It is one of nature's bitter ironies that spring—the season of rebirth—also brings an irresistible, destructive force that strikes terror into the hearts of all who have experienced it. That deadly force is the tornado. Last week, as na ture ran amuck, tornadoes struck with their full fury.
The storm built slowly, ominously. From the Gulf of Mexico, huge masses of warm, moist air moved northward to ward the center of the continent. From the West, a threatening layer of cooler, drier air seeped eastward toward the Appalachians, sliding under the moist air. As the two layers converged in an uneasy mixture, tremendous turbulence developed. In the roiling atmosphere, embryo funnels of spinning air formed, dissolved and reformed—a telltale sign that the tornado season had arrived.
Weathermen issued increasingly urgent warnings to residents in "Tornado Alley," that vast stretch of plains lying be tween the Appalachians and the Rockies and sweeping from Georgia and Alabama up to Canada. When the storms hit in midweek, the tornado fun nels were twirling at 200 m.p.h.
From Decatur, Ala., to Windsor, Ont., tornado winds chewed up homes and businesses, sent cars, buses and even freight trains spinning aloft, toppled massive power line towers and wiped out whole families. More than 60 twisters flickered out of the sky over an eleven-state area, claiming more than 300 lives and destroying property worth nearly $400 million. It was the most devastating salvo of tornadoes to hit the U.S. since 1925, when 689 were killed. President Nixon declared Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Georgia and Tennessee disaster areas. Vice President Ford, after viewing devastated portions of Ohio from the air, called the wasting of the landscape "unbelievable. Houses have been reduced to matchsticks."
Blew Away. The roll call of death and destruction was staggering. Alabama: 72 dead, more than $40 million in damages. Georgia: 16 dead, nearly $15 million. Illinois: two dead, $3 million. Indiana: 40 dead, $100 million. Kentucky: 71 dead, $100 million. Michigan: three dead, $3.5 million. North Carolina: five dead, more than $4 million. Ohio: 37 dead, $100 million. Tennessee: 46 dead, $25 million. Virginia: one dead, $1 million. West Virginia: one dead, $1 million. Additional thousands of people were left homeless, hundreds of others injured; estimates of property damage were certain to increase.
Among the hardest-hit regions was northwestern Alabama. The main street of Jasper (pop. 11,300) sustained $14 million worth of damage and was practically wiped out. The city hall was demolished and the stone courthouse left close to toppling. Radio Announcer Joel Cook of station WARF gasped to listeners, "We can't talk to the police department—it just blew away." In the same region, 19 persons were killed, most of them from the small town of Guin, Ala. (pop. 2,200). Reported a state trooper after the storm: "Guin just isn't there."