It’s been 35 years since a tornado ripped through my elementary school in Moore. The November 19, 1973 tornado (yes, I’m that old, DANG IT!) touched down initially in Blanchard,
then traveled to the northeast and struck Moore, finally lifting in southeast Oklahoma City. In all, five people were killed and 53 others were hurt in the F3 storm that began its path of destruction at 7:30 p.m. on a balmy, spring-like Monday evening.
According to the National Weather Service:
The tornado moved NNE at about 40mph from about 1 mile SSW of Blanchard. It moved through the west part of Blanchard, where winds were estimated at 150-175 mph. About a third of the town was damaged; 31 homes, 2 businesses and 2 churches were destroyed, and 44 homes and 2 businesses had major damage. Spotty damage occurred NE of Blanchard before it moved into Moore, where it struck a trailer park in S Moore and hit many homes and businesses in N sections. 37 mobile homes were destroyed and 30 others damaged. Of the 28 injuries in Moore, most occurred in the trailer park. Substantial damage occurred to a warehouse at SE 89th where a watchman was killed by a collapsed concrete brick wall. The remaining deaths occurred in mobile homes in Blanchard and Moore. Minor roof damage occurred in SE OKC and Del City N to about 20th Street SE. [Path width 500yd, length 24mi] I couldn’t find any copies of metro newspaper coverage, but I did come across a scan from the Lawton paper.
Since the event made national news, I’ve included a small scan from its appearance in the St. Petersburg Times from their Wednesday, Nov. 21, 1973, edition.
Here’s how the AP story read:
The people of central and northern Oklahoma sifted through scenes of devastation Tuesday after nighttime tornadoes left five dead, dozens injured and property damage totaling millions of dollars.
Three of the dead were infants.
The Monday night tornadoes hit nine Oklahoma communities, but Moore and Blanchard were the hardest hit. More than 60 persons were injured in the state, most of them in Moore and Blanchard.
RESCUERS in the two towns worked all day Tuesday, feeding the hungry and arranging shelter for the homeless.
Linda Hill, 20, and her 3-month-old son, Neal, were killed at Blanchard, where a tornado destroyed two churches and 31 homes and caused major damage to 44 others.
Robbie Maynard and Jennifer Moore, both four months old, died when a twister smashed into a mobile home park in Moore near Oklahoma City.
RAY SAUNDERS, a 77-year-old security guard, died when a tornado caved in a warehouse in Oklahoma City. What isn’t mentioned in any of the available accounts is the devastation to our neighborhood school, Northmoor elementary. Please CLICK on the COMMENTS section BELOW to read what some of my classmates had to say about that night. And, yes, that's a pic of me -- with a broken arm NOT suffered in the storm -- from 1973).
There was a PTA meeting at Northmoor that night and I was going to be performing a square dance with other 5th grade PE students. We were waiting for our magical moment in a classroom to the east of the main office. At the last moment, we were moved to the opposite side of the building, probably because we were so loud that they couldn’t hear the program that was being conducted in the nearby cafeteria.
The lights had been flickering because there was a severe storm in the area (we were under a tornado watch, too). ‘How cool,’ we thought, ‘if the lights would go off while we’re all messing around in a classroom after hours?’ Well, we got our wish. And as soon as the lights went out, pandemonium ensued. All I remember is the sound of people screaming and crying and the smell of natural gas. There was also that typical jet-like sound that we heard as the tornado moved away from us.
The tornado completely destroyed the wing from which we were recently removed. The cafeteria suffered heavy losses which meant that we had to travel to Moore High School for lunch and a few classes until they could make the necessary repairs. Amazingly, no one was killed or suffered severe injuries in our school.
The photo on the right is that of Trooper Pat Grimes who has just picked up a child, killed in the storm, and is holding it in his arms. The horrified expression on his face says it all.
(On a side note: Trooper Grimes would die in the line of duty five years later in what has been called the saddest day in the history of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Lt. Grimes and two other troopers were killed in gun battles with a pair of prison escapees near Lake Texoma. Grimes’ funeral was held at the First Baptist Church of Moore and was attended by Lt. Gov. George Nigh and Gov. David Boren, among other dignitaries. Grimes was recently posthumously honored with the “OHP Lt. Pat Grimes Memorial Bridge” which is located on State Highway 97 where it crosses the Arkansas River in Sand Springs.)
As an addendum, BOB listener, Peggy Brooks of Yukon, submitted this article from USA TODAY -- published 11/20/2007 -- concerning an interesting modern day find in the aftermath of the '73 tornado:
Wedding Ring Recovered 34 Years After Deadly TornadoBLANCHARD, Okla. (AP) — In 1973, a tornado killed Elinda Hill and her newborn son, and left her gold wedding ring hidden in the dirt.
Thirty-four years later, Eva McGrew was walking across the dirt in her backyard vegetable garden when she saw something shining in the sun.
She bent to pick it up and saw that it was a gold ring, with a cluster of three small diamonds.
"That ring was laying there on top of the ground just sparkling," she said.
When her son-in-law stopped by a few days later, she told him about her find.
"He said 'I bet I know who that belongs to' and he told me the story of the Hill family," she said. "This is where their trailer used to set."
The trailer was demolished in the tornado. Neal Hill's 20-year-old wife and his infant son were the only two people in Blanchard to die in the storm.
Hill built a home a few blocks north of where his trailer had been. He remarried, and the couple had a son. Hill is divorced now, but his son, Destry, 27, still lives nearby.
McGrew decided to see if she could verify that the ring was Elinda Hill's.
"Some people would call me a busybody, but I was bound and determined I was going to find out who that ring belonged to," she said.
She first called the funeral home to see if there were any records showing the woman had been buried with her rings, but the papers didn't say. She then got up her nerve and called Neal Hill.
Hill was cautious at first, in disbelief that this could be his wife's ring.
"I didn't want somebody else's ring," he said.
He looked through old photos, then came to see if he could identify it.
"I laid that ring down on the table, and he just stared," McGrew said. "You'd never think after all these years it would turn up. I have no doubt that it was hers. I'm glad it's found its home."
Elinda Hill's fingers were swollen after their son's birth, so she had put it away until the swelling went down, Hill said.
"It feels like this is the final chapter," he said. "It's kind of a bittersweet experience. I was glad to get it back, but all the memories came rushing back."Finally, in a weird piece of irony, another deadly tornado hit the OKC metro area on the same date many years earlier. On Nov. 19, 1930, a twister also leveled a school (Camel Creek) and the town of Bethany, killing 23 people.
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