Editing Xenia, Ohio (section)

===Tornadoes===
{{see also|1974 Xenia tornado|2000 Xenia tornado}}

Xenia has a history of severe storm activity. According to local legend, the Shawnee referred to the area as "the place of the devil wind" or "the land of the crazy winds" (depending upon the translation).<ref>Smith, Joanne Huist; "Devil Winds: City's Curse or Tall Tale?", ''Dayton Daily News'', Sept. 16, 2001, page 1B.</ref>

[[File:A tornado funnel is shown moving through Xenia.jpg|thumb|The 1974 Xenia F5 tornado tearing through the southeast Pinecrest Garden district.]]
On April 3, 1974, a verified F5 rated [[tornado]] on the [[Fujita scale]] cut a path directly through the middle of Xenia during the [[1974 Super Outbreak]], the second largest series of tornadoes in recorded history. The disaster killed 34 people (including two [[Air National Guard|Ohio National Guardsmen]] who died days later in a related fire), injured an additional 1,150, destroyed almost half of the city's buildings, and left 10,000 people homeless. Five schools, including Xenia High School, Central Junior High School, McKinley Elementary, Simon Kenton Elementary, and Saint Brigid Catholic School were destroyed, as were nine churches and 180 businesses. Ted Fujita himself rated the tornado an F6 in an essay he wrote, but the rating was never confirmed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.weather.gov/media/ohx/PDF/fujita_april31974.pdf|title=Jumbo Tornado Breakout of 3 April 1974|website=Weather.gov|access-date=December 2, 2021}}</ref>

The city's plight was featured in the national news, including a 1974 [[NBC]] television documentary, ''Tornado!'', hosted by [[Floyd Kalber]]. President [[Richard Nixon]] visited stricken areas of Xenia following the devastation. Comedian [[Bob Hope]] organized a benefit to raise funds for Xenia and, in appreciation, the new Xenia High School Auditorium was named the "Bob Hope Auditorium." In recognition of their coverage of this tornado, the staff of the ''[[Xenia Daily Gazette]]'' won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting|Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting]] in 1975.<ref>{{cite web|title=1975 Winners|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1975|work=Pulitzer.org|access-date=June 12, 2012}}</ref>

Xenia was struck by an F2 tornado on April 25, 1989, and again by an F4 tornado on September 20, 2000. The 1989 tornado caused over $2 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=2000000|start_year=1989}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in damage, but no one was killed. The twister of 2000 killed one person, and injured 100 people. This tornado followed a path roughly parallel to that of the 1974 tornado.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tornadoes in Greene County, Ohio|url=http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/Ohio/Greene/map|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131121044846/http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/Ohio/Greene/map|url-status=usurped|archive-date=November 21, 2013|publisher=Tornado History Project|access-date=7 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Tornadoes in Greene County, Ohio in April 1989|url=http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/Ohio/Greene/1989/April/map|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226033728/http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/Ohio/Greene/1989/April/map|url-status=usurped|archive-date=February 26, 2014|publisher=Tornado History Project|access-date=7 February 2014}}</ref>

Xenia currently has a system of [[Civil defense siren|tornado sirens]]. After the [[1974 Super Outbreak|1974 tornado outbreak]], the city purchased a system of five [[Federal Signal Corporation|Federal Signal]] [[Thunderbolt (siren)|Thunderbolt]] sirens for warning. During the 2000 tornado strike, the lack of [[Emergency power system|backup power]] silenced the Thunderbolts during emergency, so the city purchased five [[Federal Signal Corporation|Federal Signal]] 2001-SRNB series sirens with battery backup to reinforce/replace the Thunderbolts.