Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Saturday, December 14,1974
Page 16
Brandenburg
By 808 WESTON
BRANDENBURG, Ky. (UPI)
— The story of Brandenburg is
essentially a tale of two cities—
the one that existed before the
April 3 tornado and the one now
struggling to rise from the
ruins.
It also is the story of a
determination to make the
quiet Ohio River community
about 50 miles southwest of
Louisville a better place to live
for the approximately 1,700
survivors of that horrible April
day.
Thirty-two Brandenburg resi
dents died in the tornado, at
least 50 were seriously injured
and damage totaled more than
$7 million.
“We can never bring back
the people we lost in the
tornado, but we can come back
bigger, better, and stronger,
and we intend to,’’ said Henry
“Monk" Ross, Brandenburg’s
affable, white-haired mayor.
Jane Willis, editor of the
Meade County Messenger locat
ed in downtown Brandenburg,
said that “at least 60 per cent
of the people who lost their
homes have built back and less
than 20 families are still living
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in the trailers provided by the
federal government.”
For Mrs. Shirley Miles,
proprietor of an apparel shop
just across the street from the
newspaper offices, the tornado
was one of a series of
misfortunes to plague her
family this year.
“When New Year’s Eve
Makeshift city hall at Brandenburg.
comes, we’ll really be celebrat
ing a good riddance to 1974,”
she said. “I can’t imagine ever
going through a worse year in
my life.”
Just two days before the big
tornado churned through town
and heavily damaged her store,
The Hitching Post, another
twister sent a hugh tree
crashing down on the Miles
home south of Brandenburg.
Mrs. Miles, her husband and
son were unhurt.
“It made our home uhliva
ble,” she said. “For the next
six weeks, we moved from one
relative’s home to another each
week while our house was being
rebuilt.
“That Wednesday afternoon
when the big tornado came, my
husband and some other men
were doing repair work on our
house when he saw a funnel
cloud heading toward Branden
burg. He ran to a house across
the road and phoned me to take
cover in the store.”
In addition to the tornado
damage, and that from a heavy
rain coming in through a hole
ripped in the roof, the shop
more recently was hit by an
avalanche from an eroding cliff
behind the building during
another deluge. That buckled
the floor of the store.
“We’ve had a tornado sale
and a mud sale,” Mrs. Miles
said. “I don’t know what will
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Tornado left its mark on Kentucky community.
be next.”
Most Brandenburg residents
probably would join Mrs. Miles
in a New Year’s Eve toast to
the end of 1974 as a year they’d
like to forget.
Take Jane O’Bryan, an office
employe for the Meade County
Rural Electric Cooperative.
Her father, 93, and mother,
82, were killed in the tornado
that destroyed the home she
shared with them. The storm
also demolished the office
where she worked and even
destroyed her car parked
nearby as she and some 20
other employes huddled in a
basement for safety.
“They say time is a great
healer, but it is awfully hard to
get over all that happened that
day,” she said. “My parents
were well along in years, but
they were still enjoying life
very much.”
Much as they may want to
forget 1974, Brandenburg’s citi
zens still see daily unpleasant
reminders of that April day.
There is the makeshift City
Hall in a one story, storefront
building shared with an insur
ance agency for $l7O-a-month
rent. The old City Hall was
leveled by the tornado.
County offices now are
dispersed in a half-dozen
trailers, in the public library,
and elsewhere because the
tornado destroyed the County
Courthouse.
The city government, already
heavily debt-laden from a
federal water and sewer system
loan obtained several years
i Come and join the crowds 11
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| Experiment Street I I
RALPH S ESTES. PASTOR | |
? A
J 9:45 A.MSunday School I |
I 11:00 A. MMorning Worship = |
j “The Excitement of Christmas” | |
Acts 2:22-26 WHIE Radio 5 2
i ’
j 6:00 P.MChurch Training | |
7:00 p.M Evening Worship j j
I “Why Wait” | |
Psalms 39: 1-8 a a
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ago, was backed to the wall by
the loss of an estimated one
third of taxable property in the
tornado.
“We are hoping to get the
government to cancel our
remaining debt on the water
and sewer system,” Mayor
Ross said. “That would be
about $700,000 if it was paid up
now. If the government does
not grant us forgiveness on this
loan, I guess they’ll have to
come in and take over the
water system.”
Bob Jones, manager of
Brandenburg’s radio station,
WMMG-FM, which was reduced
to rubble by the twister, sees
the tornado recovery as a
crossroads challenge.
“For many years, we have
been losing most of our bright
young people when they went
away to college and located
somewhere else because there
was not much to bring them
back to Brandenburg,” he said.
“I hope we can seize this
opportunity to rebuild and grow
so our young people will want
to stay and contribute to the
vitality of this town.”
INSURANCE FACTS
NEW YORK (UPI) - A total
of SI,BOO billion worth of
insurance was in force for
Americans at the beginning of
the year, according to the
Institute of Life Insurance.
California ranked No. 1 among
the states with a total of $172.4
billion; Alaska last, with $2.4
billion.
% 3000 3 / 024 3048 r\
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.AH FRANCISCO/'"l^ eN * EI J ] 30M
LOWEST TEMFEMATUtES\y-y / \ \
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FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA — Increasing cloudiness tonight with chance of rain
near morning. I4>ws around 40 tonight. Rain likely tomorrow with highs around 50.
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11.00 AM MORNING WORSHIP -
SERMON BY THE PASTOR
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6:30 P.M. CHURCH TRAINING - FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
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