Survivor Stories Brandenburg, Kentucky

Note: this article is from the book "Since April 3rd" published by The Meade County Messenger and is used by permission.  If you use any photos or accounts in this article please give them credit.

Sees Vision of Father

I first saw the tornado at the RECC building, I tried not to alarm my two children, Cathy and Billy. I told them that was what a tornado would look like. It hit us just across the 4-way stop. It raised the school bus I was driving up on its rear wheels and carried it to the next curve.

I watched the thing and there was a vision of my father in it. He had his arms outstretched, as if holding it back for us to get through. He has been dead for seven years. That gave me faith enough to go on.

It was a terrible experience, but I can only feel gratitude that my family wasn’t injured in any way. We didn’t realize we had so many friends in Meade County, and we have lived here only five years. And we love this county. Eugene was on his way home from Louisville. He saw it but he wasn’t aware what it was, or that he didn’t have a home to come back to. c. We have another home and are trying to get things back to normal. Mrs. Ruth Hazelwood

Love and Concern

Dear Editor:
In these past weeks of crisis, we have been hearing so many statements, people expressing their appreciation to this one or that. Some say I just can’t believe wind could do so much damage. Well, I believe it but won’t ever understand it.

Those of us who walked out of the rubble almost have a guilty feeling and ask ourselves why we were spared.

The one thing that has impressed me the most is the love and concern for one another people have shown.

Sometimes we get to the place in our trials, we think no one cares, but the tornado proved that isn’t so. In just minutes after, the ones that were spared were out doing what they could.

There were many incidents we could mention but one-Charlie Foushee, was trying to get to his home to see about his family, took time to stop by Mary David McGehee’s where Connie and I were and helped me put Mary David on a mattress so she could be more comfortable until we could get out.

Then the ones at the Clinic were doing all they could for the ones being brought in there. At the same time tears were running down their cheeks as they wondered if their families were gone.

The same love and concern was in Madison, Ind., where my son, C. W. lost his home. He said people came in helping him he never saw before.

I’m convinced there is still enough love in the world to last. To the ones who lost loved ones and homes are these words:

Let all who are sad take heart again; we are not alone in our hours of pain; Our Father stoops from His throne above; To soothe and quiet us with His love. He leaves us not when the storm is high, For we have safety, He is nigh; Can there be trouble, which He doth not share? 0, rest in peace for the Lord will care.-Eula Mae Chism.

A Thought Poem
By LOUISE HERMES

Mama, it’s raining again, look outside
It’s raining hard, think I should hide?
Lights are going out, ice is hitting the door-
But it’s okay, not dark yet, only 7 past 4.
Daddy’s home now, what did he say?
“Brandenburg’s gone”? But I saw it today.
Something bad has happened, I’ve never seen my Daddy cry.
I heard him say’ ‘big storm”, but we saw no black sky.
Mama told me a tornado. What can that be?
Oh, Mama, please, try to make me see.
Is it a big monster? With hands twisting trees, stomping over places-
With big red eyes that look at you through blazes?
I’m only 4, and there’s much I don’t understand-
But, I feel funny, where I know should be houses, I see only land.
It crashed down my church, it was so big and strong-
Makes me wonder, “did we do something wrong”?
It scares me, so inside I’ll stay! Won’t even go outside to play.
Daddy said we shouldn’t be afraid, so on our knees, all of us prayed.
I’m okay now, really not worried-
Because, to my side, I know God hurried.
He’s there watching, and keeping me near-
And in my heart, lives Jesus so dear!

Income Tax Return Returned

The following letter was sent, along with an income tax return to , Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Benham.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Benham:
This paper was found near Benham, Ind., about eight miles south of Versailles and three miles northwest of Cross Plains. It was found by Shell Scott on his farm. We think it came there by the April 3rd tornado. We live about eighty miles north east of Louisville. We notice your name is Benham and it was found near Benham. I (Mrs. Thieman was born at Barwick, Ky., between Hazard and Breathitt Co. Sure would like to go back to look but not to live there.)

Sure hope the tornado didn’t kill or injure anyone near you.

It did lots of damage at Madison, 22 miles and Bear Branch about 10 miles from here. May God Bless you folks, and always watch over you.-Sincerely, Mr. and Mrs. Orner Thieman.

“Lounging” Through The Tornado

What happened to me while the tornado was going on: I was lying on the lounge-glass, boards, rocks, sticks, gravel and dirt came pouring in through the windows and the lounge where I was lying. I got up, and made my way around the dining table, through all that flying debris, came to the French doors. I thought that would be safe, and when I stood there for a second, the debris was flying through the living room. I made my way through the living room. I went to the hall and by the time I reached the hall, the tornado was over. I never got hit one time during my travel from the lounge to the hall.
I do hope this will help in your book about the tornado. Good Luck. E. W. Dugan

Return to Find Home Destroyed
By MRS. JAMES F. MILLER

When the tornado struck, my family and I were in our car at the edge of town on our way to Louisville for supper and a shopping trip. The cloud looked to me like a dark curtain sweeping across town. We circled back and found the wreckage, our house and our neighbors’ houses
destroyed.

My first feeling was just numbness. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Then I felt such a feeling of great thanksgiving, that my family and I were spared. Then came the sadness for the loss of lives and property.

During the next few weeks we received so much help from the Red Cross, the churches, our friends, and even total strangers. We will always be grateful for this.

Two months later I watched a bulldozer pull away from 904 High Street, leaving it looking like a huge new grave, and my feelings were as mixed as they had been ever since the tornado struck. I felt relief, that the mess was finally cleared away and the salvage work over; and I felt grief for the loss of the comfortable little white house that had been my home for over 12 years.

We are building a new house and have most of the things we will need to live normally again, but I don’t think we’ll ever again feel as secure as before April 3rd.

Experience In The Tornado Was Worse Than Hurricane
BY TELLA HIGBEE

I lived in a trailer close to my daughter and when I heard the warning on TV, I decided to go over to my daughter’s as she was by herself.

She met me at the door and said that she was just coming after me.

We saw a funnel shape cloud coming from Irvington partly hidden behind the trees. Then we heard a roaring sound like a train coming toward us, so we went to the cellar and almost immediately the sound went overhead and we could hear glass breaking everywhere.

When the noise stopped, we came up, all the windows were broken and glass was everywhere and the end of the porch and part of the roof was lying out in the yard. My trailer was gone, also their barn. We then looked out the front door, and the Harrisons and Shumates’ house was gone. Trees were down everywhere. It was a terrible sight.

I was in the Hurricane’ ‘Donna”, that went through Fort Meyers, Fla. a few years ago and God spared my life then and he spared it again through the tornado. If I had not trusted Him, I would have died from a heart attack.

Everyone was so nice to me. I was able to purchase another trailer with my insurance money and money given me by friends and relatives. I also was able to get a septic tank and lateral line put to my trailer with money given me by the emergency fund. The Red Cross gave me food and clothing and many other things.

I am very grateful for all the help I received. May God bless all of you, is my prayer.

A Rush to the Basement

My three children I had just pulled up into the driveway. It was about eight minutes after four, for I had just looked at my watch. I remember telling the children it was sure dark to be so early in the afternoon, but it was raining hard and the lightning was terrible. I got out of the car and ran to open the door. My son Randy got out of the car and said, “Look Mom, hear that jet airplane? It’s over Dowden’s Dairy, it’s going to hit their place, and the sky is black.” I looked and then everything got dead still. Then I heard roaring and I said, “Oh my God, it’s a tornado.” I screamed to two of my children to run to the basement and not to get near the windows. I ran back to the car to get Bernadette, she was asleep.

The tornado was down in the field when I looked back, I was at the door of the basement, inside Randy and Sandra were in the corner screaming.

All four put our arms around each other and we made the Sign of the Cross, and I said,”- Please God, don’t hurt my kids.” While standing there waiting for the tornado to pass, it got real cold in the basement and the noise sounded like breaking the sound barrier of a jet airplane and a thousand freight trains coming through the house. The tornado had passed and I told the kids I thought that it was over and that I was going to look out the basement door. I did and it was horrible. Tin, wood and twisted trees were flying and I could see the tails of the funnels. There were two funnels and they separated halfway into town. We lived behind Goff Lumber Company, so the tornado hadn’t gotten into town yet.

The children were still in the comer so I went to them and told them it was over, but outside things looked real bad, everything was torn up.

I heard someone holler, “Help me, please help me.” I started crying and I told the children to stay in the basement and not to move. I ran upstairs and looked out the door, (the door I didn’t have time to shut and the keys were still in the door.) I said, “Oh my God, our house is still standing”. Then I heard someone holler again. It was really raining. When I went outside I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was shaking and I noticed the twisted trees, houses gone and I crawled under a huge tree and watching the electric lines while doing so. I knew Lou Hockman, Brian and Bradley were under there. I asked her if everybody was alive, she screamed yes, but to help her. She had hurt her foot but other than that she was in fair shape. I took them over to my house and ran back to the basement to get my kids. She said, “Look at your house, it’s a mess.” I hadn’t even noticed the rain pouring into the house. Mud was slung up the walls and glass everywhere. I said,’ ‘Lou, the way things look outside, I have a feeling a lot of people are hurt and dead. She watched my kids while I got help to get the kids placed somewhere.

When I got up to the road by the RECC, I saw Mrs Craycroft’s body lying there. I can’t describe my despair. Then some lady’s nose was cut and she couldn’t find her glasses. I told her she would be okay, and someone took her away. I knew it would be a while before someone could get to us since traffic was heavy. I walked back across the field and to the house and told Lou that we would all go up the hill. The children were crying and screaming. I will never forget the looks on their faces and everybody else’s either.

Randall’s Mom had come to see about us and she took the children. I went back to see about the house, it was a mess but I wasn’t complaining. I was so thankful that we had survived.

Some people weren’t as lucky as we were. My children are still afraid and so am I when it storms. The kids stay close to the house, more than they ever did. We are glad to be alive! We hope to move back to Brandenburg. We’re starting over again. We didn’t have any insurance and the cost of living is high, but children and families can’t be replaced.

Thanks to all for your kindness and help during the tornado. Mrs. Randall Whelan and family,  Vine Grove, Ky.

Library Is Damaged
By MARIE COLEMAN

Although our Library was on the outer edge of the tornado, it suffered several thousand dollars worth of damage. It is the first time I ever went to a basement, but I’ll bet it isn’t the t, since I have seen and felt the damage that a tornado can do. The WMMG Radio Station ‘e the warning and with the aid of Larry Basham, a high school student, the children in the library were taken to the ground floor. I got as far as the basement landing before the tornado hit building. I will never forget the stillness after it was over. How thankful I was to be able to inform all those parents that none of the children received even a scratch. In fact, the children helped me save a great many of the books in the Reference Room from rain damage. That is the end of the building most seriously damaged.
It was probably half an hour before the aid from Fort Knox arrived here with ambulances, nurses and doctors. We had helicopters landing at every convenient place. The word spread that r people had been killed and with each announcement, the number grew and grew.

It was certainly an act of unselfish concern when people from many states sent vans full of relief items to us, total strangers, in Brandenburg. The way assistance poured in from near and with trucks, bulldozers, winches and highlifts to help Brandenburg and Meade County dig out from under all the rubble is really remarkable. There have been many different organizations helping also. Many of them have had experience in handling disasters and that is a big help for our own people who are working so hard.

On Friday, April 5th, several of the Meade County officials started setting up headquarters in the library buildings. In the main library you will find the County Judge, Jim Greer; and the County Attorney, Jimmy Watts. In the Annex you will find the County Court Clerk, Joe Jones. Up on the hill from the library are five HUD trailers which are housing the following people: Floyd Thompson and the Extension staff; Bill Medley and the Circuit Court staff; David Ridenour, Sheriff and his staff; Tax Commissioners, Abbott Ashcraft and Bernard Ritchie and their staff; and Jack Kunnecke with the Disaster Relief staff.

We can never put Brandenburg back the way it was, but we are all trying to meet all the present needs and hope to do our best for the future generations. We are grateful for some of our historical buildings which were left standing, one of them being the Library, which was built in 1910. Marie Coleman.

Tornado News In Bangkok
By MABEL DAVIES

Bangkok-April 1, 1974-1:30 a.m.
 

Since Bangkok’s time is two days behind that of the United States, this was the date Ralph Fontaine, Bill and I first received word of what had happened to our little town; when Wayne Pace called Bangkok and told Ralph that his home was gone and that my family was safe, but one son had lost his home and the other his business.

Early the next morning the Bangkok newspaper was delivered under the door at the hotel; and the front headlines read, “Tornado at Brandenburg, 31 Dead”. You can imagine how I felt. Bill was in bed with Hong Kong flu and we were 11,000 miles away from home. We had to stay two more days before we could leave for Hong Kong. When we arrived at the hotel there, many people from the planned trip, who didn’t go to Bangkok, were waiting for us. They said that Brandenburg was on TV there in Hong Kong.

I called my children from Alaska. Sue Applegate, Slug’s wife said, “Mom, you can’t imagine what this town looks like.”

We arrived home Tuesday after the tornado. This was the longest trip I ever expect to make; I thought I’d never get home.

We went straight to town to see the children and the town, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Tornado Strikes RECC
By SUE C. HARRINGTON

April 3rd, 1974 was warm and windy and started out to be a normal day for us who work at the Meade County RECC. Little did we know what the next hours, days, weeks and months would bring to all of us.

Kathy Staples and I walked over in Cap Anderson Cemetery on our lunch hour; never dreaming that would be the last time we would see the pretty old trees and shrubs for a long time.

About 4 o’clock, all of the employees were told to go to the basement. Very quietly and calmly we did so; still not thinking that a tornado would really touch down. Several minutes later it struck. The most horrible noise I have ever heard-like hundreds of jet planes going over us; then the deadly quiet and afterwards the backlash.

We were told to stay in the basement for a while. The suspense and worry for family and friends was mounting. As people began to come in to the basement, we were beginning to hear of the homes that had been hit.

As we emerged and looked around us, it was a sight we will never forget. Devastation was everywhere and the loss of property and the lives of dear friends, only a few feet away, was almost too much to comprehend.

We’ll never forget April 3rd, 1974 Sue C. Harrington.

Insurance Company Hit Hard By Tornado

I was in my office on Main Street, Meade Insurance, the radio was on WMMG and the announcer was saying he had sighted a funnel cloud from his station window and that he was leaving the air and taking cover and for everyone to do the same. I called my wife, Jean and told her to take the children and go to the basement, it was then 4: 00.

Four others and myself went to the inner part of the building to get away from the glass window in the front of the office. Suddenly it became very dark and the force of the wind was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I do not know if it was raining, or perhaps the wind was taking the water from the river, but there was much water going up Main Street. I recall a large tree going by the office.

From this point on, it seems to me that my memory has recorded the later events in slow motion manner, like seeing a motion picture in slow motion. The front windows popped like a large explosion. I was hit by something, I suppose the building, on the right side of my face, and it now seems like I was engulfed from my feet up, like slowly rising water and I distinctly remember saying to myself, "This is it" .

Sometime later I realized that I was buried and that I could not move any part of my body and could not see anything. I heard sounds of women who were also buried, and of persons who were digging to free us.

I estimate that it was ten to fifteen minutes before they found me and they had to pull me from under a large beam laying across my chest. I remember the workers saying, “let’s put him on that door”. I was then carried up Main Street to the Clinic. This was a very difficult task as the street was full of debris. I was taken very good care of at the Clinic and was taken later to the high school by ambulance to be airlifted to Ireland Hospital, still lying on the door. Other than the right side of my face cut badly and puncture wounds, I was in pretty good condition. I stayed at Ireland for five days, and had excellent care.

I would like to say "Thanks" , to those who helped rescue me and to those who helped me to such a good recovery.
Arnold L. Hutcherson

Thought It Was High Wind

April 3rd will be a day we’ll all remember as long as we live. I recall my 12-year-old SO? Mark coming the door saying, “Look Mom, you should see that cloud out there. I never saw It look so bad before.”

I went to my kitchen window and looked out. The first thing I saw was two trees up in the other yard go down, and I remember yelling, “Mark, get in the bedroom!” and we hid under a high bed. Then I heard a noise that sounded like the world was coming to an end.

I never in my life heard such a noise before, and hope and pray to God that I never again will.

 After it passed, everything got real still and we got up and went outside, and the first thing I heard was cars flying by the house. I knew something about half a mile or so from me had happened, when I heard my next door neighbor say her son’s house trailer had blown over.

 It still didn‘t come to me that it had been a tornado as I thought it was just a wind storm.

Then I got in my car and started out to where the trailer was, and when I got to the railroad track, there came a train so I had to wait. About that time I heard an ambulance come up beside me and I asked who was hurt. They said Dr. Owens’ house and all out through there is flattened.

I said, Oh, my God! No!. I knew then it was a tornado, and I thanked God I was where I was. Then I thought, where is my son Stevie, who hadn’t gotten in from school, and where is my husband, Paul?

I immediately turned back home, and when I got there, both of them were there, wondering where Mark and I were.

Then Paul said that it had hit Brandenburg, and I worried about my father, but later found that it hadn’t hit his part of town, and didn’t get Paul’s people.

I said "Thank God we’re all right, but who all did it hurt or kill? Our place wasn’t hurt  except for the electricity being cut off, and that was nothing to what others suffered."

When I saw all the damage, my first thought was it has got to be a bad dream, and why did it happen. What really got to my heart was seeing so many in shock and losing loved ones and all they ever had. I felt if you had your life left you had everything you need. But when I saw friends with all their things gone I felt so sorry for them and thought how I could have been in their places. Ones who didn’t lose anything can’t say what it is like, as we can only feel what we might think it would be like to be in their place.

All we can do is hope that the future will never bring that again.
Linda Ledford, Irvington

Terrible Roaring Noise

Mr. and Mrs. Woodie Melton, Jr., and daughter Rhonda, of  High Street, were at home when the tornado struck. They write:

Not having the radio or television on, our first warning was a terrible roaring noise off in the distance. Going to the car-port door to see what was going on, we were met by the fierce wind as it jerked the door out of Woodie’s hand and slammed it shut. We hurried back to the living room and just as we stepped through the door, the picture window crashed in. As we fell to the floor, the house started to shake and fall apart.

We could feel the impact of boards and falling furniture hitting all around us. When the wind finally stopped, Woodie and Rhonda were trapped under a wall and were unable to get out. Mrs. Melton was able to shove away the debris and climb out of the rubble that had been home for 14 years.

Running out into the street, I was met by Jimmie Medley and another neighbor from down the street. They hurried in and lifted the wall from Woodie and Rhonda and helped them out. We were taken across the street to the home of Mrs. J. R. Miller. Miraculously, we were unhurt except for cuts and bruises. We are rebuilding our home on the family farm near Laconia, Indiana.
Mrs. Woodie Melton, Jr.

Thankful For Spared Lives

I don’t remember much about the weather on April 3, except it was hot and windy. The children had just gotten home from school, and I was cooking supper, and baby-sitting for three-month-old Kelly Smith. I just wasn’t paying any attention to the weather. I don’t remember the exact time, but it was around 4 o’clock when my father-in-law called to ask if I had heard about a tornado touching down near Irvington.

After we hung up, I looked out the window and saw the funnel cloud coming our way. It looked just like the pictures you see of them. I took my three kids and the baby to the basement and got under the pool table, as I’d always heard to get under something.

A minute or so later, our neighbors, the Raleighs came through the basement door. They hollered for us to get to the other side of the basement. I don’t remember getting to the wall. It was pitch dark and the tornado started tearing up the house and everything else that we owned. It took only a few seconds. Thank God no one was hurt in our house.

It started to rain so we had to get to shelter. We saw that some of Dr. Owens’ house was still standing, so we went to his basement. We stayed there until help came.

Bobby didn’t get to the doctor’s office until a good while later. I just knew he had gotten caught in it coming home from work. He had stopped at the Court House and there he had heard that it was headed that way. Most everyone in the Court House got into the vault. Bobby was in the doorway of the vault when the tornado hit the Court House.

After it was over, he went to see about his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dave Ross. After he saw that they were OK, and had done what he could, he had his brother bring him home. This is when he found that our house had been destroyed.

When I went to the basement, I knew the tornado would probably take the roof and porches off our house. I was wrong, it took the whole house! If I ever see another one coming, I’ll be scared to death because now I know what they can do.
Bobby, Betty, Kelly, Timmy and Billy Bob Ross