March 23, 1999 — It was the worst tornado outbreak in U.S. history with 148 twisters touching down in 11 states, and before it was over 16 hours later, 330 people were dead and 5,484 were injured in a damage path covering more than 2,500 miles.

The National Weather Service marks the anniversary of the April 3-4,1974, super tornado outbreak with a special program in Xenia, Ohio, site of the most damaging–and deadly–twister. The program will take place on Wednesday, March 31, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the Greene Memorial Hospital Auditorium in Xenia.

The NWS has experts and eyewitnesses available to the media for interviews and to help plan coverage of this milestone event. Contact Bob Chartuk at (516) 244-0166.

"We want the public to be aware that deadly storms such as the 1974 outbreak can and will happen again, and we want people to be prepared," said Kenneth Haydu, meteorologist-in-charge of the NWS office in Wilmington, Ohio, and host of the Xenia event. "The people who experienced the super outbreak have an important story to pass on to later generations."

Speaking at the Xenia anniversary will be tornado eyewitnesses and weather service forecasters whose efforts to warn the public saved lives. Also making presentations will be emergency managers, local officials, and John Forsing, director of the NWS Eastern Region, who worked the storm as a forecaster in Louisville, Kentucky. Forsing will discuss the weather service's modernized forecasting capabilities as compared to the technology of 1974.

See "Tornado Outbreak 1974" at: http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/storms

For more information on the super outbreak, log in at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/iln/supoutbr.htm

For more information Bob Chartuk at (516) 244-0166 or Mary Jo Parker at (937) 383-0331.