Tornados of 1974

In 1974 we were living on Enyart Road in Loveland Ohio. at that time Loveland was a small town about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati. There were no Interstate Expressways then and we had to travel on what was then called the Mill Creek expressway (Now part of I-75) until it dead ended in Springdale Ohio in front of the General Electric plant that makes Jet Engines. This road was constructed during World War ll to make it easier for workers to get to the "War" plant" as it was located "out in the country". After getting off the expressway in Springdale we would take Kemper road, a two lane Road, East about 10 miles until it dead ended into Loveland Maderia road, turn left and one mile down the road was "Loveland". There were actually two Loveland's and still are. Coming into Loveland you entered the newer part of town where the small shopping center and Becker Discount Drugs where I worked were located. You could cross the bridge and you would be in "Old Loveland" Where all the old time store fronts were located.

On April 3rd. 1974 I was at a meeting at The Becker Drug Company offices along with nine other managers and the owners in Avondale in the heart of the black community. I was always a little apprehensive about going there. Mr Becker owned several businesses on the corner of Woodburn Ave. and Chapel Street including a Drug Store, and a carryout. The carryout manager was the father of Mr. Beckers secretary. One morning as he was opening the store someone followed him into the store, made him open the safe and then shot him in the head, killing him instantly. This was always on my mind when I went there for a meeting, especially when the meeting was over and we had to go to our cars in the dimly lit parking lot late at night. I remember once when the race riots were going on and mobs were roaming the streets breaking out windows and looting stores and setting buildings on fire. Mr. Becker's store was not bothered as he knew everyone in the neighborhood plus he stood guard at the front door with a baseball bat and a shotgun to keep strangers moving who didn't know him.

During the meeting in the afternoon some one came into the office and told us there was a tornado WARNING! just issued for Hamilton County and it was spotted in Indiana headed East. It was decided to end the meeting so we could all get home before the storm. I remember as I drove North I kept an eye to the west as storm clouds became darker and darker as the wind picked up. And then I spotted it, A funnel in the distance, still pretty far away but it was without a doubt a Tornado. I wasn't sure if it had touched down or not as I sped up the car exceeding the speed limit in an effort to get home as fast as possible.



As I pulled into our driveway my wife Marlene and our 4 kids Cathy, Teresa, Diane, Georgie and our dog Banjo were all in the front yard looking at the ominous sky. They had been following the weather report on television. As the wind picked up I believe the Weather report warned us that the Tornado was headed in our direction. That was enough for us as we all headed for the basement of out split level house. I had aways heard that during a Tornado you should always go to the lowest place in the house which for us was our basement, I remember that if you didn't have one and some of the houses we lived in did not, you should try to get in a bathtub and cover yourself with a mattress or some other protective covering (How do you get 6 people into a bathtub?) . We had a good basement with cinder block walls but in an effort to be even safer we turned the couch over to form a tent and the kids got under it. I remained upstairs keeping an eye on what was going on outside. I opened the front door to an eerie scene outside as the sky became a yellowish orange and the air was suddenly completely still. It was completely devoid of sound and not even a leaf fluttered on the trees. It was as if we were caught in a warp where time and movement ceased. That environment did not last long as the wind started to pick up. The wind was howling and it was raining so hard in a horizontal direction that I could not see the car in the driveway. It continued to get stronger as Marlene and I joined the kids in the basement. I'm sure most of you have heard that when a Tornado passes close by it sounds like a freight train. I have only been in two actual Tornado's, this one and one in Owensboro, KY. where I had gone to find a house for us to live in as I had accepted a job at a discount store located there. I was in a motel when the Tornado passed just a few hundred feet from me and leveled a concrete movie screen at a drive in movie theater within sight of my front window.


It did roar like you would imagine a freight train would sound passing close by. The frightening thing was wondering if it would come crashing over you or pass on by. In both cares I was spared with no damage to me or property. the storm probably took only five minutes to pass by and when we went outside thankful we had suffered no damage or injuries except for the tree in our backyard that suffered a split between the two branches that formed a Y from the main trunk. We later wired these together with cable and the last I heard it was still there. Everywhere you looked twigs and leaves covered the ground.

After the storm passed it headed north towards Dayton Ohio and then veered towards Xenia, Ohio. It's strength increased to an F5 category. It tore right through the heart of town causing catastrophic damage and loss of life. This storm was part of a system that produced a record number of tornado's that day known as Super Outbreak. 148 Tornado's with 34 people killed. The next day we took a sightseeing trip around the Montgomery area and Fields Ertle Road which was not too far away. There were a lot of trees and telephone poles down and a few business's had lost their roofs. That day we gave thanks that like the biblical passover the night of the Tenth Plague, when the Angel of Death saw the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of the houses of Israel and "skipped over" them. Although we weren't Jewish and there was no blood on our door we did have a Red door.