It's been 50 years since the tornado that left residents at its mercy, as it ripped through Fulton County on April 3, 1974.
In the aftermath of the storm, the county alone was left with a $10 million clean-up, and hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed. The tornado had entered the county from the west, roaring into Rochester, after crossing US 31, and smashing through West 6th Street and West 13th Street. The twister then headed its destructive path towards Talma, turning the small community to rubble. The storm still remains the deadliest reported tornado in Rochester to date, killing six people and injuring 88 in Fulton County.
Among the tragedy and destruction, a miracle graced itself upon one Rochester family, with an 8-day-old baby found unharmed after being seperated from her mother.
Amy Townsend-Blackburn was just two-years-old at the time of the Super Outbreak, with little memory of a day that's been talked about for most of her life. The Townsend's had lived near the former Dean Milk company plant, in a double-wide on her grandparent's property north of town.
Townsend-Blackburn said that day she had been home with her mother, Marilyn Townsend, and newborn sister, Robin Townsend-Huffman, before the storm had struck just before 6 p.m.
It was told to Townsend-Blackburn that her grandmother, Bonnie Townsend, had been feeding chickens in the yard when she first caught a glimps of the storm rolling in from the west, prompting her to get the girls out of the trailer and into the basement of the home next door.
By the time the grandmother had ran into the trailer it was too late. Despite the two grown women laying on top of the toddler and newborn, Townsend-Blackburn said their trailer exploded from the inside out.
She said although she has heard conflicting stories over the years, it had been reported by the local newspaper, that when her grandmother had regained conciousness after the disaster, she was lying on her back nearly two houses north of where the trailer had been. Townsend-Blackburn and her mother were also found nearby.
The newborn baby, however, was nowhere to be found.
Sustaining minor injuries, and thrown into shock, Townsend-Blackburn's mother had almost forgotten she had just give birth a little more than a week prior to the chaotic event.
Miraculously, just a short-time later, the baby would be found by a state trooper, along with their neighbor, on the scene after the two had heard the soft cries of the newborn. The baby had been found on top of a pile of metal and debri nearby. Still wrapped in her blanket, the newborn was found to be unharmed, left without even a scratch. Townsend-Blackburn even had minor injures from the event.
Her father, Paul Townsend, a UPS delivery driver at the time, had been returning home from work in Bourbon when the tornado struck the family home. Townsend-Blackburn said that the chaos going on in Rochester from the twister's aftermath made finding displaced family members a challenge that evening.
Over the years, Townsend-Blackburn said her mother has kept a scrapbook filled with photos, articles, and other memorabilia from the tornado, as a way to never forget.
Since the disaster, Townsend-Blackburn said there hasn't been a storm her mother hasn't taken seriously. She also noted that all of their family members currently have basements in their homes, just in case.
(Photo provided was by Tom Zoss of Culver, showing an ariel view of damage from the April 3, 1974 on the northside of Rochester, with Dean's Milk plant in the right foreground of the photo. You can find this photo, among dozens more from the tornado damage in the Fulton County Historical Society Museum.)
