Tornado Outbreak - May 31, 1985
May 31, 1985, is a day that has changed me; forever. Thunderstorms never bother me much; I can still sleep through the biggest and noisiest of them. But when they bother me now, it is a sign to my wife and children to stay close and be ready to seek shelter. After that day I will forever know when the conditions are just right for a tornado. I know it in my bones.
I mean that it is my body that seems to recognize the conditions before I even think about it. It is strange when your brain has to figure out why your body has released adrenaline. It all comes back in a heart beat and I remember and I know what to look for and what to do if I see the signs.
I was in Albion, PA, shopping at the IGA with my mom when the weather turned. The heavy rains and winds had stopped and I was suddenly very edgy and just wanted to leave. I don't know what my mom saw in my face when I suggested we hurry up and leave, but she stopped with her list still incomplete. We checked out and left the store before the rain started up again. We were barely half a mile out of town when I saw what I thought was the thickest column of gray smoke I'd ever seen rolling across the sky. It was just visible in the top left corner of the windshield and I followed the column to the left and finally recognized it as a tornado. It met the ground not more than 1000 feet south of the road we were on; a raised roadway that was about 30 feet above the fields on either side as we approached the ridge ahead.
It passed us. The radio hadn't mention more than severe thunder storms. I wanted to race back into town to warn people. But I realized there was nothing I could do.
An hour or so later I returned to town to help, so much was just flattened and I couldn't figure out which street was which except by knowing the relative position to State Street and the Bessemer and Lake Erie railroad. I remember seeing one house standing in the middle of a four block area that once had some forty houses or more and many trees. It was alone and I recognized it as the home of my high school chemistry teacher. They were all safe. I helped them repair their home in the following days.
That day Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New York, and Ontario had been hit with the most tornadoes in one day in recorded history. "In that one day, the Commonwealth suffered more deaths from tornadoes than were recorded from 1916 to 1985!" There were 12 deaths in my home town and over 80 across the tri-state area. More than 40 tornados were confirmed, with about five reaching the highest Fujita scale rating of F5.
The day the twisters came an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 20 years later.
National Weather Service - Cleveland, Ohio Office information on the May 31, 1985 Outbreak.
