Residents recall events from 1971
Fifty years ago Friday the homes of residents went dark about 7:40 p.m. when a tornado with 80 mph winds hit Marysville and most of southern Union County.
The harsh winds caused a severe electrical storm and approximately four inches of rain. In her “Off the Hook” column in the June 23, 2017 issue of the Journal-Tribune, Melanie Behrens recalled that the ”wind-driven rain was just so strong, it was coming in around the windows” of the house she shared with her husband Dan Behrens, former publisher of the newspaper.
A state of emergency was declared in the wake of the storm on Friday, June 25, 1971.
The tornado resulted in approximately $1 million to $2 million in damage to the city and surrounding areas, including many homes, family barns in the Raymond area, businesses and stores. Notably, the Marysville Drive-In Theater was destroyed when winds ripped through the screen and ticket booth.
Warehouse No. 4 at the O.M. Scott Chemical Plant also sustained significant damage to its roof and wall. Over 30 barns in the path of the storm were blown down in Liberty Township and the steeple was lifted off the Church of Christ in Christian Union in Raymond. Additionally, two greenhouses at the Gilcrest property were demolished and part of the roofs at the Campbell and Gilcrest buildings were damaged.
According to the June 29, 1971 issue of the Journal-Tribune, a home near Irwin on Route 161 exploded after being struck by lightning.
Melanie Behrens reported that the temporary office of the Journal-Tribune on North Main Street sustained “extensive damage” as the current building was under construction at the corner of Fourth and Main streets.
“Glass was covering North Main Street and papers from the business office were all over the area. Following this discovery, [Dan] went on an urgent search for plywood to cover the open areas,” Melanie Behrens wrote.
Larry Ohnsman, who has resided in Marysville for more than 70 years, said he was leaving town for Washington D.C. the night of the storm. Ohnsman remembers noticing the sky was unusually dark for a summer evening as he approached Columbus on his drive. He was away for about two weeks, but when he returned to Marysville he said “it looked like a war zone.”
The storm took out many of the large trees along the uptown streets, including the canopy of trees on Fifth Street, leaving hundreds of tree limbs on the city streets from east to west.
“The town was pretty much closed down from each end,” said life-long resident Bill McCarthy. “Many of the streets were closed from trees being down and lines being down.”
McCarthy lost power for five to six days after a tree fell on the power line by his house, but he said it was not uncommon for residents to be without power in the aftermath of the tornado. Several large trees also fell down in his backyard.
“A lot of people were going around helping other people because they had power saws,” McCarthy added.
McCarthy’s son, Tom, of McCarthy & Cox, also said “all you heard was the buzzing of chain saws” for several days in town.
The winds also blew away the sign off the pole of the family business, McCarthy Pharmacy. Tom McCarthy said the sign was replaced with a flush mount sign on the building after the storm.
With the power out at the pharmacy, Tom McCarthy said his family invited neighbors over to eat the big tubs of ice cream the family had before they melted.
He said he was playing a baseball game in Raymond the night of the tornado.
“Before the storm actually came, we were all looking across the field at the sky,” Tom McCarthy said, adding that the “sky was ugly.”
When 13-year-old Tom approached the plate to bat, his batting helmet blew off and dust was swirling. His uncle, who served as the umpire, called the game.
Tom McCarthy, his mother and his younger sister began the drive home to Marysville, but they had to pull over because “you couldn’t see anything it was raining so hard.”
Melanie Behrens reported that the storm swept through on the evening of the annual Fireman’s Ice Cream Social at the fire station on South Main Street, bringing the event to an end quickly.
“Trees had fallen on cars parked in the street and roofs had been ripped off trailers,” Behrens wrote.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities reported after the Friday night tornado.
The Richwood Police assisted Marysville Police that Friday night into Saturday. About 120 Ohio National Guardsmen of the 136th Battalion also responded to the city to prevent looting until Sunday evening. Residents were not allowed into Marysville from U.S. 33 and other entrances without identification to prove they lived there.
“As Dan drove through town around the downed trees, he was stopped to identify himself. It took some convincing to get through to the newspaper,” Melanie Behrens wrote. Outside traffic was only permitted in Marysville for church services over the weekend.
“Saturday morning the enormous task of cleanup started. There was no panic,” wrote resident Jean Goche in the June 29, 1971 issue of the Journal-Tribune. “Everyone who could helped or shared what they had with others.”
Cleanup crews, consisting of workers from the Civil Defense units in neighboring counties, arrived to pick up rubbish and fallen trees throughout Marysville over the weekend.
The Red Cross provided food for the workers on scene during the weekend. Then, the Women’s Auxiliary of the Plain City and Marysville Fire Department took over the role of serving the hundreds of volunteer workers, including 50 members of the Mennonite Disaster Service who arrived in Marysville with chainsaws and equipment, over the next week.
Reports indicate that the storm severed phone lines in Marysville. The Journal-Tribune archives state that nearly 5,000 customers experienced outages as a result of lightning and downed poles.
“Twelve auxiliary power generators were moved in from all over the state along with semi-trucks loaded with replacements,” wrote Clara Miller, former Journal-Tribune reporter, in June 1971.
Limited communication was available during the severe storm via stand-by emergency power, Roy Harless, then-manager of the local telephone company, told the Journal-Tribune at the time of the tornado.
After being cleaned of debris, the local swimming pool reopened the following Tuesday.
The Journal-Tribune archives from the week after the tornado state complete restoration of homes and business buildings was expected to take up to months as hundreds of large, destroyed trees were being dragged to the city dump.
Although Marysville, Bellefontaine, Urbana, Raymond and Peoria were hit hard by the storm, no “noticeable damage” was reported in Richwood, according to the July 1, 1971 issue of The Richwood Gazette.