May 15, 1978

Memories of that EF4 tornado that hit Nettleton, Arkansas area is a memory that floods back into my mind, whenever it's even mentioned of a thunderstorm probability happening. I'm sure i am not the only one to survive a tornado that thinks like that. It hit around 10 p.m. My sister's and I had already gone to bed. I remember lying there listening to the thunder and watching the constant lightening. I heard my dad tell my Mom they should run some extra water as the storm might knock out the electricity. We had well water that was drawn up by an electrical pump. His next sentence was " Donna Jean (in our house anytime your first and middle name were used together you had better pay attention) grab the girls, that's a tornado. My dad grabbed my older sister Marsha and my mom grabbed my younger sister Debbie and I from our beds and took us to their bedroom. Dad had pulled the mattress off their bed, he held one end over us while mom held the other. One of them said "Where's Marsha"? We had been taught if any storm gets bad get under the bed. we'll that's where she was, nevermind she was under the springs. Their bottom mattress had no covering over it. it was just the bare springs. I'm not sure if my dad pulled her under the mattress or if she did herself, but we were all huddled there together during it. I remember the wind, thinking it sounded like it was shrieking and taking so long. Then pressure built up in my ears and I could hardly hear anything until a huge crash came from the frontroom and my ears popped and then dead silence.I think that's one of my regrets, not ever asking my dad how he had known that was a tornado. I don't ever recall his mentioning he had been in one before. There was still flashes of lightening and my dad was going through the house making sure we still had walls. He was looking through the windows and he said. The duplex they were building beside us was roofless now and the house behind us was gone. No electricity and a hole in the frontroom window. We found out the next morning that a post from the front porch was what put that hole in the window. When it broke it, the pressure in the house being relieved knocked our Parakeet and his cage across the room. The living room floor was covered in glass. Pieces of glass were even bigger than the hole in the window. It wasnt long before we started seeing the effects from the storm as the neighbors behind us brought their 2 daughter's, over to us as their son (my age, as we were in the same class at school) was being taken to the hospital, as the tornado had picked him up and flung him through a 6 ft. high chain link fence and threw him into the Nettleton High School football field that was right behind their house.. He had gashes all over his body. My cousin, David was dropped off as my uncle Fred had used his body to shield his family when it hit their house and he had bits of glass imbedded in him. They lived on the block behind us. I remember my mom praying outloud, thanking the Lord for sparing our family and friends. At first light we were srarting to see just how close it came to our house. We weren't allowed off the porch until they were sure all electrical lines were dead. I remember my dad saying " Watch where " as I am hellbent to get out on that porch and see the damage and one of my legs fell through a hole in the porch. He finished " as theres a hole in the porch from the post.". LOL What a look on his face, like he knew I would be the one to fall into it. It was just one leg in it but it sure scraped up my leg. Then I realized the porch roof was gone. It was just a flat slanted roof but once I got to the edge of the porch, there it was, laying up on top of the roof of the house. All the junk that was under the carport had been swept by the strong winds to the back fence. The roof of the duplex was laying in the school yard. The scool that was just across the side street next to us was completely destroyed. Just a lot of bricks and all of the library books strewn all over the school yard. We went over and I found me a cookbook for beginner cooking lessons. The only classroom left standing was my olders sister's classroom. Later we found out the high scool had been destroyed as well. Our front tree was a huge Pin Oak. The tornado had driven a straw through one of the branches with out tearing the plastic at all and another branch had a rubber coated electrical wire through it. After picking up the books I wanted I don't remember much else from that day other than my Uncle came home from the hospital and they took him to my Uncle J.D.'s house as Uncle Fred's house had been lifted and put back down on its foundation crooked. They would have to have that house torn down and rebuilt. Some teenagers that afternoon came running down the street hollering we have another Tornado on the way. Which naturally scared us kids. By then my dad was up on the roof, taking the porch roof apart, so he could get it off the house. He told my Mom to take us to Uncle J.D's house. He didn't see anything around us and he didn't want to come off the roof. So we walked down the block to his house. Thats the last thing I remember. Am sure my sisters remember more, but I dont think we have ever gotten together and discussed that day. A story done by the K8 news April 26.2012. https://www.kait8.com/story/17795369/what-would-happen-if-the-1968-jonesboro-tornado-happened-today/ Included an interview from my cousin and the Superintendent of Nettleton schools. ((( David Dudley, an 8-year-old boy at the time, remembers that night well. "He got us into the living room and piled on top of us. And I can remember looking up, he was on top of us. I saw the T.V. go across the room. The house was vibrating so bad the phone was ringing, if you can believe that." ))) Nettleton Schools take a direct hit. ((( Nettleton Superintendent, James Dunivan describes the district's devastation. "It did a lot of damage in Jonesboro and also to the Nettleton School District. We lost several buildings, had to do a lot of rebuilding…had a lot of school for some period of time after that even in portable buildings."))) As a side note.... I did use that cookbook. I made biscuits from one of it's recipes for our dinner one night and teasing me, my dad picked up one of those biscuits and threw it against the wall. He said, no hole in the wall guess they are ok to eat. LOL