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AM 1290 and News 95.7 WHIO to air Xenia tornado documentary

Today commemorates the 45th anniversary of the 1974 Xenia tornado.

For the thousands living in Xenia at the time and those from around the Miami Valley who helped in the aftermath, their lives were forever changed by what they experienced that fateful day.

Todd Hollst, host of the Sunday Edge on AM 1290 and News 95.7 WHIO, will be hosting a special radio documentary today at 6 p.m. on WHIO Radio.

>> The 1974 Xenia tornado, no place to hide

Xenia 74: 9 Minutes in April, is a radio version of an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning TV documentary Hollst produced in 2004, while working at WHIO-TV.

Hollst was living in Beavercreek at the time of the tornado and remembers the day vividly.

“Like most small children, I had no idea what a tornado was. I just remember my dad barricading me, my mom and little sister in an interior bathroom and putting a mattress over our heads,” he said. “We weren't sure where the storm was heading — we just heard the warning on WHIO radio for Greene County. After driving through Xenia a few days afterwards with my parents, the gravity of moment became imprinted on my memory. The damage inflicted on Xenia was overwhelming."

>> Xenia building that survived 1974 tornado will get upgrades

Following the 6 p.m. presentation of Xenia 74: 9 Minutes in April, Hollst will be hosting an hour-long live call-in show beginning at 7 p.m., where people with memories of the storm and the aftermath are invited to call-in and share their stories.

“The accounts of the survivors, along with the sounds and images of the storm and its aftermath, are incredibly compelling and important. I live in Xenia now and I can tell you to this day, whenever storm clouds begin build in the western sky, many folks who were there in '74 pause a moment a consider the possibilities of what may come,” he said.

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