Today is Palm Sunday. It is also April Fools Day. However, I am going to discuss the headlines in today's Columbia which read TALES FROM A TWISTER. There were pictures of the devastation, articles and memories too. Then they asked readers to submit any memories they might have of that day. I don't feel my memories are of i9nterest to most people, but I thought I would share them with you.
April 5, 1972 started out like any other day. Breakfast, bath, chores. Then I went downtown to shop. After lunch at Joe Brown's cafe I started up Fourth Plain, on my way to buy a few groceries at Waremart and then home. As I stopped for a red light I realized that just a block off Fourth Plain was a grocery store. If I stopped there it would save a little time. What made me do this is amazing. I had never been to that store.....It was just a sudden decision.
After leaving the store, I headed up Fourth Plain again on my way home. Barney, my German Shepherd was very nervous when I arrived paced and just acted funny. A few3 minutes later I heard a big blast of wind and looked out the window. A HUGE ball of debris was flying past my window and I thought, boy, if we lived in the South I'd swear we were having a tornado. I didn't know what it was so I turned on the radio. Nothing but soft music. Finally I turned it on our local station.
The reports were shocking. People were killed in Waremart where I would have been at that very time. Peter S. Ogden School was demolished. My friend Kathy Cusack taught school there. Suddenly I heard sirens, which screamed for hours (all afternoon and most of the night). I called my husband, who was working at Good Samaritan Hospital. Portland had no idea the devastation that was going on just across the river.
My friend who was just going to come down Andresen hill said she looked and thought a bomb had dropped on the city. The streets were blocked so people couldn't get to there homes, wires were down. It was one big mess
The thing I remember most was that God was certainly with me on that day. Why didn't I go to my regular store? Why did the storm pass right in front of my house and not do one bit of damage to it? It rally made me feel cared for at a very dangerous time.
My friend Kathy went to my church. On Sunday, she told the congregation what it was like when the wind hit her school. And she said, maybe you can't pray in school, but when I got my kids out of there we prayed.
Seven people died in that storm, Waremart, the school and the bowling alley were destroyed and many homes had damage to them. It is now 40 years later and I remember that day as if it were yesterday.
Until next time
Be Kind to One Another
Joyce
I remember this day too! I was working in North Portland in an office with a big glass door in front of my desk. I saw the sky getting darker and darker and lots of rain. I was 19 years old and getting married in three days and the staff teased that the I-5 bridge had been washed away (no we didn't know what had happened in vancouver). When we did...I began to worry about my mom...she was 6 months pregnant and had planned to be out doing some last minute stuff for my wedding. No cell phone then...I heard a roof was ripped off a church ... I was certain it was my church (it wasn't)...and relieved when I finally got home and family was fine and sad that others had lost their lives. 40 years and folks who lived here still remember that blustery devastating day!
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