46th Anniversary of 1975 Good Friday Tornado

Saturday, March 29, 1975 page 13 of the El Dorado News-Times

By Gregg Reep

salineriverchronicle.com

It's hard to believe, but the math does not lie.  This March 28 will be the 46th anniversary of the Good Friday Tornado that hit the outskirts of town and rambled through a large portion of the southern portion of the City Friday March 28, 1975, which coincided with Good Friday that year.  

Many Warren residents will recall the evening the storm hit and the death, injuries, and damage it imposed on the community.  It is the type of event one never forgets or totally gets over, even if your family was spared.

According to published information, the storm covered 5.4 miles, was 250 yards wide and was rated an F4, which is on the higher scale of strong tornadoes.  It developed just southwest of Warren and created death and damage before it hit the city limits, where it continued to reign havoc.  Some 151 structures were destroyed and another 100 sustained major damage.  The Potlatch Bradley Mill was seriously damaged.  Worst of all there were seven fatalities and 50 injuries.  Fatalities consisted of the following:

• Ellis Clanton, 61
• Fay McKinstry, 45
• John Frey, 75
• Danny Boyd, 22
• Brenda Stoddard, 41
• Marilyn Robertson, 36
• Gentenval Morgan, 85

It was a devastating early evening and shattered the Warren community which required months to clean up and rebuild.  Rebuild, the community did, as did Potlatch.

On a personal note, this writer had just picked up my girlfriend, later my wife, and upon arriving at her house near S. Bradley and Park Lane Streets, was told by her father to go to my parents house because he believed a storm was coming and they lived in a mobile home. We quickly headed that way driving west on Park Lane, north on Myrtle and cutting through the small street boardering the Fullerton Homes on South Main, then headed west on Wheeler Street.  We were driving right into the storm without knowing.  At the intersection on Fullerton and Wheeler Streets where my parents lived on the northwest corner, I could see fire flashing just west of the Bradley Mill, which was just across the street from our house to the south.  I thought lightning had struck something.  It was in fact the tornado ripping up power lines.  As I pulled into the driveway on the westside of the house I saw my father standing holding the door open.  When I opened the car door I could hear the storm roaring.  Like they say, it sounds like a freight train.  We dashed into the house and dove under a bed.  It was my father, my mother, my younger brother, my girlfriend and our dog.  The house began to shake and the windows began to explode like cannons going off.  For just a few seconds I thought we were gone.  Then the sound rumbled off down the street.  When we got up it was pitch black due to no electricity and as our eyes adjusted we could look outside and see what appeared to be a bombed-out war zone.  Without knowing you could not know where any street was located.  

Gradually neighbors began to stir and everyone in the immediate area was all right.  We later learned there was a death at the mill.  It was a gentleman I attended church with at the time.  I remember that in a matter of minutes the temperature fell rapidly and it became very cold.  

It took time to clean up and rebuild, but that very night city crews and volunteers went to work searching for the injured and clearing the streets.  John B. Frazer, Jr. had just been elected Mayor in late 1974 and had been in office not quite three months.  He took charge, and working with other local officials and then Governor David Pryor, started to put Warren back into operation.  In many ways the community came back stronger, but the hurt and pain of loss could not be erased.  It is a memory that will never leave those of us who were here or had loved ones here.

Many people of that time also remembered the January 3, 1949 tornado that also hit Warren, following some of the same path that killed over 50 people.  The city has survived and thrived.  But we never forget and are thankful for what we have.  Nowadays we have a local warning system and tv weather is much better and more accurate.  Always be alert and prepared when storms are predicted.