in that experience had
prepared him for this day in hishometown. When you pick up a little
boy five years old, you getto the clinic door with him and he
draws his life bread, then you'renot prepared for that. Before the merciless

(14:50):
barrage of Kentucky tornado, southern Indianahad already been hit. A twister touched
down at DePaul and continued on throughPalmyra Martinsburg and Borden. Three fifty one,
the same storm was hitting top strengthas it came calling on Hanover and
Madison. We heard on the scannerthat the a there was a tornado heading
tarred Hanover, and we immediately wentto the door and looked, and all

(15:16):
we could see was all these rollingfunnel clouds going over. Catherine Cassler,
now executive director of the Jefferson CountyIndiana Red Cross, was a volunteer on
that day. The storm reduced thehuge Clifty Creek power plant on the Ohio
River into a massive tangle steel andwires, leaving Madison without electricity, but
it managed to avoid historic downtown Madison, instead taking aim on the residences high

(15:37):
on a hill that overlooked downtown andthe river. Oh it was just as
shambles. There was a lot ofstreets you couldn't even go on because trees
had fallen and there was debris everywhere, and there was just no way and
there was almost no way of evendetermining where you was at. The twister

(15:58):
had already blasted Hanover, caught usingten million dollars damage through the historic tree
line Hanover College campus. It sparedserious injuries there before leveling a lethal blow
to the city of Hanover itself.Seven people died in Madison, two and
Hanover. That tornado finally blew itselfout near Cincinnati. It had been on
the ground for nearly two hours throughsouthern Indiana, northern Kentucky, and Ohio,

(16:19):
leaving a path of destruction that stretchedfor one hundred twenty miles. Forecasters
now referred to the tornadoes of Aprilthird, nineteen seventy four as the Super
Outbreak. Nearly one hundred and fiftytornadoes that day took more than three hundred
lives in Kentucky and southern Indiana.Twenty tornadoes were reported, and there may
have been more. Those storms lefteighty five dead and nearly one thousand injured.

(16:45):
Visitors to the Hanover College campus couldnot guess that a tornado raged across
its grounds twenty years ago. FrankBaker, now a retired journalism professor and
campus historian, was confident of thatcomeback. As he looked through the lens
of his camera and the moments followingthe storm, treeThe that has identified the
campus right in front of the President'sjust taken down, and as I looked

(17:08):
at them. I saw tulips comeup, and there were three clusters of
tulips that were blooming, which sortof said to us, well, we'll
make it an Ohio River tow andits barches flowed gently past Brandenburg on a
breezy spring day, past the stillempty lot where the courthouse once stood.

(17:29):
The main street business district still looks, as one writer said, like the
mouth of an old codger, filledwith gaps where teeth had once been.
But the west Hill is now filledagain with homes, and much of the
day breeze scattered on April third,now rests in a downtown landfill. The

(17:52):
demolished parish Memorial Baptist Church was revivedin nineteen seventy five as the first Baptist
church, and twenty years later BillyMarkham stand in the pulpit every Sunday.
Over those decades, he has watchedthe town fight back and rebuild and wrestle
with questions of faith that arose inthe aftermath of numbing tragedy. Markham peels
his neighbors showed incredible strength and character, and the community that lost so many
family members may have survived because ofits family time. I had occasion to

(18:17):
study through from the census, andI found that in Mead County there was
a larger percentage of the families wherethe whole family was still together than it
maybe with one other county in thestate. In front of the new Mead
County Courthouse stands a monument, acolumn reaching into the spring sky. On
that monument is a plaque containing thenames of thirty one friends and family members

(18:38):
killed in the tornado. So thetown will not forget as if it could.
Monk Ross just retired after twenty yearsas mayor and county judge. Kept
his promise. The city is cleanagain, and two decades later, now
the day goes by that Ross isnot reminded of what happened in Brandenburg on
April third, nineteen seventy four.Was most devastating thing I ever witnessed in

(19:02):
my life. Seeing the little kidsthat you knew and watched them playing and
lose their life, and the motherand the daughters and the babies, and
it was just it was unreal.I hope I never see another one.
I'm Paul Myles, I'm John AsherNews, Ready ready for w a chance m HM