Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In 1994 for Michigan severe weather awareness week, WOOD-TV visited Augusta, Michigan for a retrospective look at the April 2, 1977 tornado that devastated portions of the community. Part of the 'Live at Five' program, the broadcast interviewed locals about their memories, showcased an original news package from 1977 and wrapped the show with traditional severe weather safety tips.
These are the live remotes from that April 2, 1994 WOOD-TV 'Live at Five' newscast recorded off air when originally broadcast. Pardon the audio buzz in the original videotape recording.
Video © 1994 WOOD-TV, All Rights Reserved.
In 1994 for Michigan severe weather awareness week, WOOD-TV visited Augusta, Michigan for a retrospective look at the April 2, 1977 tornado that devastated portions of the community. Part of the 'Live at Five' program, the broadcast interviewed locals about their memories, showcased an original news package from 1977 and wrapped the show with traditional severe weather safety tips.
These are the live remotes from that April 2, 1994 WOOD-TV 'Live at Five' newscast recorded off air when originally broadcast. Pardon the audio buzz in the original videotape recording.
Video © 1994 WOOD-TV, All Rights Reserved.
![Tornado Alley... Wichita Falls, Texas 1964 [KAUZ-TV Documentary]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TOkB0lQlnwo/mqdefault.jpg "Tornado Alley... Wichita Falls, Texas 1964 [KAUZ-TV Documentary]
A destructive tornado was broadcast live on KAUZ television on April 3, 1964 as it moved through the northern portion of Wichita Falls, Texas. Seven lives were lost and over 100 people sustained serious injury. Sheppard Air Force Base, as well as the nearby residential neighborhood of Sunset Terrace sustained significant F5 damage.
Historically this tornado is often cited as the first ever broadcast live on television anywhere in the world. KAUZ-TV was indeed the first TV station to broadcast a tornado, but that event transpired on April 2, 1958 when a deadly F3 tornado struck the city. The news anchor in the 1964 broadcast makes mention of this misquotes the date as 1959. To my knowledge the 1958 live transmission was not preserved or saved. It was common practice in the early age of broadcast video to recycle and re-record over quadraplex videotape to save money. Fortunately six years later, engineers at KAUZ-TV did record and save the 1964 live broadcast, the bulk of it presented in this station documentary made soon after the tornado.
Additional film and news coverage of the April 3, 1964 Wichita Falls, Texas tornado is available via the Texas Archive of the Moving Image: https://texasarchive.org/2012_00678
Video © KAUZ-TV.")
