That Day Of 146 Tornadoes...

In 1974 a very astounding rare weather event unleashing one hundred forty-six tornadoes in less than twenty-four hours happened one horrific spring day many of us here will never forget.

I was especially reminded of this quite recently, as 

a very powerful storm system unleashed tornado warnings as the shrill tornado sirens were blaring while I hunkered down in my bathtub waiting.🥺

On 3 April 1974, an extraordinary, very powerful weather phenomena rapidly unfolded forecasters had never seen before, or since.  Three volatile weather systems were about to collide.  

Right over Kentucky.😱

Before the National Weather Service could issue the first tornado warning they began touching down.  The first hit near 3pm and continued one after another, AFTER ANOTHER all through the night.  

A horrific total of 146 tornadoes touched down in Kentucky and six other states, with the majority of them in Kentucky.  There were five Category 5 tornadoes, which are the most deadly and destructive ones imaginable.

The first tornado was a Category 5, which plowed into the small town of Brandenburg, Kentucky, wiping it off the map.  The other two Category 5 tornadoes plowed into Louisville, where I was living then, and the small town of Stamping Ground, Kentucky, wiping Stamping Ground off the map too.  Very few of the tornadoes touching down during that terrible night, were lower than Category 3, which is considered to be extremely dangerous.🥴

In an earlier blog I told about my friend Ella, who owned the florist and gift shop where I worked as I finished high school.  This was also where my artwork was being sold too.  We heard on the radio when the tornado that hit Louisville began its path of destruction in the southern corner of the county.  It was 4pm.  

Another thing about these tornadoes is they stayed on the ground a long time, which was very unusual and why they became even more destructive.  Louisville's tornado was on the ground approximately 25 minutes and traveled over 30 miles, crossing the Ohio River which tornadoes never do without weakening.  Not this one!  It kept going far into southern Indiana cutting a terrible swath of destruction before finally dissipating. 

Because it was near time for rush hour traffic to begin, Louisville had a police officer pilot who monitored traffic from a helicopter.  So due to his safe position he was able to give a non-stop broadcast where the tornado was hitting, and the horrific destruction he was seeing.

It hit Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, yet thankfully, spared the Twin Spires.  Still it took out empty horse barns, destroyed the landscaping, and did other significant damage.  Then the tornado completely destroyed Cherokee Park.  In one moment thousands of trees a hundred years old or more were gone.  It also destroyed the water plant which supplied all of Louisville's water.

Ella and I were in the north eastern part of the county, and had gone outside.  The massive tornado could clearly be seen slowly heading northeast.  At that point we were about ten miles from the tornado's path, yet could hear it's loud roar.  We saw debris swirling high up around it and the many sparks and fires from power lines and gas lines as it destroyed them.

We just stood there a moment quietly watching this thing...just totally transfixed.😱

"Holy shit, it...it is so HUGE!" I said, when I finally had words.  

Ella said, "I've never known one could be this... uh...so...so...big."

"I doubt anyone else has either."

Then it turned somewhat.  Our direction.

"Uh Ella, don't you think we should go to the basement?"

"Hell yes!  NOW!"😱

The roar was intense, the building violently shook, power lines snapped, windows broke, then it shifted, continuing on the same north eastward path it had been on sparing us further damage.  The power went out.  But thankfully we still had the radio.  And batteries.

By then the National Weather Service knew Kentucky was really in for it, and we were ordered to remain where we were if it was safe.  But suddenly "safe" seemed quite elusive in light of the many more tornadoes which kept touching down all around us.  Some in the same places already hit.

All through the night police, fire, and ambulance sirens kept blaring.  The National Weather Service had to keep blaring its alarm on the radio too, over and over as tornado after tornado struck.  They urgently had to keep repeating again and again, "Take cover NOW!  I repeat, TAKE COVER NOW!"  Even national radio programs broadcast during the night cancelled their regularly scheduled programs to focus instead on Kentucky.  

Obviously we, nor most of Kentucky slept.  

The tornadoes continued well into daylight the 

next morning.  Kentucky was forever changed.  Hundreds were killed.  Thousands lost everything.  Schools, everything closed.  Those of us who lived through it were forever changed.

Two tornadoes hit close to the farm where I boarded Selah.  Thankfully the horses were fine.  Just part of the barn roof was gone.  However, it was days before I could even get out there because so many roads remained impassable due to fallen trees and power lines.  

Louisville was a horrible mess, with so much major destruction.  Video was taken the next day from a helicopter showing the whole path the tornado took.  It was astounding.  The path made by the tornado was not only very long but a few miles wide too.

It was the same in Brandenburg and Stamping Ground where the two other Category 5 tornadoes struck.  Not even counting all the other tornadoes that hit Kentucky and beyond.  The little town of Xenia, Ohio, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky was also hit by one of the Category 5 tornadoes.  It too, was wiped off the map with a large loss of life.

As in all situations like this good comes shining forth.  Since this tragedy struck only three weeks before The Kentucky Derby, there was talk of having to do the unthinkable...cancelling it.  Though the famous tulips were all gone, it was the other severe damage at the track everyone was concerned about and the daunting task of repairing it in time.  Then a very amazing thing happened.  A plane from the Netherlands arrived in Louisville loaded with tulips.  So dear.  And that settled it.  The Kentucky Derby would go on.

One very serious thing officials realized in the aftermath was how lacking a warning system we had for tornadoes.  Immediately, a change happened.  A huge one.  Even the other tornado alley states like Kentucky took notice of what was done and changed their warning systems based upon ours.  Hundreds of tall tornado sirens were installed throughout the whole state, so that no matter where anyone is in Kentucky, if a siren goes off, it is heard because there are so many of them strategically located from one end of the state to the other.  And they have saved lives many times since, including mine.  In addition, the state has always invested in the latest weather technology regardless of cost.   

Hopefully Kentucky will never experience another day like The Day Of 146 Tornadoes ever again.  And Adelaide too.