Four killed in Blue Ash tornado 15 years ago today
Tornado was strongest to hit Hamilton County since 1974
Only days after the 40th anniversary of the most powerful tornado to hit Hamilton County, Wednesday marks the 15th anniversary of the most powerful tornado to hit the county since then.
Early on April 9, 1999, a storm system that had already spawned a strong tornado in southeast Indiana and a weak tornado in southwest Hamilton County dropped an twister that smashed into Blue Ash, Montgomery and adjoining communities along its 10-mile path.
"We had no time. I was trying to get my daughter, who's disabled, and the house blew up around me," tornado survivor Pat Makowski told 바카라게임 온라인 바카라 게임 5 in 2012. "I can go through my mind like a videotape. I can tell you what wall left first and what wall left second."
The National Weather Service said the tornado varied in width between 400 feet and a mile as it destroyed 200 homes and damaged more than 400 more. Most of its life, the tornado did F-3 damage, but intensified briefly as it passed Blue Ash.
The tornado sliced through the Montgomery Community Church. Looking at the church today you would never know that there was a tornado, but preschool director Chris Conner remembers everything.
"The houses and the rest of it (the playground) was gone, the windows were broken and then the preschool part coming out. The top part was collapsed down into one of the preschool class rooms," Conner said.
Some of the church survived the storm and stands as a reminder today.
"This is the original hall walkway, the blocks, the walls did not get damaged most of the doors are the same doors," Conner said.
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Four people -- Charles Smith, Donald Lewis, and Jacqueline and Lee Cook -- were killed. Smith and Lewis were killed in their cars, while the Cooks were killed when the tornado struck their home.
"The stories of generosity and caring soothed the pain of rebuilding our homes. Most of us were blessed to come away with our lives and families intact, to have insurance, and to live in municipalities that were equipped to handle a disaster of this magnitude," Blue Ash Mayor Lee Czerwonka said on Wednesday.
The storm would later spawn a fourth tornado near South Lebanon.
The four tornadoes that hit the Tri-State that day were at the tail end of a 54-tornado outbreak that stretched from Nebraska to Virginia.
The storms caused $82 million in damage overall, and nearly a third of that total was in the Tri-State.
The F-4 was the last such tornado to hit the Tri-State until the EF-4 Crittenden/Piner tornado that struck March 2, 2012.