Owensboro, Kentucky’s Unforgettable F3 Tornado: 25 Years Later

It's hard to believe, but today marks the 25th anniversary of the January 3rd, 2000 tornado here in Owensboro, Kentucky.  Though that F3 tornado happened a quarter of a century ago (that seems impossible), I still remember it like it was yesterday.

What Was It Like 25 Years Ago?

Because New Year's Day fell on Saturday that year, Monday, January 3rd was a holiday at WBKR radio. I had worked a couple of hours early that morning. At that time, we were owned by Brill Media and we had a four-person news department that provided news and weather for WBKR-FM, Hot 96, WOMI-Owensboro, and WVJS-AM. I worked that morning, recorded a few newscasts, then headed out to enjoy what was going to be an unseasonably warm winter day. Unseasonably warm was an understatement.

80 Degrees - in January - in Owensboro

Our temperatures that day here in the tri-state were hovering near 80 degrees. It was gorgeous, but alarmingly warm. We knew that a cold front was going to make it through our area later in the day, but didn't realize exactly what that cold front was going to bring with it.

That afternoon, I laid down to take a big nap. That nap was cut short by the sounds of Owensboro's emergency alert sirens. Those sirens were blaring across Owensboro and Daviess County because we were under a tornado warning. Instinctively, I jumped out of bed and headed directly for the radio station. I lived less than two miles away.  I knew that, if there was going to be a storm, that's where I needed to be. I got there just in time.

I Pulled Into WBKR with Minutes to Spare

When I pulled into the parking lot, all hell was breaking loose on the west side of the city. I didn't know this at the time, but I had gotten to the station just a few minutes before that tornado ripped across the perimeter of Kentucky Wesleyan College and through the center of town. One of my co-workers, Bill Eidson, arrived just a few minutes after I did. He didn't make it inside before that F3 made its appearance known. Bill hunkered down in his car as the ferocious winds swirled past the station and lifted his car from the parking lot into the landscaping.

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Wayne Hart Circa 2000

Prior to the twister hitting, because of expert coverage by our longtime weather partner Wayne Hart, we knew that the tornado was tracking toward Owensboro. There's still footage of Wayne's wall-to-wall broadcast from that day online.

Check this out!

My REAL Intro to Radio

The next few days were incredible, devastating, challenging, and mind-blowing. I had worked in radio news for two years and had experienced nothing like this before. The morning after the tornado hit, I was live on the air- broadcasting from inside a home that had been knocked off its foundation. I was standing inside a house whose walls were now slanted. It didn't seem safe.  Honestly, it wasn't. But that interview with the homeowner was a story that had to be told.

My friend Leisa's house was battered by that storm as well. There was a roof in her backyard. It wasn't hers. A few years ago, she shared photos of her loss with us.

The Unpredictability of the Tornado

What made that whole situation so perplexing, in each affected neighborhood, was this- the random, unpredictable power of a tornado. I mentioned that house that had been knocked off its foundation. While the house seemed fractured and on the verge of collapse, there was inexplicably sturdy beauty just outside of it. The homeowner had, in the landscaping just outside the front door, a gazing ball sitting on a concrete pedestal. The gazing ball, which weighed maybe a pound or two tops, hadn't budged. Those powerful winds- the ones that compromised the structural integrity of the house and basically leveled my friend Leisa's- hadn't even slightly moved that decorative ball.

It was a powerful reminder of nature's fury and unpredictability. For me, despite spending days in the massive wreckage and snow that followed behind that storm, it's my most enduring memory. You've heard the phrase "calm before the storm." I learned in January of 2000 that there's also calm after it.