A half-century on, Wilberforce residents reflect on Ohio’s deadliest tornado
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Fifty years ago, a tornado touched down in Greene County, killing more than 30 people.
In the years since, lots of attention has been paid to the impact on the City of Xenia and to the changes the disaster prompted in Ohio's emergency management system.
But the small town of Wilberforce was also hit hard. It's home to Ohio's two historically black colleges and universities, Central State University and Wilberforce University, and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center. The museum is working with Ohio Newsroom member station WYSO to gather oral histories of the disaster.
Eugenia Kay Thornton, who was in her 20s when the tornado hit, shared the following remembrance.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
The tornado
It was my grandparents, my parents and myself hunkered down at the very back of their basement, since it's a walkout basement. They always said it sounds like a train, but there's also this pressure. Like you're in an airplane. I also remember the house shaking.
My grandfather said, ‘There goes the roof.’
By this time, it sounds like there's a war upstairs. They had a one-story house and since we are against that very back wall in their basement, which backs up against the the ground, It was such a violent shake that you felt the dust coming down on you while we're hunkered down.
Then we heard another big crash, and this all took place in like 30 seconds of this violent storm.
“There goes the back porch,” my grandfather said.
Well, I was kind of tired of hearing that. So I said, “We have to pray.”
We said the Lord's Prayer and then…complete silence.
We waited another 30 seconds, came out, went up the stairs, opened the door.
The roof was gone.
But there was the most beautiful blue sky I had ever seen, not a cloud in the sky. The sun was shining.
The back porch had fallen in front of the garage door and the side of their house had fallen into the driveway.
My heart just broke for them because they had worked so hard to get this house.
It was just a sad thing to see your community almost wiped off the map.
Aftermath
We didn't know about Central State and Wilberforce until later that night.
I remember someone saying that a student ran into town to tell the authorities, and the authorities did not believe him. They thought he was lying.
He said, “No, I'm telling you, we got hit. We have injured and dead.”
And it wasn't for a couple of hours before the authorities finally realized this kid was telling the truth.
They have to remember that the tornado stayed on the ground for miles. And once it left Xenia, it hit Wilberforce and Central State.
I don't know if they don't want to admit, because Wilberforce and Central State was predominantly black. I don't know if that's more of a racist problem there. To me it is.
In all the years, it's always referred to as the Xenia tornado, and Blacks were not affected.
That is not true.
That's one reason why I wanted to do my story, because North Columbus Avenue was predominantly Black at that time.
I told several people at church last night, I told my minister because his family lived in Wilberforce, I said, “You guys we need to make sure our stories are preserved.”
Kevin Lydy and Chelsea Cozad from the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce conducted this interview
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