County of memorial: Marion County
ocation of memorial: US 278 & US 43, downtown Guin
Disaster: April 3, 1974 F5 Trnado
"Butch Frye can’t shake the memories.
"A tornado struck the heart of the northwest Alabama town of Guin on April 3, 1974, killing 25 residents on a day when more than 300 died nationally in one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history. In all, the weather service says at least 86 people were fatally injured in north Alabama.
"Thirty years later, the scarcity of big trees along the storm path remains a daily reminder of what happened that night in Guin -- as if the survivors need any help recalling.
"The terror is still vivid for many: Frye remembers seeing the orange glow of the twister as it devastated his hometown, hearing the low-pitched roar of the funnel and finding a 16-year-old girl dying in the middle of a street.
'“You could hear screaming and crying, just bloodcurdling screams,” Frye said in an interview this week.
"English teacher Joann Tidwell rode out the tornado in a closet with her son Shawn, about 10 at the time. Her husband Dennis was going around the house opening windows when the twister hit -- a safety practice of the time that has since been discarded by experts.
"Neither Tidwell nor anyone in her immediate family was hurt, but one of her students died. The girl is buried at the city cemetery beside her parents, who also were killed.
'“It just sticks in my mind. She was an only child,” Tidwell said.
"At least eight tornadoes hit Alabama that day, including four extremely strong ones that stayed on the ground the longest and caused the most damage and death. People died in seven counties, including Lawrence, where a family of six was wiped out.
"Nationally, the town of Xenia, Ohio, lost the most people that day: 33.
"Alabama’s death toll from the ’74 storms is second only to that of March 21, 1932, when more than 270 people were killed when a series of tornadoes swept through the state.
"Saturday, a ceremony will be held at Athens State University to remember the victims on the 30th anniversary of the 1974 outbreak. A similar ceremony was held Wednesday night in Guin, which had never officially recognized the victims aside from a memorial plaque beside City Hall.
"About 250 people attended the vigil at the First Baptist Church of Guin. There was a candle and a red rose for each of the 23 people townspeople killed that night and two others who died later of injuries suffered in the tornado.
"Mayor Phil Seagraves said it’s taken three decades for the 2,300 people of Guin to come to grips with the calamity of the storm, which injured about 250 people, destroyed about 50 homes, damaged 200 more and all but wiped out the town’s business district. Vacant lots remain.
'“We don’t want to be known for a disaster. It’s like having a disease named for you,” Seagraves said. “But I think we’re finally facing it now for the first time.”
"Mildred McGuire said survivors remain skittish about the weather in Guin, where city officials estimated as many as 75 percent of the homes have storm shelters. A new one was built just a few years ago for people at a government housing project that lacks basements.
"McGuire suffered a broken back and pelvis when the tornado picked up her house and threw it about 30 feet. She remembers the sound of her three plate-glass windows shattering and how a stone planter and an electric organ were sucked out a window as the walls collapsed.
"The sound, she said, was deafening. “It was like jets and trains all mixed together.”
"Two brothers, ages 12 and 19, died across the street from McGuire’s home. Volunteers came from all over the country to help their family and other victims, yet the pain lingered for years before fading.
'“People got on with their lives,” McGuire said. “It makes you appreciate how fortunate you are.”" ~ Tuscaloosa News, by Jay Reeves / The Associated Press - April 3, 2004