VANCOUVER, Wash. — It was a storm that rocked the Pacific Northwest.
The deadliest tornado in the region’s history struck Vancouver, Wash., on April 5, 1972, killing six people and injuring hundreds more.
Just before 1 p.m., the tornado touched down in North Portland, moved across the Columbia River and tore a nine-mile path of destruction through Vancouver.
It demolished Peter S. Ogden Elementary School, where Rick Graser was in sixth grade. Today, at 62 years old, Graser vividly remembers that day.
“I've never ever seen the sky get that dark, that dark with clouds. It was crawling toward you, you could see it,” he said.
Graser recalls hiding under a desk in a classroom, covering his face with his baseball glove, just as the tornado struck.
“Thank God I moved, because I would have been sucked out through that hole. I witnessed my own death, five steps away,” said Graser.
His mother, Sharon Graser, wasn't as fortunate. She was working at a nearby bowling alley, caring for children.
“She told the kids to get under their tables. They were in the process of doing that when it was struck by the tornado,” recounted Graser.
After the tornado hit, Sharon and another employee took more than a dozen trips out of the bowling alley to get the children to safety.
Sharon insisted on taking one more trip inside to get the last child in the bowling alley, a baby girl.
“She was reaching out like this to hand the little girl to Earl and the wall fell down on her back and crushed her from her waist to above her head,” said Graser.
The impact killed Sharon instantly. But she had saved the baby.
“She loved those kids. I cried, my heart broke. When they say your heart breaks, it does. It hurts,” Graser said. He admits that the pain is just as intense even 50 years later.
He will forever remember the day he survived the tornado as the worst day of his life. But it’s also the day his mother became a hero: giving her life so that others could live.
“She was a hero. She is a hero and she's been my inspiration my whole life,” he said.
