Wirdzek sits down with tornado survivor

Regina Boyd was just 18-years-old when the tornado tore through Xenia. She was downtown, across from the courthouse, at the time. While hanging out with the StormCenter 7 meteorologists, they found a photo in the DDN archives that shows the exact scene she described in her journal she wrote in 1974, days after the tornado. Regina had not talked much about her experiences or the horrific things she saw, until she came into the StormCenter and spoke with Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek.

April 3rd, 1974 an EF 5 tornado tore through Xenia, Ohio during one of the worst tornado outbreaks in history. It touched down at 4:20 pm near Bellbrook and swept through downtown Xenia around 4:40pm. It was on the ground for 32 miles with wind speeds reaching 261 - 318 mph. It damaged or destroyed nearly 300 homes and about half of all the buildings in downtown Xenia. Damage reports were estimated at about $100 million dollars.

The Xenia tornado was part of what’s known as a Super Outbreak. There has only been one other true Super Outbreak in history, which occurred in April 2011 when 358 tornados were reported. The Super Outbreak of 1974 consisted of at least 148 tornadoes that touched down in 13 states. Records show 310 people were killed during the storms, 32 of them were in Xenia. The Xenia tornado was the deadliest single event during the outbreak.