CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
1 edit | 35 years ago today. Gil Whitney - a weatherman from WHIO TV - tracked a F5 tornado just before it destroyed a large part of Xenia, Ohio downtown... Gil had one of the first weather radars in the country at channel 7, WHIO in Dayton and used the radar to show the now classic hook signature on the radar. It was part of the super outbreak that day - 130+ tornadoes across 13 states. I remember hearing a video of nails being pulled out of the wood from the side of a house.
»www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exh···nado.htm
»www.xeniatornado.com/
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain | |
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yock
TFTC
Premium
join:2000-11-21
Fairfield, OH
| Re: 35 years ago today. My fiancee's parents live in Bellbrook, which is down in a valley on the Eastern border of Centerville. That's interesting because they're in a dip in the landscape quasi-between Dayton and Xenia, just a bit to the south. They tell me it's eerie to watch all of the storms go overhead and later hear about the damage they did to Xenia. It has happened more than once since they moved here around 20 years ago. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Re: 35 years ago today. My father lives in Spring Valley just down the street from Bellbrook... | |
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Jtmo
Premium
join:2001-05-20
Novato, CA | Had a double F5 touch down in 1985, then it tried to go over and get Pacrat. | |
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Pacrat
Old and Cranky
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-10
Cortland, OH
 ·RoadRunner Cable
2 edits | Re: 35 years ago today. I witnessed that one. Closest I've ever been to a tornado... and never want to be that close again. My wife and daughter and I were heading for a local eatery near the Eastwood Mall. Was driving south and became enveloped in a sudden monster hail storm. Parked under an overpass(along with about a dozen other cars) and waited it out. Sun came out and we proceded to continue southward. As we were driving down the road, my wife looked up and made a comment, "Look at all those birds!!!". Birds, my ass, that was debris whirling in front of us. The opportunity arose to make a right turn and I made it. I know the path of a tornado can be very erratic, but they rarely reverse themselves, so I made the turn to get behind it. The devastation was something else. I figure I was about half a mile from it when we first saw it. I never want to be that close again. To this day, hail makes me very nervous.
My oldest daughter was attending Youngstown State Univ. and had to drive down Rte.11 to get to school. She was all excited when she got home from school the following week... where the tornado crossed the road (on both sides) it looked a like a fleet of D-9 Cats had just bull-dozed the ground bare. There was a distinct lane through the trees. Almost as if someone had a cut a fire lane through the trees.
Even though we are about 7 miles from where that storm passed, we were without power for several days. The storm took out a main power sub-station in Niles. Nope... not an experience I care to repeat in my lifetime.
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I was born at night... but not last night! | |
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Jtmo
Premium
join:2001-05-20
Novato, CA
·Comcast
| The house I took a sledgehammer to the second floor floor, to get to the first floor bedroom, to get to the pictures under the bed.
Every stand on a house that shifts and could collapse at any moment? | |
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Pacrat
Old and Cranky
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-10
Cortland, OH | Re: 35 years ago today. Newton Falls? | |
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Jtmo
Premium
join:2001-05-20
Novato, CA
·Comcast
| Re: 35 years ago today. said by Pacrat  :Newton Falls? Yes, that sucker came down just outside of town and stayed down for 40 miles, making you hide under that overpass. | |
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Pacrat
Old and Cranky
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-10
Cortland, OH | Re: 35 years ago today. That overpass was at new rte.82 and 46... just south of Howland Corners!
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I was born at night... but not last night! | |
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RonS
Madm0nke
Premium
join:2000-06-19
Dayton, OH
| I was 9 at the time and I still remember that day and the events after wards. My father was a Firefighter/EMT for the Fairborn Fire Dept. He was transporting someone to Green Memorial Hospital and driving as fast as he could because he could see the tornado behind him. My mother and Father both volunteered in Xenia over the next couple of days helping rescue crews. Because of this I got to go into town two days after it happened and got to witness the total destruction. I know my father has some pictures of it someplace.
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You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. | |
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mlbSAE
join:2000-08-01
Dayton, OH
 ·DONet
| My dad worked for the Post Office in downtown Xenia. He was coming in to town from the Dayton side (west) and saw the storm come together (he actually saw multiple funnel clouds combine behind him). He was stuck waiting on a train to cross 35, and after that was done he floored it all the way in to town and got into the basement of the post office (one of the few buildings that made it through the tornado in downtown Xenia). The train he was stuck waiting to cross the road was thrown off the tracks when the tornado hit town. The pictures he has are incredible... | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| Re: 35 years ago today. I want to say I heard that it was a combination of like 3-4 funnel clouds for that tornado.
We drove into Xenia a few days later (maybe a week) as we did a lot of business via the Sears and the Wards catalog stores (and Roberts Old's)....
Looked like a scene from WW2 to my 7 or 8 year old eyes. | |
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join:2000-08-01
Dayton, OH | Re: 35 years ago today. It was 3 funnel clouds from what I remember. Of course, I was not born yet when it happened. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Re: 35 years ago today. A young'n....  | |
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join:2000-08-01
Dayton, OH
·DONet
| Re: 35 years ago today. said by CylonRed :A young'n.... Not to make you feel old... but I'm 30 and was not alive for it. | |
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