50 years ago (April 3, 1974)

Climate Change

I will try to add some more stuff to this thread later, but I would encourage everyone to read about the Guin, Alabama tornado on the night of April 3rd. Guin is a small, rural town in northwest Alabama. I believe this tornado was one of the most violent to ever occur in the United States since we started keeping records on tornadoes.

Here is an interview James Spann did with former National Weather Service Birmingham meteorologist J.B. Elliott who surveyed the damage in Guin. The video is about the outbreak as a whole, but they spend a good bit of time on the Guin tornado.

YouTube

That map is insane!

Back last year I spent more money than I want to admit on a little book about the recovery effort in north Alabama. It follows the organized efforts of Amish and Mennonite volunteers from OH, PA, MI, etc. who came south by the busloads to help in the cleanup and rebuilding. They were under the direction of the Red Cross and Mennonite Disaster Service. Men, women, and children all came down to help. This book recounts their efforts, but also tells the stories of the people impacted that day.







I like that they had the same issue a lot of folks have today......they had no idea all the small towns on the map and how to pronounce them, or really even what they were called. "Chalybeate School at Springs, Alabama" would have likely been the the school in the town of Chalybeate Springs. There's no town around there called Springs. "Hillbore school house" was likely Hillsboro school. There was definitely a language barrier.....hahaha, or an accent issue.

Many of these same areas would come under fire in very similar fashion almost forty years later. Some of the same towns written about in this book would take considerable damage on April 27, 2011.

Before seeing this book mentioned by a friend, and then finding a copy for myself, I had no idea that the Mennonite community played such a role. It was interesting to read about.

James Spann has discussed a number of times his experience on the night of April 3, 1974. He was still 17 years old, but he did work with EMA’s operating a HAM radio. He was sent to a hospital in northwest Alabama that night where many of the Guin victims were taken so that he could transmit messages via HAM radio to larger cities like Tuscaloosa about what resources were needed up there. He says he saw things that night that a 17 year old shouldn’t have seen, but that it helped him when he became a meteorologist covering tornadoes like that.

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I had no idea that the Mennonite community played such a role.

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After Ida I saw Mennonites doing a lot of work down south of Houma. It was interesting seeing a crew of Mennonite women in long dresses up on a roof nailing shingles.

Spann is speaking tonight in Guin at a memorial.

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Outbrek of the Century: 1974 Super Outbreak

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Good link. But, the damn chick had her face talking into the camera too much.

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But, the damn chick had her face talking into the camera too much.

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I agree. She does really good work, but needs to take more of the voice over approach at times.

I grew up in Lexington, Ky. That was a long night, listening to the radio for updates. We were fortunate that our area wasn’t impacted.