‘Where is mom?’: What 20 people told reporters in the moments after the 1974 Xenia tornado

There were 32 people killed and 1,300 more who were injured in the storm.

Newspaper reports from the time tell the stories of what people saw and experienced while it was happening and in the moments after. Here is what they said at the time.

• Ohio Gov. John Gilligan asked the federal government to call it a disaster area.

“It is the greatest disaster in this state since I started my term as governor,” he said.

• Fred Stewart, public relations director at Greene Memorial Hospital: “I transported patients for the first hour after it happened. It’s a real disaster. It’s just a disaster.”

• Betty Marshall, a manager at A&W Drive-In, went to the back of the restaurant and saw it coming.

“But we didn’t have any place to run,” she said. “The whole top caved in.”

• Tim Jackson, 16, was sitting in a wheelchair at Greene Memorial Hospital with his arm in a sling and cuts and bruises on his face.

“I got beat up,” he said. “I was walking to the store (Kennedy Corners) when I saw it right in front of me.”

• James and Reva Hillelson, owners and operators of Jim’s Loan Co. on Main Street, lost the front of their pawn shop in the tornado.

“We could only think to lie on the floor. I thought it would never end,” Reva said.

“This will hurt me, but not kill me financially,” James added.

• Cecilia Lehman, 15, had been cooking dinner in her home on Maumee Drive when her brother came in and told her there was a tornado coming.

“I didn’t believe him (at first),” she said. “It was a big funnel, like you see in the movies. Then the windows came in, and it felt like the floor was going up and down, and the whole house fell on top of us. I thought for sure we’d die.” she said. “It’s a funny feeling...”

• Greene County Sheriff Russell Bradley said at least “60 percent of the downtown area was severely damaged.”

“I’ve never in my life seen anything like it. And God knows, I hope I never do again,” he said.

• Clyde Perry had gone out for fish and chips when he saw the twister coming.

“I could feel the car in the twist,” he said. “I could hear it popping and cracking, like a piece of lumber that bends but don’t break. I couldn’t drive against it.”

• Gomer Thomas was waiting outside Greene Memorial Hospital, where his wife was trying to find her mother.

“My wife, Darlene, and her mother and my 10-year-old son Steve were in our home when the tornado hit,” he said. “I was just driving up, getting home from work. All of a sudden my home just demolished in front of my eyes.

“A man can’t put into words how he feels when he sees his home just being destroyed like a bomb went off in it. I just thought my family was gone.

“I took my wife and son to a hospital in Dayton for treatment of their injuries. A rescuer said he would take care of Darlene’s mother, who is 71. We got back from the hospital, and now we can’t find her.

“All I have now for a home is a pile of bricks. I guess you would say I am just in shock.”

• Mrs. Lipovsky (no first name reported) was hugging her granddaughter, who was found alive under the rubble of her home on Commonwealth Avenue.

“Even the cat was blown away,” she said.

• Lloyd Combs was at home, in the basement with his wife and three children when they heard the wind.

They saw their house “lifted up completely off us. We looked up and we could see everything blowing through the sky,” he said.

“It’s just unbelievable. You’re helpless. You sit there and you’re helpless.”

Under his jacket he was wearing only an undershirt.

“This undershirt — that’s all I’ve got left,” he said. “I guess you just start over again. You’re glad to be alive, that’s all.”

• Wanda Schultz sat on her front porch waiting for her husband to come home from work in Dayton.

“I looked out the window and saw it coming,” she said. “It looked like it had a million birds in it.

“I went down in the basement and laid down beside a refrigerator. When it hit it sounded like a hundred locomotives. The refrigerator toppled over, but it went the other way and didn’t hit me. If I hadn’t been in the basement, I’d be dead now. I lost everything. I had such beautiful antiques.”

• Stephan McDonald came to Xenia to help with rescue efforts and saw some looting.

“At the Citizen’s First Bank, the building was gone and the cash drawers were left standing,” he said.

“People were trying to get in, steal bikes and stuff. At my friend’s house, all that was left was a four-foot wall in the bathroom.”

• Xenia Schools Superintendent Carl Adkins said about the future of schools damaged in the tornado: “That will have to be worked out. But first things first.”

Adkins opened all undamaged schools to be used for temporary housing.

“We were all in the bathroom, and a big piece of plaster fell down and stopped on the toilet and the shower, and the kids were under it. Later it fell down on them slowly. Irvin and I were lying near the door, and we got a lot of mud. All that was left in my house was a closet.”

• Mamie Johnson was at an emergency shelter at the Xenia YMCA.

“I went into my dining room when I heard it coming,” she said. “I laid down on the floor, and I prayed. Then it hit, and everything around me was demolished. I’ll stay here tonight, but tomorrow, who knows?”

• Darlene Baldwin, 20, searched for a sign of her mother and two sisters.

“Where is my mother? I don’t even know if she is alive,” she said. “I’ve been everywhere. Where is mom?”

• Earl Rapp lived in a small frame home on Collier Street. He and his wife gathered their eight children in the basement.

“I saw it coming,” he said. “I yelled to open the windows and to hit the floor. And that is what we did. Our roof was blown off. We lost everything.”

• Shirley Coker of East Second Street: “We hit the floor. I just thought the whole house was gone. But we were one of the lucky ones, we only lost a roof.”

• Rev. Robert Huck of First Presbyterian Church said he was leading about 14 kids in choir practice when the tornado came.

“You could feel the pressure inside the church,” he said. “It was frightening. It was eerie. I quickly ushered all the youngsters to the basement of the church. We all huddled together on the floor. Then the awful noise hit. It seemed to go on forever. When it was over we lay there and I prayed. All I could do was pray.”