Jeremy Kappell / Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Stories from '74: Louisville NWS Forecaster Dave Reeves

Dave Reeves was a forecaster working for the National Weather Service in Louisville on April 3, 1974. He is the guy that issued the Tornado Warning for the city on that fateful day. Here is his story..

I was thinking October 61 or something like that, 1961. So you've been with the Weather Service for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm sure you'd experience a number of smaller outbreaks, lesser outbreaks we're coming up on. April 1974. There was a small outbreak between those a couple days before April 1st.

All I remember, is that we two or three storms in the area. I did not know that a death occurred in Henry County that evening. I know the next day on Tuesday was the right sunny day and 04:03 the Severe Storms Forecast Center put out the word that in our area here that we was going to have some interesting weather. 04:16 They were looking ahead 24 hours that everything stacking up in the atmosphere. That thunderstorms, tornadoes would be possible etcetera and we all know what happened Wednesday.

Do you remember any of the wording they used to try to get your attention and was there anything unusual about the language they used describig what they were expecting on April 3rd? I don't. Exchange with severe storms people was not that often. Other than the atmosphere would be stacked at the word that there's a excellent chance of having thunderstorms, possibly tornadoes. Now this is Tuesday afternoon and they were talking about the following day.

So you came into work on April 3rd? You coming in morning shift, what time do you get into work? OK, I was on the four till midnight shift. I was hearing on the radio that there was already big storms brewing in West Kentucky. And remember what SELS I mean severe storms people had told me the day before, which is pretty unusual to go in early, but I went in early at three o’clock instead of four. And I’m glad I did, bc I wasn’t there minutes before spots started showing up on the radar to our west and so forth. And I forget. I guess it was 430 or 436 or something there. We had access to three state police squawk boxes. Any traffic that we wanted to listen to weather wise. So,06:28 it came on one of them that a state policeman could not get into Brandenburg because all the debris. And we had been tracking this spot and it just passed Brandenburg. 06:42 We had in our radar room a red telephone you would pick it up and immediately it was the fire department downtown. 06:52 So I went in, picked up the phone, told them to sound the sirens. We put out a warning, I think that was about 18 minutes before hit the Fairgrounds. Something like that. 07:08 Usually you don’t have anything close that lead time to put out a tornado warning. But bc of what happened in Brandenburg and the state police.. Otherwise. I don’t know if the warning would have been put out until you could see it over Iroquois Park or something.

So you are thinking if it wasn’t for Brandenburg it could have been a lot worse?

Yes.. But there were three deaths in Louisville I think. The Warning was out, of course. In those days, there was WHAS, WAVE and I don't know who else. I'm talking about.. radio (stations). WHAS had a big afternoon following as I remember. John Burk was in charge of the weather office at that time. WHAS had called and he was on the phone looking out of the window of our second floor Weather Office at Standiford Field that looked due west. And he saw it just as it was touching down along the Watterson, Fairground.. He said something like. See it, hear it, goodness, gracious alive and slammed the phone down. Well all the people listening to WHAS, here’s the guy at the head of the weather station at Standiford Field.. hung up on us. He’s deserted his post. But that’s when it was going across the horse barns and all that stuff at the fairgrounds. And that was, looking back, that probably saved a lot of lives or injuries because people took action. I mean, we found. Later in a little bit of interviewing was done. People took action. They took cover. The years I’ve worked. That was the only time I ever had called home and told the wife take two kids to the basement. And that was. That was the.. it had hit Brandenburg, and it was headed toward us. So. Anyway, that was. I'll never forget that day.

So the the Weather Service office was at the airport, yes. So it was very close to where the touchdown occurred originally. The Stanford Fail at that time had. Must have had 20 foot tall windows or something. All the front was windows from the ground up. We walked out of our office on the mezzanine, and you see through the windows and see the Freedom Hall. Matter of fact, that was a one-mile visibility. Out at our office out on the roof, 2nd floor and it didn’t seem like it, but that was in our range a mile over there. And that's where, you know, took some roof off of Freedom Hall. 10:38

Now I didn't see any of this. John Burk after he hung up the phone, he went he he saw it. This pictures.. There's not the nice little funel and all that stuff. It was a black shaft. I just saw the pictures later I. I don't. I didn't go out there and look, I was still doing whatever I was supposed to be doing those. You were doing your job. I guess so. Helping get the warning out. I guess so yes. We're probably still on teletype days. You know, antiquated compared. I just I pick up this little cell phone every now and again and look at all the data that I can look at that. Well, they dream about occasionally right? Back in those days, right? I still ask my wife to come look at this. And it'll be a circulation that covers from. Kansas to Ohio or something, and it's just huge circulation. That we just have to plot on a map and then analyze the map. The weather is going past before we ever got it analyzed and those days right?

So anyway, it wasn't quite as bad when I got into the business, but when I started my first internship was with WLKY and working for Jay Cardosi. Every day my first job is to pull the maps off the printer. And to him. All the pressure. Yeah, but that even that computers do all that. Now you don't have to lift a finger. OK. So the radar technology will come back to that? So when you were looking at the radars? Maybe just speak to the radar technology, what you were using at the time, the information you could glean from it. I was told it was World War 2 technology. The scope was a little circular scope maybe. 13-14 inches diameter. That we've made-up plastic or acetate or whatever. Cut it up. Perfect circle. And and the mark for north-south, so we can put it on the scope took a grease pencil, so we would outline these spots that we saw on, right. That's no, that's how we lived in those days, right. You could plot it. Put down a time. Go back 15-20 minutes later, plot it and calculate how far it moved and 20 minutes or whatever, right? That's how we did things in those days. It’s interesting You didn’t have the automatic you know with the storm (tracking), the computers plotting. We’ve come a long way so. Such as Brandenburg, Southern Indiana as well, but then after you guys realized these were all producing tornadoes. So if you could just speak that in your own words.

As far as warnings. In my memory we put out a warning. Just. Minutes before it hit Brandenburg. There was a radio person in a little block building just Southwest of Brandenburg. And he actually put it whatever. I don't know what his range was, but he put it out. A minute or something like that before it hit Brandenburg, but who was listening. I mean, I don't know what.. it wasn’t WHAS it was some small little radio station. And. So they basically didn't get any warning. No weather radios.. two years down the road, so that wasn't available.

Um, at what point did you know that this was? That this was just a once in a lifetime type of event? When? At what point did you know.. the next day. Maybe It was probably by the next afternoon that stuff had been on TV and. They realized that. I guess maybe not then just. Scope of thing.. It was 10 statesYou said it was 13 or 14. It's just that I knew they'd never been like that before. So. It didn't sink in for a while.

So. Surveys began pretty quickly afterwards. Tell me about what you know about Doctor Fujita. Dr. Fujita, who was at the University of Chicago at the time and. Probably is well known. Maybe. I know this country about tornadoes. And he came to Louisville. I guess that next week. This was on Wednesday. I think he spent the next week here in Louisville. And he went to Brandenburg and crossed the river in southern Indiana. There was. House trailer parks that were just wiped and little. Homes are rebuilt on slabs. They were wiped away. 16:32

And then I think the next week. His #1 assistant at times. Greg Forbes who became a PHD and was in this weather business for several years. He came and spent a week. And I guess. I don't know if I was on midnight, so I don't know, but I remember that he was there.

So. The picture arranged in a newspaper showed the paths of all these 174, or whatever it was over.. 148.. 148 74 is on my mind. right? But. I guess all that finally helped me with the big scope of the thing. So. Doctor Fujita and Dr. Forbes, later Doctor Forbes. So. They were working on the F scale. Doctor, you know fajita. Of course, use this as a. They've changed that right 2-3 times since 74. They have a little bit. I thought it. I thought it was just five categories in those days. It was. I don't remember that. Wind speed. Kicked it up. Another notch, another notch. Right but he from the surveys that were performed. On the top end storms. He described it as he had never seen that level of destruction before and he pointed out a couple tornadoes here locally. Can you speak to those two tornadoes..? You don't know. The Brandenburg and the Southern Indiana F5. Last time I interviewed you, you spoke a little bit about. His wording talking about maybe close to EF 6. You know, I don't remember. That's OK. That's OK. So. To Doctor Fajita and Dr. Forbes.. Can you close those venetian blinds, please.

The first one.. close them both. There you go. And do the other one. Also, if you don't mind. Not a problem. So I keep bringing up Dr Fajita and Forbes because they're part of the story.. That was my only contact with them and I did accompany Fajita. John Burke, who is in charge of weather office at the time. On the trip to Brandenburg and. I found out from Greg Forbes later that Dr. Fajita’s mind was his notes. No he didn't. He didn't have a notebook write down on this but he was asking questions of people on the street, you know. I didn't understand it. I mean, I wasn't standing right next to him, but. Whatever he. Put in his reports afterwards, it was all he remembered from that day. Incredible.

What did you think you wanted you feel? When you saw the level of destruction in East Louisville and what you saw in Brandenburg, what do you think about that? I've never, I've never seen anything like that. Ever. Now, I've been on a couple flood surveys in East Kentucky. Flood damage, I used to say, after the Tornadoes. Might be worse than Tornadoes. Tornadoes you just you're able to just just. Scrape it Clean and build back. You never get the mud out of your house. Well don't get into that.. HAHAHA OK, but. As far as I can remember I I didn't have the feeling that I was part of history that day. It was just at work. And. A lot of Identical type stuff occurred in fourteen of the states, or 13 other states. So looking back. Obviously the April 3rd 1974 outbreak changed everything for meteorology. Can talk about some of the changes you witnessed following the 74 event. Well, I mean. If you're going to the weather, present day weather office. You don't see any paper maps. Linging the walls. You see it kind of a quiet. You don’t hear anything. Ohh, kind of a dark and not dark, but low light and you see a person. Sitting in a chair with about three or four screens. And. There. That's that's there day at the office. Still, this piece is yellow teletype paper. Running it, you know, you forget them and they're running off in the floor and you gotta go to the paper maps. Look look at an upper air like. What, 850 mb.. 5000 feet? You look at 8:50. Jared. Again, the gal today is looking at 4 screens and they can call up whatever they want. They have the moisture pattern. Better. Shows the moisture in atmosphere and all that stuff but. I don't know what all this. It just didn't happen, but it came on slowly. Before I retired. We. Well, at one time I had to beg central office to get my secretary electric typewriter. Then one day. They show up with. It was called. I forgot. Excuse me, You're fine. Ohh wait over there.

OK. I've got this thing turned off. OK, one day computer show up. Big Blue boxes with one screen. And I don't know what capability was, but it was the computer. So slowly the weather, the paper maps went away and. Computers got more. Have you been to the weather office here in Louisville? That was built my last year and a half. Ohh, I wasn't going to sign the paper, but like in February of 1992 that was completed signed off. But funds and government become available in October 1st, so they didn't open that office until early 93. In my memory, that's. And so you. All the stuff that's happened since they opened up that office, they didn't have all the. Technology they have now so. And I, I haven't been to that office many times. I'm almost in just a wasted trip through weather and see John Gordon. Tight? Right.

OK. All these years later, when you look back on April 3rd, 1974, what are your most vivid memories from that day. Well, we had.. this is. And I can't remember. What direction are radar room was? Whatever, but. My chair was up against the wall. Those state police Speakers, three of them up there. Above my head there was a great big old desk. Facing that way and an Earth one facing this way, and that's those ready to go. The office that day. That's all I remember. I can't remember. The layout. I just don't. I remember. I could get up and turn left and. Somehow would get out on the mezzanine. If you want to look across to like John Burke did, do not that's. That's just it. So You will find that as you age. You do forget a few things. Hey trust me I know, I know, every day..

Any final thoughts you have about the outbreak, about your personal experience Before, After. No, I guess. I guess that's about it. Appreciate you guys. They're remembering after all these years. There’s lots, hundreds and thousands of people in this local area here that. Well, there was a tornado 74, yeah. It comes up the year that the river froze over 77. Two legal blizzards that pops up with. Anymore 50 years of I know hear that much about remembering the tornado, I'm sure this year there will be. Good coverage of it come April. I would, I would assume so I just. Two tornado events since 74 in this area one was 1996 and you had the F4 that went through Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, right? 1996 and then Fast forward to 2012. I think I was out on my deck when that happened. Is that right? I mean, I knew that. There was a on TV and stuff.. Been tracking a storm. It was Easter and I remember going out there and not just black clouds and stuff, but I didn't know what was happening at the time. But came back in and what long it was on TV. Yeah, yeah. So that was a big deal, huge deal, a lot of lot of homes destroyed in 1996 and you Fast forward. 2012 and that was the Henryville tornado. Which of course hurt a lot of people that were a few deaths with that one, but that was a massive story. It was a huge story and these were just two F4’s. Separated by 16 years, 16 years between the two. Two F4’s make huge news. April 3rd, 1974. There were 23. On the same day, and then there were SEVEN F5’s Which is unheard of. Where did it? You know, where the 5’s were? The first touchdown of an F5 touchdown at DePaul, Indiana. And that's the one that tracked thru Palmyra. That was the F5. Brandenburg, as you know, was enough fun. A third and five touchdowns. Touchdown at Sailor Park, Cincinnati. Right. And then to the South, there were three across northern Alabama and far southern Tennessee. Never before, yeah. quite an amazing stat that just just it's good glaring that we've never seen. Prior to 1974 there had never been more than two out F5’s in the same day. Never been more than two.

I remember going through the years there were more and more tornadoes. My theory was there's not more and more tornadoes, there's more and more people to get in the path of tornadoes. Tornado alley was Oklahoma and what you know? Let's say there is. 10 people in Oklahoma when you first started looking at them and then thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Of course back in the 70’s people didn't have a lot of cameras. Now everyone's got a camera in their pocket. So everybody, every tornado gets recorded. I remember. I’m not sure if Dr. Fujita said this or what? Sometime later. There was more. Feedback. On that day than he had ever seen before from just from. Regular cameras, anyway. Anyway, You know, right? Right. People didn't have these, no. I just ran across a new video I've never seen before of a tornado on 74. It was released by Purdue University, which I'm calling them today. Kennard Indiana.. Kennard Indiana was hit by an F4. A multi-vortex twister. Great video, especially for the day, but again, another example. From 74 all these eyewitnesses come forward with these. You’d mentioned multivortex, I've never heard that before 74. Pictures start showing up. I've never heard that. Right. You know, time it's amazing. Well my friend, thank you for having us. I enjoyed having you guys here. Hope you get what you need of course. Alright. Thanks a lot my friend. I appreciate you. Are you going to.. Do you sell it to people? Yeah, we’ll see what comes of it. This is this is a personal project to me.. so you could show up where. When we finish it, I'll be sure to send you links..

-Jeremy Kappell

Meteorologist, Journalist, Writer, Speaker, Broadcaster