Producer Hugo Soskin of New York interviews Donnie and Felica Powers of Athens for an upcoming show on The Weather Channel about the tornadoes that struck here in 1974.

Donnie Powers still can picture his red 1967 Mustang before it was flipped and mangled in 1974 by the same winds that nearly took his life.

So when events of that night — labeled by history as the Tornado Super Outbreak of 1974 — are recreated for an upcoming program on The Weather Channel, Donnie told producers he hopes to get his hands on the car that “stands in” for his old Mustang.

“I told them after they use the 1967 Mustang, to please send it to me,” Donnie joked Wednesday.

Two people working on the show spent about four hours at the Powers’ Athens home interviewing Donnie and his wife, Felica, on camera.

New York City-based producer Hugo Soskin, who has done work for The History Channel shows such as “Ice Road Truckers” and “Deep Sea Detectives,” and shows on PBS and The Weather Channel, called Donnie about a month ago and explained he would be producing a recreation of the tornadoes. Nailah Sims with Towers Productions accompanied Soskin, and a camera crew from Tuscaloosa came to set up lighting and film the interviews, Donnie said.

“They tore our living room all to pieces. They had lights everywhere,” Donnie said. “It took an hour to set it all up.”

The couple answered questions about the night of April 3, 1974, when two powerful tornadoes — one ranked an F4 and another given the most powerful ranking of F5 — ripped through Limestone County.

That same day and into April 4, 168 tornadoes struck in 13 states. Total death tolls across the states — with Xenia, Ohio, being hardest hit — vary from 315 to 350, with hundreds more severely injured and thousands of homes demolished. Six storms that day were classified as rare F5s, including the one in Limestone.

The show is expected to air in late fall or early winter, Donnie said.

Donnie’s and Felica’s stories, as well as those of several others in Limestone County, were prominently featured in a book published by Miramax Books in June 2007 called “F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century” by Mark Levine.

Levine said at that time the book, a “Perfect Storm”-type account of the tornadoes focusing largely on Limestone County, could be made into a feature film or television miniseries.

Donnie said Soskin told him Wednesday a film still is being considered.

“He just looked at me and said, ‘You do know a movie producer is looking at this, don’t you?’” Donnie said.

Donnie has joked he hopes good-looking actors portray him and Felica, who were 18 and 15 at the time of the storm, respectively.

Levine said via e-mail Wednesday he has no news of a film.

“No movie or TV news to report,” he wrote. “I wouldn’t rule it out, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

The show for The Weather Channel is not based on his book, Levine wrote.

“I’m not involved with the production, though they have expressed interest in interviewing me. Their show is not following my book, though I guess they’ve taken some leads from it, but I believe they’re interested in doing a story about the widespread outbreak that day.”

For The Weather Channel production, actors will portray the young Powerses, whose high-school-sweetheart relationship was solidified in the aftermath of the storm and resulted in their earlier-than-typical marriage later that year. Donnie said he and Felica signed contracts Wednesday giving permission for the portrayals.

The show, by Donnie’s understanding, will cut between re-enactments of that fateful night and clips of Donnie and Felica describing the events.

“They wanted us to tell the story and then they are going to go back and create exactly what happened,” he said.

Donnie said, as far as he is aware, no other Limestone Countians have been interviewed for The Weather Channel production. Others hit that day include the Rev. Ananias Green whose wife Lillian, and two of their three sons were killed; then-sheriff Buddy Evans; then-coroner Ralph Padgett; Walter McGlocklin, whose wife Ruth and two of their four children were killed; and dozens of others who remain in Limestone County.

Donnie said his and Felica’s love story apparently drew the producers.

“They said that’s what makes it look so good,” he said.



The love story

On April 3, 1974, a storm was breaking over them when Donnie and Felica hopped into his Mustang to follow Felica’s aunt, who was trying to get her four children home before the weather worsened.

From the car ahead, Felica’s Aunt Kay glanced in her rearview mirror and noticed the young couple’s headlights had disappeared. She thought they had turned around and gone home as the storm began to crash around them.

Instead, the red Mustang had disappeared from view because it had flipped numerous times, throwing Donnie and Felica from the car, and landed in mud.

Felica, not knowing tendons in her ankle were nearly severed, walked around and searched for Donnie, who had been struck hard by a flying rock in the back of his head.

Felica says now that mud must have held her ankle together. She was too dazed to know how injured she was. She wanted only to find Donnie, but she would not know of his fate until much later.

Even later still, Felica would learn the unconscious Donnie had been thought dead and was loaded in a hearse and driven to Huntsville Hospital’s morgue. At the hospital, someone realized Donnie was comatose. Eventually, he recovered. Felica, also, needed time to recover from her injuries.

A few months later, the teen couple married with permission from Felica’s parents. That was 34 years ago.

Levine quotes Donnie: “After the tornado, I just didn’t want to let Felica out of my sight. I was afraid of losing her.”

Felica says for all the misery the storm brought, “I’ve had 30-something years of a wonderful life because of it. It brought us closer together, like we should have been.”