GREEN TOWNSHIP, OHIO — It's been 50 years since a Super Outbreak of deadly tornadoes hit 13 states, including the Tri-State.
When one group of survivors sat down with WCPO 9, they said the sight and sound of a tornado is something that sticks with you. So is what you see in the pictures they still have from April 3, 1974.
"There was nothing left," Terri Hess said.
She was 8-years-old, living on Danville Drive in Green Township when a tornado tore through her street on April 3, 1974.
She still has a picture of the desk she and her family sat under in their basement, trying to protect themselves from the tornado.
"This is what saved us," she said.
Tracey Gerstner and her family also made it through the severe weather event, but she said it was a close call. Just minutes before the tornado hit, they were having dinner at home.
"I remember my dad abruptly getting up from the table, looking out the back door and he said, 'Marge, get those kids in the basement right now, that tornado's coming right for us,'" Gerstner said.
Not everyone was saved that day.
During the Super Tornado Outbreak, there were a record 30 F4-F5 tornadoes in six states in a 24-hour period (April 3-4). That included an F5 with 300-mph winds that practically destroyed the nearby town of Xenia, Ohio, and killed 33 people and injured 1,150 there.
Additionally, seven people were killed in the Tri-State.
While the memories of just barely getting to safety stick with the former neighbors from Danville Drive, so do memories of everyone who came together to help them rebuild in the months after and the lesson that stick with them 50 years later.
"Things are not important," Gerstner said.
"Life goes on, life goes on. So, it did," Hess said.
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