“We Prayed…”

The headline on the front page of the Sunday morning edition of the Fort Payne Times-Journal on May 20, 1973 read “We Prayed.”

The supplications were offered to heaven as an F2 tornado chewed its way across the northern part of the city in Northeast Alabama on Saturday evening, Nay 19, 1973.

About 150 people were attending the Jaycette’s Little Miss Maid of Cotton Contest when the twister struck about 6:55 p.m. There was little warning for the attendees and contestants. A man saw the tornado approaching and ran into the gym at the school and yelled for everyone to get against the walls and down on the ground seconds before the tornado hit.

Fortunately, there were no injuries at the school even though the gym was damaged. A total of thirty five people were injured in Fort Payne. Damage was also heavy at Section, Alabama, where two more people were hurt.

A survey conducted after the tornado showed that sixty five percent of the residents of Fort Payne were taken by surprise by the storm, despite warnings being broadcast by both local radio stations and Huntsville television stations at least an hour before the storm when the Birmingham NWS issued a tornado warning.

One week later, a significant outbreak of tornadoes across North and Central Alabama produced deadly tornadoes at Brent and Centerpoint on Sunday, May 27, 1973.

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