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Edited News Story
From The
Willard Times, Thursday, May 17, 1973 [Click on images in article
to enlarge.]
They
always said that Willard could never have a tornado, because of
the hills or valleys or something.
That
proved to be another "it can't happen here" opinion that
was wrong.
Willard
had its first tornado in 99 years last Thursday evening on May 10,
1973, and
everyone is saying that another one in 100 years will be too soon.
The
brief storm took three lives, injured 67 persons, destroyed about
130 mobile homes, and destroyed or damaged 30 conventional
homes. It damaged six business places and one industry, and
destroyed four business places. ...
Of
the injured, 25 were admitted as bed patients and three of them
were very seriously hurt.
The
tornado came out of the west. There had been the oft heard
tornado warnings during the afternoon, but Huron county was not
mentioned until shortly before 3:00. The Willard police log
records that a funnel cloud was sighted west of Liberty Road at
5:22 p.m. The City Hall siren sounded at 5:25, but residents
even as close as Tiffin St. said they never heard it. The
twister first touched down in Willard at 6:01 p.m. The
tornado had hit earlier but not extensively in Tiffin and Republic
and killed a woman in a car on Route 19. It destroyed a barn
on the Daniel Schuller farm on Willard West Road, touched other
buildings as it proceeded east, and took off the top half of two
homes on Liberty Road between Willard West Road and Route
224. |
