1970 tornado proves old Indian legend wrong years ago
Marion received significant damage during storm 34 years ago this week
Staff writer
Floods and their destruction were a way of life for early Marion residents, but an old Indian legend led generations of townspeople to believe that at least they were safe from the ravages of tornadoes.
"We were always told the Indians said that since the town was built in the fork of two rivers, a tornado would never hit here," recalled Roger "Bud" Hannaford II.
Unfortunately, the old Indian legend was wrong.
Some Marionites had a rude awakening 34 years ago when they were jolted by the sound of a tornado ripping through town at 11:40 p.m. Monday, March 2, 1970.
"After the tornado, people said it hit Marion because we changed the fork of the river," Hannaford said.
There were no deaths directly attributed to the tornado, although one family was injured. Mr. and Mrs. Roy Sawyer and son Robert, were taken to St. Luke Hospital by ambulance after the tornado hit their trailer home located on South First Street. Roy Sawyer was later taken to intensive care in a Wichita hospital.
"They found that man in a tree. The tornado blew him across the street and into a tree," commented Marion resident Tommy Thompson.
The tornado traveled southwest to northeast from Third Street to the Main Street bridge over to the Elm Street area leaving a wake of damage in its path — which was a quarter mile wide at times.
"Damage to homes on north hill was extensive," the March 5, 1970, edition of the Marion County Record reported. "The path turned north of Elm Street following on the left side of the street, on the Mud (Luta) Creek side.
"For a thousand feet or more along Elm Street, big trees, yard lamps, porches, and electric or telephone wires were crushed and lifted," the Marion County Record reported.
Downtown Marion escaped the brunt of the storm although many businesses sustained window and roof damage.
The Marion County Courthouse, however, was not so lucky.
"The clock tower looked like its eyes were plucked out," the Marion County Record reported, and the flag pole "lay on the ground twisted like a pretzel."
At first, it appeared the courthouse was pretty much "blown away," according to a first assessment made by Dick Hartwell, a consulting engineer from Wichita.
"Initially, looking from the outside, Hartwell felt discouraged," the newspaper reported. But "from hour to hour when the true facts of engineering are considered, the courthouse is sound."
The northeast gable tower was torn away and the ornamental facade above the north door was torn lose, but left standing in its third story position. Several rocks from the clock tower, weighing a few hundred pounds each, were left in the second floor corridor, and much of the building's slate roof was missing. It was found later after having "punctured holes in roofs six blocks away."
The Art Loewen Giant Wash and the Cottage Hotel, located directly west of the courthouse and south of the Marion County Record office (in the area where the car wash is now located) were badly damaged.
The front plate glass windows in the newspaper office were blown out, along with some other windows. However, the print shop was left intact and the Marion County Record hit the streets three days later on Thursday, its usual publishing date at the time.
The second floor of the Record building, which was then the home of Hannaford Title Co., also lost its windows. But nothing else, Hannaford said.
Little warning
In the waning hours of March 2, a tornado was reported on the ground northeast of Newton. It was that storm system which spawned the tornado that hit Marion.
Marion County Sheriff's dispatcher Sterling "Squeak" Frame was on duty in the dispatch room and did his best to alert the community. He remained at the microphone, despite the fact the office was located on the second floor of the Marion County Courthouse.
"Squeak rode out the storm dispatching all the time while the courthouse was falling down around him," recalled Bill Meyer, Marion County Record publisher. "He deserved to be commended."
Betty Thompson, a courthouse employee at the time, said Frame was "scared to death" of storms.
"Squeak stood by his guns and never left his post," Betty said. "He said 'I had to let the people know what was going on.'"
Marion City policeman Earl Pankratz and chief of police Lyle Sanders also were on duty at the time, the Marion County Record reported. After the tornado passed, those listening to police band radio heard the message, "It just blew hell out of Main Street."
While Frame's messages alerted those with police band radios, a train engineer tried his best to warn others of the danger.
"A Rock Island engineer went through Marion with the tornado. From a mile or two north of town, the train whistle began a shrill warning and kept it up," the Marion County Record reported.
But most Marion residents said they had no warning. Harvey Sanders, director of public utilities for the City of Marion, said the city had two sirens at that time which were used to notify the community of fires, floods, and other disasters.
"But this one dropped so fast out of the sky there was no time to alert anyone," Sanders said Tuesday.
So Marion residents were caught unaware.
"We were going to bed and just heard a roar which kept getting louder and louder and we realized this was something we hadn't heard before," recalled Matthew Classen, who lived at 702 Sherman at the time.
"We got the kids up and were heading to the basement. But by the time we were up it was over. Then the neighbors began coming out to see what had happened," Classen said.
The storm pulled the Classens' porch off its pillars, wiped out their TV antenna, and did an unusual thing:
"We had those old regular storm windows then. It raised the storm window up and deposited mud and straw next to the inside window and then put the storm window back down," Classen recalled. "I guess it creates a vacuum.
"The chimney on the house south of us was ripped apart and one of the bricks went through our upstairs window," he said.
Classen said the weather that Monday was one of those days where "you could just feel a storm a' brewing.
"It was a very stormy, threatening evening," Classen said. "We didn't have radar on TV and all that back then but it was very humid and we could tell rain or something else was coming."
Jack Beaston, 221 N. Locust, wasn't too impressed by the storm — initially.
"Actually, I didn't think much about it until my brother-in-law woke me up to tell me my garage was gone," Beaston said. "We never did find the north side of it. It dropped down on my truck and car. Luckily, they were repairable."
In contrast, the only damage Beaston's house suffered was a 2x4 which went through the roof.
As the owner of Beaston's Market, located where Bearly Makin It Antiques is now located, Beaston came downtown to assess the damage.
"Stores on each side of me had broken windows. I didn't even have one. But on the little ledge outside the window the slate from the courthouse roof was just sitting there like someone had stacked it up about six to eight inches deep," Beaston said. "I picked up all I could carry to move it and I could hardly lift it."
Hannaford, 224 N. Elm, said his wife, Lavonne, had played host that night for women in her "ladies club."
"The ladies had just gone home and Lavonne and I were sitting in the kitchen having a cup of coffee and we heard a roar," Hannaford recalled.
The Hannafords went upstairs to get their daughter Gayle — who was a little resistant at the time — to come downstairs when they heard a post on the front porch give way.
"A window on our south side was broken and we had some broken windows, but it took our neighbor's roof off. They had a two-story barn structure and it ended up in the street," Hannaford said.
"That thing went treetop level. If it had been lower it could have done a lot of damage," he added.
Jerry Higgins' home, located at 415 N. Lincoln, received the tornado's "final and most telling thrust to residences," the Marion County Record reported.
"We were in bed and started hearing something hitting the side of the house. Then we heard a noise like bees, only a higher pitch. We knew we had to get the kids out and were heading into the hallway when it hit.
"It picked off the roof in our living room and slammed it back down," Higgins recalled. "It blew out all the windows. We were lucky that after the tornado hit it quit raining almost immediately.
"We looked up in the living room and saw stars," he added.
Interestingly, a couple of the windows which were blown out were removed in a circular pattern, he said.
"We had slate from the courthouse all over our yard along with a thermometer from a downtown business," Higgins said. "Ours was the last house in town it hit and it just dumped everything here."
While the tornado made a big impression on people living in its path, some residents living in other parts of town didn't even know one had come through.
"My mother was scared to death of storms and was living with us at the time," Betty Thompson, 702 S. Coble, said. "So anytime there was a storm we headed to the basement. But that night, none of us heard a thing."
Betty's husband Tommy, who was postmaster at the time, said he always started his day off with breakfast at the Owl Car Café.
"I went downtown to breakfast at six o'clock and the lights were off and there were boards across the window at the Owl Car," T. Thompson said. "Lucille Britain came by (city clerk at the time) and I asked what was going on.
"She said, 'We had a tornado last night. It blew off part of the courthouse.'"
Arriving at the post office, T. Thompson discovered it also had damage.
"The north half of the post office roof was gone. We never did find that roof," he said.
Aftermath
After the storm passed, publisher, editor and reporter Meyer and his wife, Joan, came downtown to see if the Record office was damaged and to cover the big event.
"People just started showing up and pitched in," Meyer said. "It was the middle of the night and the lumber yards opened up so people could get plywood to board up the windows.
"By daybreak, everything downtown had been completely cleaned up and boarded up," Meyer said.
Marion's effectiveness at taking care of itself managed to anger the county's emergency management director at the time, Meyer said.
"The man lived in Hillsboro and he didn't know anything about the tornado until the next day. He came and complained to me that nobody had called him," Meyer said. "I told him that with all the floods, Marion was used to handling emergencies.
"I was really proud of the way Marion people handled the situation in such a businesslike manner," he added.
Although the courthouse looked like it may have been destroyed early on, engineers soon discovered it was structurally sound and repairs began immediately.
Betty and Tommy Thompson said courthouse stones were removed, then numbered and placed in the yard until they could be returned to their rightful place.
"It didn't tear up the inside too much," Betty Thompson recalled. "We still had to go to work."
Marion itself wasn't the only area in the county damaged by the 1970 tornado. Rural areas, including the Ralph Ewert farm west of Peabody, also suffered major damage.
In the 34 years since the tornado, Marion has had its share of wind storms but nothing which could match that particular storm's fury. The remainder of the county, however, has not always been so fortunate.
Most everyone who experienced the 1970 storm said that if they didn't have a healthy respect for tornadoes before, they certainly did after.
And despite the fact one leveled his garage, Jerry Higgins said he still finds them fascinating.
"Everyone else heads indoors, but I head the other way," he said with a laugh. "I still go out and look for them."
