This thread has me looking back in History. I was 16 years old April 3, 1974. The tornado outbreak that day produced more F4-F5 tornados than any other supercell in history, 30 total in a 24hr period. More than the Supercell of 2011. It was a F4 tornado that hit my area. It took down my dads shop which was about 200ft from the house. It took the porch off our house as well as all the shingles. It moved the house about a foot off it foundation. My Mother, brother, myself and our 3 year old cousin had taken refuge in a bedroom closet. As soon as the storm had passed we looked out the bedroom window, which all the glass had been broken out in very window, and watched the tornado move on toward town. My dad was a Lineman for the TVA and had already been called out of town to cover the tornado damage around Chattanoga tn that had taken place earlier that day. Of course when the storm hit Murphy his crew was turned around and headed back home. It would be several hours before we even knew where he was at. Dad had always had some sort of log truck and at the time he had a ford with a bigstick wood loader on it. we had two chain saws and gas. We had a aluminum jon boat that storm had wrapped around the loader on the truck. My brother and I managed to get the boat off the truck and head down the driveway. We used the truck lights to see how to saw the trees out of the driveway trying to make our way to check on My sister who lived about half a mile from us. We managed to cut a path to our nearest Neighbors house only to find the house gone. Two Children where killed there. We managed to find the Husband and ife and got them out from under the debris. One child was found below the house in the creek. All the time we could hear other people running chainsaws and they had managed to get to where we where. My sisters husband was with them and thats when we found out they where alright and the tornado had skipped over their house. The road was blocked each direction and we had injured people that needed care so we turned the truck around and headed toward town, cutting trees and brush opening up the road. We soon met other folks trying to cut their way into where we where and got the injured loaded on a pickup and headed to the hospital. My wifes grandmothers house was blown away but only minor injuries. My Brothers girlfiends house was also blown away, again on scratches and bruises. The tornado had picked up after their homes and sat back down inside the city limits. There 2 more people died. All the people that where killed in this storm where related. The Tornado then hit the side of the Mountain and lifted back into the sky. Where it had hit straight on the mountain, it removed all trees and dirt leaving a large rockface that never recovered. They have built a new highway thru there now and most of the tornado damage was wiped out by the construction. I think about this storm every time a tornado is mentioned on the news. This thread made me think about it again. and I just wanted to tell my story.
. I carry 3 bottles of frozen water, by the time the heat hits (9:30 ish) they are about 1/4 thawed and sips of ice water really hit the spot.
