XENIA (WCMH)-Monday marks the tragic anniversary of the tornado that leveled about a quarter of the city of Xenia on the afternoon of April 3, 1974, striking the city with deadly precision on a otherwise, bright, warm and humid early spring day.
The physical scars are mostly gone after 43 years, but the emotional ones linger for residents who either lived through the storm, or who grew up in the Greene County community, 60 miles southwest of Columbus.
In 1974, there was no such thing as Doppler weather radar at the local National Weather Service offices. The Cincinnati National Weather Service office advised the Dayton personnel of a dangerous cell with a strong “hook echo” indicative of strong rotation southwest of Xenia.
The widening funnel cloud (some witnesses saw at least two funnels merge) slammed into the southwest side of Xenia around 4:30 p.m., affecting one-third of the city. The storm destroyed more than 300 homes and damaged 2,100 more–about half of the homes and businesses in the city. The tornado continued northeast and struck the campus of Central State College in nearby Wilberforce, causing tens of millions of dollars in damages.
Film (8 mm) taken by a 16-year-old high school student revealed multiple vortices swirling menacingly around the parent funnel cloud as it plowed through Xenia. The storm tore through the heart of Xenia, leaving 33 dead and 1,300 others injured. A memorial was later constructed downtown with the names of the storm’s victims.
The half-mile-wide tornado ended its 32-mile path in southwestern Clark County, five miles west of South Charleston. The supercell spawned additional tornadoes in Clark/Madison and Franklin counties.
Total storm damages in modern dollars would be near $1.2 billion-the costliest tornado outbreak in Ohio history. The Xenia tornado was rated F5, with winds estimated near or in excess of 300 mph.
The Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974, in the Central U.S. brought at least 148 tornadoes that took 315 lives, with 335 total storm-related fatalities.
A dozen twisters touched down in Ohio during the afternoon hours of April 3, including a deadly F5 tornado that took several lives and injured 200 others in the Cincinnati area, tracking from Rising Sun, Indiana, to Sayler Park, Mack and near Dent along a 21-mile path. Another powerful F4 storm killed one person and hurt 30 people that struck Elmood Place and traveled 20 miles to north of Mason–the fifth consecutive violent tornado (F4/F5) late that day. An additional tornado death occurred at West Union, in Adams County.
