Xenia Tornado: 35 Years Later

It has been 35 years since a fatal tornado ripped through the city of Xenia. The twister flattened homes and businesses and killed more than 30 people.

The Dodds Monument Building is the home of News Center 7’s Greene County Bureau and was one of the few buildings in the city that survived the winds of the F5 tornado.

News Center 7’s Gabrielle Enright said residents of Xenia stop her everyday and tell her that they remember what they where doing on April 3, 1974 when WHIO-TV Meteorologist Gil Whitney broke into programming and told them to take cover as a tornado was coming.

Thousands of people were affected, resulting in 30 deaths. Many people who survived the tornado and lost their homes stayed in Xenia and rebuilt.