A storm roared thru south Marion Monday evening (April 29, 1963), leaving thousands of dollars in damage but no injuries.
Worst hit was the Parish Park Heights Subdivision area, where a trailer was almost severed by a fallen tree, a partially completed house was leveled, and several other houses, including one with a caved-in brick wall were damaged.
Charles Keltner, 1200 Woodland Court, in the subdivision, was in his back yard when he saw the “flying wedge” coming.
“We didn’t wait around,” Keltner said. His family moved quickly to the basement where he watched the house Bill Butler of Marion had been constructing raised two feet off the foundation and then crushed.
He said he first saw the cloud at 6:10 p.m. about a mile away. “As it came nearer it sounded like the roar of the ocean and a freight train,” Keltner said.
A Home Is Crushed In the path was the crushed mobile home of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Joyner, 917 South Virginia, adjacent to the subdivision road.
We thank God that we were not at home at the time,” said Mrs. Joyner. Beside her and beneath the tree two feet in diameter that had ruined a $10,000, 55-foot trailer were a smashed $800 piano, a $600 television-radio combination, “a fortune” in dishes and other household items. The clock on the kitchen wall was stopped at 6:10 p.m.
Mrs. Joyner’s husband, who works for Henshaw Lumber Co., was on his way to Marion at the time.
“We had planned to build a house on the two lots here,” said Mrs. Joyner, a General Telephone Co. operator.
Butler estimated the damage to the partially completed house at about $5,000.
Across the street, Glenn Clarida, 1201 Woodland, had turned his back seconds before the west wall of his home tore loose.
Hears Loud Whistle
Clairda was in the kitchen, with his wife and his daughter, Deborah, 2, when he heard the “loud whistle.”
Just as the Claridas entered the utility room the metal window frames were twisted, the door was split, lamps were shattered on the floor, and the television and carpet were “ruined.”
Joseph (Matt) Nussbaumer, 901 Concord, saw “roaring clouds” between Concord and Boston, leaving limbs and fallen television antennas in several places.
A large limb was left across South Market Street near the intersection of Boyton, and Central Illinois Public Service Co. workers were busy restoring power. Next was the trailer, followed by broken trees down Parish Park Heights Subdivision road, to the area where houses were heavily damaged.
Loren Rector, developer of the subdivision, gives this report, “My crew and I went to get some two-by-fours to put on the fresh concrete at a house about 40 feet from Butler’s house. The tornado picked up the boards for us.”
Rector described it as a “very small” tornado. He said that although Butler’s house was being flattened, the crew was able to hold some tarpaper onto the fresh cement.
Tom Redickas, Marion Civil Defense director, said there was a report that a tornado touched down in Crab Orchard but after he spent more than an hour and a half in the area talking to various persons he concluded that the report was erroneous.
Redlckas said a “roar” was heard in the eastern part of Williamson County and some hail fell. He said there was much minor damage. Many tree limbs were broken, some roofs were damaged and several television antennas were down in that area. This type of damage was common in Marion and other parts of the county.
General Telephone Co. reported there was surprising little damage to lines.
Phone Poles Broke
Two telephone poles along the Old Creal Springs Road and east of Parish Park Heights were broken. Another pole was broken in Pittsburg.
Redickas said he believes a “wind channel” but not a tornado went thru Marion.
Some 29 Civil Defense workers were on duty.
The U.S. Weather Bureau station at Marion Veterans Hospital reported that .31 inch rain fell from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday.
Many persons drove cars thru the Parish Park Heights area Monday evening to see the damage.
Central Illinois Public Service Co. said that service to some 150 Williamson County customers was interrupted.
A tree fell a line near the intersection of South Market and Boyton, leaving five homes without service for a short time.
A CIPS pole snapped in two in Spillertown. Another pole was broken east of Carterville on the road to Energy when a building blew down and hit the pole.
Trees broke a line at Pittsburg and one at New Dennison.
Trees were broken off four or five feet from the ground on the property of C. T. Parks, about a mile and one half east of Marion on Illinois Route 13.
One tree was uprooted, and two broken off at the home of Frank Ritchey in the southeast part of Pittsburg.
A plate glass front window of the WFRX Radio Station in West Frankfort was broken by the strong winds.
A Marion resident, Vern Greenwood, 1305 W. Main St., reported heavy rain and hail in Murphysboro during the storm. He said the hail lasted for about five minutes.
(Extracted from Marion Daily Republican article dated April 30, 1963)