Jeremy Kappell / Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Stories from '74: Morgan Elementary's Von Marshall

Von Marshall was the principal at Morgan Elementary in Harrison County Indiana on April 3, 1974. He reflects on the actions he took that day that probably saved many kids and teachers from injury, or worse, as the school was heavily damaged from a mile-wide violent tornado..

00:02 We had no expectation of anything happening that day other than just a normal procedure. I was in the hallway. And 00:18 things got kind of dark outside. And I walked down the hallway and went outside. See what was going on outside? And I saw this tornado coming probably a mile away. And I saw a pickup, a barn, and he took it up in the air

Wait this is too important to miss. So we're have to rewind that again. And go back just before you saw it. I'm gonna go ahead and I got I got songs one too now I just sounds good. Alright, go to right before you saw the tornado. I was in the hallway. And it got dark outside. And I walk down to the end of the hallway. And opened up the doors and went outside and 01:18 in the lower in the West. I saw a tornado coming, or saw a lot of cloud movement. And I thought, well, we should get in the hallway and I went to each room and told them that we need to have a tornado drill and to take a book with you and go to the hallway. And they're all they want to each grade. And they all did that. And then we moved down closer to the cafeteria, which was away from those double doors. And when 02:04 I can remember Judy Becker telling me, hollering at me, and telling me, there went the roofs. We had four rooms built onto the building and they didn't fasten the roof down well, and it picked up the roof. And took it over and the faculty was parked out in that area and through that stuff all on top of the cars. And from then on, we had to get the buses in and we had no notice or anything from the superintendents office that this was gonna it was happening as they stood outside down stay down there and watched it come go by and. And it was a hectic evening getting a lot of the kids didn't have a home to go to, and some of the buses brought kids back to the school. And we kept them there. I was there and to probably till 6:00 or 7:00 that evening. Getting the kids. Parents coming in, getting the kids. And is there anything else you wanna know about it

That was good. You covered a lot of ground. Ohh. I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm gonna have you slow down. Just a couple points and so one. You mentioned that you maybe Did you get a phone call? No, I did not. I got nothing. OK, so go back to hey, there was no warning and go back to when you saw it. And I want your feeling. What did you did you. Did you? Were you scared? Were you anxious? Were you? I was not scared. And I don't know of anybody. It was everything. We had had a few tornado drills. We always had a fire drill and then a tornado drill and I for some reason it did not bother me one bit going to the rooms and tell them to teachers that it was time for us to have a tornado drill. And I don't. To my knowledge they did not know that there was a tornado really coming and I would assure myself is going to hit there. But then when it hit, we knew it and it opened up those double doors down there, this wide open and it sounded like a big train uh-commin. That’s what it sounded like. And that was the only oldest we got, was just our own observation.

After you got all the kids to go to shelter, where Where did what did you do? What did I do? And to make arrangements to have school next day no before that ohh one that. The kids in the right place, right When the Torian was hidden, where were you? What were you doing? I was. Halfway down the hallway towards you, that doors that I went out and all the kids was between me and the cafeteria. And then when did you know that you lost the roof? When Judy Beckert hollered at me and said Mr. Marshall, there went through. And it was gone. It took the rough, and some of the chairs danced and left to splash water hanging on the blackboard. Hell. It was unreal what that tornado did, what it didn't do. How are the kids and how are the teachers? Using teachers were well behaved. I'll let Terry address end. Of course my wife was a counselor there at that time or third treat 3rd grade teacher at that time and she had kids too when, but we were all. Then the wall dealt down, sitting on the floor with a book over their heads. And.

So when the tornado past and you saw the damage What did you think and feel? And then what were the reactions from the teachers? Kids? I think, well, the teachers. I don't know what they really did with the kids, but we had the buses came in and picked up the kids. But then they, like I said, they brought part of them back because they didn't have no house left to go to. And had we kept America until the parents made arrangements to come and get them. And it was probably 40 or 50 kids. That we had, think it was 400 and something in the building at that time.

So of the 400 speak to the fact that no one was hurt. Maybe like so all the 400 kids, nobody got hurt, right? Nobody got hurt. You wanna say that as a sentence or two? There was no nobody got hurt and we were very fortunate. And I I don't. I'm not gonna say we were lucky because we had had four tornado drills. And we down the right thing at the right time and there was nobody got hurt. But some of their teachers had trouble getting their cars out of there. You ever think about how a man in different had you not looked out those doors? Yes. 07:59 I oftentimes think about what would have happened if I hadn't looked out the door, if we hadn't had a drill and got them in the hallway. And there's two placks. We got. People recognizing how safe we kept the kids. So the parents were notified. That the school took a hit. They know they was not notified, but they knew it somewhere. The word got around in a hurry. And. The parents, they couldn't call in case we only had one telephone line coming in there and it was busy all the time. And I'd called the Superintendent’s office and told them we've been hit. And the Superintendent came up and workers from Winnings Packing Company came up and. OK, Jacob's they went to Fredericksburg, Martinsburg one. To help out down there. But. We ended up that we had a good insurance company. They put tarps down in the gym and we moved four classrooms that it destroyed out in the gym, and my wife was one of them. And it wasn't the best situation, but we managed and they rebuilt it.

Do you remember any of the reactions of the parents as they got to the school looking for their child? I don't, but my wife I we will, but I don't remember any. Any communications with the parents, I think they was all glad to see that their kids wasn't. Hurt in any way. OK. And anything else you want to add on? I think this is nothing else sad, but there's two plaques that we got to have. I’m actually going to have you hold these up? There you go. If you just wanna ohh well. One of those is upside down. Sorry. This one plaque here was. From the PTO. And his father plaque was from the Farm Bureau. That they said it to us, thanking us for. Being good managers or their kids at a difficult time. Alright, that's good my friend. Appreciate that. Alright, thank you very much. Well, I'll get the clap for you too, Scott. Well we'll see how scott does now now i don't have that's that that i wanted to hear you speaking because that's you know i was just in second grade

-Jeremy Kappell

Meteorologist, Journalist, Writer, Speaker, Broadcaster