MARION, Ill. -- WSIL TV 5/8/07 25 years later
The following sounds were recorded after the 1982 F-4 tornado in Marion which killed ten people, injured nearly 200, and left 1,000 homeless.
From a woman who lost her home:
"We have no place to go-- I don't know what we'll do."
From an emergency responder:
"What they've done is they've pulled 5 people out. They think possibly there's three more."
From the head of a local bank:
"I found our tellers-- they had followed emergency procedures and got in the vault-- all three of them came out alright. Two of their cars were upside down on the bank building however."
After a woman lost her home:
"I just went in there in a corner and pulled a chair in front of me and said oh God-- take care of me and he did."
near I-57 & Rt. 13, Marion
"Mom and dad had a radio outside and the first two things mentioned as being destroyed were the airport racketball club which dad owned an interest in the building-- and people's bank which he was vice president of," says Jon Musgrave of Marion.
"There was only one house in the neighborhood that had a basement-- so we weren't the only ones that ran over there," says Vicki Mann of Marion.
When the winds blew over, Vicki Mann says she immediately went to Marion Memorial Hospital after a radio announcement called for all registered nurses to care for victims.
She says the scene was memorable. "It was just like a huge mob, there were just people everywhere." She says many of the people were in a state of shock... wounded worse than they were even aware of.
Some say the collective desire for the town to get back on it's feet made all the difference. "One of the things that probably helped Marion was this attitude of, ok, we've been hit but we've got to get up and get going again," says Musgrave.
John Musgrave with the tourism bureau says when the city's economic development office opened after the tornado, it was a major tool for growth in the area. He says 50 of 52 destroyed businesses were re-built.