The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1254479
The Press-Dispatch Petersburg Tornado 30 Year Anniversar y Wednesday, June 3, 2020 A- 7 Employees, customers ride out tornado in Diary Queen cooler JUNE 7, 1990— "We held hands and said prayers," said Gladys Woods of her experience during the tornadoes, which destroyed many businesses and homes in Petersburg. "Just after we closed the door, the storm hit," Wood said. "It shook the cooler and our ears popped. Once during the storm, the door opened and closed again. Then after it was all over, we all said a prayer of thanks." Employees and custom- ers who were in the Dairy Queen took refuge from the tornado in the restaurant's cooler, said Woods, the res- taurant manager. According to Woods, there were 14 people in the cooler. There would have been more, but two employ- ees left at 7 p.m. and two cus- tomers left shortly before the tornado struck. Along with Woods and Terri Shoultz, assistant man- ager, were employees Angie Parrish, Spicy Minnis and Bill Crowe. Also in the cooler were Shoultz's daughter, Amy, Tracy Barr, Neil White and Crowe's mother, Sherri. Two couples from Vin- cennes, customers in the restaurant, joined the oth- ers in the cooler. Woods said she had phoned her supervisor, Dar- rell Phelps, at 7:50 p.m. and left a message on his an- swering machine. When he called back a few minutes later, Shoultz said two tor- nadoes were coming toward Petersburg. Phelps told Woods to close the restaurant and get in the cooler. However, while employ- ees were watching, the tor- nadoes curved toward Mon- roe City and missed the Dairy Queen. "We thought it was over, and more customers came in about that time," Woods said. "But some of the em- ployees continued to watch the sky and we heard a tor- nado had wiped out Union. I insisted that everyone get in the cooler." When it was over, every- one was hysterical, accord- ing to Woods. "We saw that the PC-1 Stop was demol- ished and heard there were injuries at Elmer's. I called my supervisor and then called an ambulance," she said. Woods then began walk- ing and got as far as the Southwestern Indiana Na- tional Bank, when friends picked her up and took her to her home in Alford. She found her home damaged, but her husband uninjured. She said adjusters were to check her house Wednes- day. About the restaurant, win- dows have been boarded up and clean-up has begun, but there is no estimate of when the restaurant will reopen. But, "we will reopen," she said. afford to lose the water in their system. Drinking water may be available in two weeks. Elec- tricity was also turned off immediately after the wind and hundreds of fallen trees left electrical wires in twist- ed messes all over town. Electricity was restored to the non-affected areas as soon as midnight Sunday, while other areas continue to come on line. The following is a chrono- logical list of events around the storm: • 8:15 p.m. a tornado warning is declared. • Pike County Deputy sheriff William Walker and Petersburg Policeman Wil- liam Scales began track- ing it. • They follow it as it heads through rural areas and hits Dodge City near Bowman causing substantial damage. • Walker reports it ap- pears to be following White River and turns into Knox and Daviess Counties. It then hits large power lines near Gil Hodges Bridge on Highway 57. • 8:29 p.m. another torna- do is spotted near Union. Re- port comes in that it has hit Union and is headed for Pe- tersburg at about 60 mph. • It is reported at Twin Bridges on Cart Road. • Charlie Robertson home is hit, then Ron Miles, Danny Leslie and Rex Sut- ton homes are hit and sus- tain severe damage. These homes are about a half mile south of Bowman on 375 W. • At 8:40 tornado goes over Hornady Park, where Picking and Fiddling State Championships are under- way. • Several hundred people are in 4-H Building, where they took cover and were un- injured. Seconds later the storm had destroyed the elemen- tary school and nearly ev- erything in between for a four or five block wide path. It traveled down Pike Av- enue to Main Street and then headed down north on Main Street to about Sev- enth Street before veering through residential areas centering on the Sheriff's department and onto the el- ementary school. From the elementary school it seemed to lift until it hit near Alford at Marvie and Mark Flint's homes. It then lifted and did not touch down again. Continued from page 6 TORNADO Radio operator Dixie Scales sees tornado 'up close and personal' JUNE 7, 1990— Radio operator Dixie Scales had a wild Saturday night. She was the radio operator on duty at the Petersburg po- lice station. As part of her job, she re- lays messages of sightings of tornadoes to the weather service and to area police. She also sounds the warning system, but it usually doesn't hit city hall. Scales continuously re- layed messages about the first tornado that went through the county without causing much damage. Then her daughter, Pam Duncan, called and told her there was a second torna- do coming and it was much bigger. "She told me it was coming and it was heading towards Petersburg." Dun- can had been filming the tor- nadoes from her home. Scales said she told Pam to call Wirth Hospital and notify them to get their am- bulances ready. She said, "then Dr. Jo- seph Elbert called from his home on Cart Road and told me it was heading right for Petersburg." She said she knew the Picking and Fiddling Con- test was going on, but she did not know how to notify them. So she alerted a po- lice officer to drive there and notify them. She had already blown the tornado warning signal three times with the other tornado warnings in the ar- ea, but this time it would not blow. Her husband, Petersburg Police Sgt. William Scales, was on patrol and tracking the storm. "He told me it was going to hit the middle of town." The power went off and her radio would not operate. She said, "I tried to get out but the door was elec- tronically locked." She went back to the win- dow and looked out and saw aluminum siding and bricks from the collapsing Handy Hardware store directly across the street. "It was like they were just suspend- ed in air," said Scales. Then there was a large blast from it that knocked her onto a table. It left a cut on her forehead. "All I could do is crawl under a table and cry," said Scales. A few minutes later, Rev. Jeff Stratton arrived and she pried the electronical- ly locked door open and he helped her handle the radio and phone calls. Otwell security Officer William Barrett praised her, Walker's and Scales' efforts keeping track of the storm. He said their notification gave him time to alert ev- eryone in Otwell of the tor- nado. Even though it did not hit Otwell, he was thank- ful he had enough warn- ing time to alert residents of the threatening situation. Dixie Scales takes phone calls at Petersburg po- lice station, where the phones were still ringing off the hook following the June 2, 1990 tornado. The Handy Hardware store on Main St. was flattened by the tornado. It was owned by Don and Mary Corn. Tri-Cap personnel sift through the rubble that used to be their offices, which was in one of the hard- est hit areas of Petersburg. The Tri-Cap, WIC and Well Child Clinic were temporarily located at the First Baptist Church of Petersburg. A "Friend of Petersburg" caravan showed up with several semi-loads of goods donated to the dis- aster fund. A view of the Seventh St. neighborhood from Lincoln Baker's home shows several homes that were damaged by the tornado. Baker's home also sustained heavy damage.