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PO1.949
The following video links originate from a Trumbull
County Historical Society Video Contest entry by Kristen Davis
and Jason Viers. They were students in Niles McKinley High
School Visual Communications class taught by Ralph Tolbert.
Kristen and Jason's video won first place.
Video
1: Russ Samuel interview.
Video
2: Dick Richards interview.
Video
3: Linda Bennett interview.
Video
4: Zoa Lykins interview.
Video
5: Nancy Stauffer interview.
Video
6: Fire Chief Semple interview |
1985
Niles Tornado
On May 31, 1985, the City of Niles
was struck by an F-5 tornado that had its origins just West of Newton
Falls, where it destroyed much of that town. It then moved through
Lordstown and Warren, before wreaking havoc on Niles, where it toppled
a skating rink and shopping mall, leveled dozens of houses, ripped
through the Union Cemetery, injured many people, and took several
lives. The tornado continued on, never leaving the ground until
it reached Pennsylvania.
In just the
Niles area alone, 9 were killed, and 250 were injured. Nearly 70
homes were leveled and another 65 to 70 severely damaged. In the
Mahoning and Shenango Valleys a total of 25 died and 500 people
were injured, and there was $140 million in property damage. Coincidentally,
the tornado of 1985 took a similar path(see maps below) through
Niles as another tornado that hit in 1947. Text: http://www.thecityofniles.com
The images below show the destruction
of property the tornado inflicted on various parts of Niles: Woodglen
Avenue off North Road, Nancy Street, Niles Union Cemetary, Shadowridge,
Route 422. Click on image to view larger size.
Path of 1985 tornado.
Path of 1947 tornado
To view images and stories of the
1947 Niles tornado, Click Here. |
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PO2.486
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Two
photographs of the funnel cloud behind the Village Plaza, 6000 Youngstown-Warren
Road, as it traveled in an easterly direction through Niles on May
31, 1985.
In the photo, PO2.486, there are three
tornado funnels which later joined in a singular funnel cloud near
the Top-O-Strip roller rink as told by Bernie Profato.
Mike Zahurak took the picture
just after 7 p.m. while facing the northeast side of the plaza.
Minutes after this photograph was taken, the funnel cloud leveled
Niles Park Plaza and the Top-O-Strip roller rink on U.S. 422 and
also destoyed Autumn Hills Nursing Home which had not opened yet. |

Propane Storage Tanks
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Nancy Street and Cynthia Court
|

Shadow Ridge
|
|
Color
Photographs of 1985 tornado damage. |

Niles Cemetery
|

Niles Cemetery
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Niles Cemetery |
|
Visitors
in Awe over Power

What used to be a beautifully landscaped
area, Niles Union Cemetery was turned into a virtual wasteland by
the May 31 tornado. |
|

Center: From cemetery to junkyard.
Union Cemetery, a Niles landmark, of flowering shrubs and venerable
trees, was a mass of splintered timber, tires, concrete and other
rubble after Friday night's tornado.
Top: Uprooted trees added to the
devastation of Niles Union Cemetery as Friday night's tornado
cut a path of destruction through Niles.
|
Union Cemetery: 1985 – 1986. |

Niles Historical Society members survey
the damage to the pioneer section of the cemetery.

Rebuilt mausoleum which incorporated
the original butresses along the sides of the stone building. 2025. |

Memorial stone and brass plaque marking
the restoration of the Heaton family section in the Pioneer section
of Union cemetery.
Dedicated Memorial Day 1986. |

The James Heaton Family
The Heaton family memorial stones
which were destroyed or damaged by the May 31, 1985 tornado have
been restored by the Niles Historical Society. |
|

Carmen's Auto Repair |

Automobiles thrown from
Carmen's into the cemetery |

Automobiles thrown from
Carmen's into the cemetery |

Automobiles thrown from
Carmen's into the cemetery |

Carmen's and Convenient Food Mart |

Eastwood Arms Apartments |

Eastwood Arms Apartments |

Valley Consolidated across
from Republic Steel |

Republic Steel Company |

Woodglen Street |

Woodglen Street |

Woodglen Street |

Steelworkers Union Hall North Main Street |

North Road |

Roller Rink and Plaza Mall |

Cynthia Court and Nancy Street |

Cynthia Court |

Cynthia Court |

Bonham School on East Margaret |

Across from the roller rink and shopping plaza |

Family Medical Clinic |
Niles
Group Forms Recovery Coalition. |
|
|


|
Congressman
Jim Traficant. |


Congressman Traficant Office Destroyed
|
Special Disaster Update
June 25, 1985

|
|
Niles
Recovery Coalition Agenda, First Meeting June 25, 1985 |
|
|
|


Niles Recovery Coalition
Aerial view of the Top-O-Strip Roller rink

Cleaning Up

Shadow Ridge Destruction |

Convenient Mart on Niles-Cortland
Road after a devastating tornado leveled the store.

Close Call:Employee at the Convenient
Food Mart escapes injury.

Niles Recovery Coalition
Convenient Mart on Vienna Avenue |

Niles Recovery Coalition
Shadow Ridge

Niles Recovery Coalition Image

Niles Recovery Coalition Image |
|
Niles Police Officer Bernie Profato,
first responder, at the Niles Park Plaza site.

Deceased Body Locations

Roller Rink Search

Nancy Street Destruction

Shadow Ridge Destruction


|
Profato and Criswell Cheat Death
Ignored hazards to free trapped victims
By FRED KEARNEY Times Managing Editor
NILES-Death stalked Niles in the form of a savage
tornado Friday night, but herculean efforts by police and firemen
cheated the storm of at least a score of other victims. Prompt
response, a coordinated reaction and tireless work supplemented
outright acts of courage as Niles police and firemen staged a
valiant “holding action” until hundreds of fellow
officers and fire fighters streamed here to complete the first
12-hours of rescue and clean-up.
Niles patrolmen Bernie Profato and
Ken Criswell faced a special challenge with Profato the
first safety force member to reach the corner of Rt. 422 and NilesVienna
Rd. and Criswell only a hundred yards away as the twister leveled
the Convenient Market and Niles Union Cemetery's trees.
“I've patrolled this city for years, but when I got out
of my van in the YMCA driveway because Rt. 422 was covered with
wires and debris and I could see right through to Vienna Rd.,
I knew there was trouble,” Profato explains.
Even the story of how Profato happened to be
on Rt. 422 is a strange one.
The city’s traffic officer was home off-duty when he saw
the darkened skies and heard the tornado's roar. Checking to be
certain no one in his home had been injured, Profato got in the
van and reached the in tersection of Moreland Rd. and Rt.
46 (Vienna Ave.), when he turned left toward Rt. 422.
What Profato doesn't understand is what compelled him to make
the left turn since he’s made a right turn from his house
to the police station downtown thousands of times.
“Capt. Kramer asked why I turned left and I still haven’t
been able to give him an answer,” Profato says.
When Profato neared the Niles Park Plaza site,
he spotted a woman coming toward him in a white karate outfit,
a sight made starkly graphic by the murky sky and debris laden
air. “I directed her to the “Y” because I knew
it had escaped damage and when I got to the plaza parking area,
the first person I saw was Trumbull County Sheriff’s Sgt.
Dan Dannunzio dripping blood and in pain,” Profato
continued. Dannunzio had been among those
in the karate class and he too was sent to the “Y”
for treatment.
Profato dashed into the rubble that once housed
the karate studio to carry two persons to safety before being
hailed by the husband of one of the storm victims who pleaded
for help in locating his wife. “It was strange. Usually
at a minor traffic accident, you have to keep the people away,
but when I looked around in the plaza parking lot I was almost
alone. Another man had helped a couple of people out of the karate
studio and it was only a short time before off-duty fireman George
Sprague arrived. but we were virtually by ourselves for several
minutes. I'll never forget it,” Profato notes.
Profato hailed down a motorcyclist who had
driven around debris on the road and sent him to the police department
seeking help because he had no mobile radio with him.
With natural gas roaring from broken pipes, Profato
ran to the rear of the plaza where he found three bodies later
identified as having been in a home across Rt. 422 from the plaza.
Profato then reached the far side of the ruins that once had been
the Autumn Hills Nursing Home scheduled to open today and found
the husband of Elaine Italiano still searching feverishly
for his wife.
“There were two cars close together a short
distance off Vienna Rd. and I asked Mr. Italiano what his wife
was wearing because I'd already found the body of a woman dressed
in purple. but he told me his wife was wearing white and was a
red head,” Profato said.
Profato walked back to the car he first spotted
and saw an arm sticking out of a pile of debris a few feet from
where he discovered the first purple clad woman’'s body.
Digging quickly, he saw the woman was dressed in white and was
obviously ltaliano’s wife. Italiano gave Profato no indication
of what happened as the family car was tossed through the air,
but did tell the traffic officer the couple had been driving on
Rt. 422 for a dinner at Jimmy Chieffo’s Restaurant when
the tornado struck them.
When Profato saw both the Italiano and Evelyn
Simmons cars near the nursing home, both were on all four
wheels. Mrs. Simmons and her daughter, Denise Mazza,
both of Girard had been sitting in their car getting gas at the
demolished Thornton station on Rt. 422 when the tornado literally
sucked them from the vehicle. Simmons told Profato as he eased
her onto a cushion found a short distance away. According to Profato,
Mazza was dead at the scene while Mrs. Simmons died later.
While ambulance crews rushed Mrs. Simmons to
the hospital, Profato returned to the plaza where a Howland Township
policeman obtained a jack and Profato and the officer raised a
beam pinning Linda McMahon of Austintown in the ruins
of the Rent-A-Center store. Profato had checked. but found no
pulse on the McMahon woman before tending to Italiano and Mrs.
Simmons and efforts by paramedics to revive Mrs. McMahon a few
moments later were unsuccessful.
In the space of 15 to 20 minutes, Profato had
found seven persons dead or dying. two injured men and rescued
two more individuals from the karate studio. All the while the
natural gas spewed forth into the air and rumors persisted that
several persons were trapped in the shambles of the Top O’
The Strip Roller Rink.
At this point additional help including patrolman
Criswell arrived and Profato requested refrigerated trucks be
sent to the scene to serve as a temporary morgue. Profato made
his plea on the mobile radio he commandeered from Criswell.
Criswell went to the “Y” to aid in
treating victims but he had already had his brush with the fierce
storm. On patrol in the downtown area just before 7 p.m. Friday,
Criswell sighted the tornado heading over the Sparkle Market on
Main St. and feared it would hit the Federal Street GE plant.
Criswell turned on his lights and siren and actually chased the
tornado up Vienna Avenue being forced to halt his cruiser at the
K of C Hall on Vienna Avenue as the winds dipped down leveling
the Convenient Marke,t scattering used cars from a nearby lot
to the four winds, ravaging the cemetery and peeling open two
units in the Eastwood Arms apartment complex. When I saw what
happened, I put in a Signal 5 call emergency 1, asking for a wrecker
and lots of help.” Criswell said .
As he approached the Convenient Market, he was
told persons were trapped inside. Checking he found seven persons
had been pinned beneath debris and wall-length ceiling-high coolers.
Criswell assured those trapped that help would soon arrive and
joined with firemen Randy Ciminero, Gene Crockett
and Ray LaBuda in attaching a cable from Art White's
wrecker to fallen beams allowing rescue efforts to free the seven.
Tragically, Helen Thomas had been struck by a beam and
was killed in the store with those with her daughter, Delores
Thomas badly injured. Five others were less seriously hurt.
Criswell said an unidentified civilian also aided in the rescue
effort, but that person left without giving his name.
Brookfield Township Police Chief Jessie Riggleman
reached the Convenient Market just moments after Criswell and
aided greatly in freeing those trapped helping Criswell remove
the coolers.
Both Profato and Criswell had words of high praise
for Patrolman Ray Gorby who handled the com mand
post established on Rt. 422 and directed radio communications
throughout Friday night and most of Saturday morning. “Ray
was a tremendous help and his knowledge of the city and our officers
were invaluable.” Profato and Criswell agreed. Each officer
also expressed their appreciation for the public’s help
and praised local residents for retaining their composure in the
face of the worst natural disaster in the community’s history.
Profato and Criswell insist they deserve no more
credit than any other member of the police or fire department
who all performed admirably during the storm crisis. Being at
the two scenes where fatalities occured and persons were rescued
was accidental, but don't try to tell those saved by Profato and
Criswell their performance was routine. You don’t thwart
death with a routine performance.
Profato and Criswell did–cheat death.
|
|

An Ohio National Guardsman stood at the entrance
to a Niles neighborhood.
|

On the scene since Friday night, National
Guardsmen get a breather as things begin to slowly return to normal
Tuesday evening with most streets now open.
Here a group of guardsmen take a well-deserved
rest.
From left: Spc. 4 Karl Teeter
Warren; Spc. 4 Dwayne Collins, Southington, partially hidden;
E 2 Steve Montella, Campbell; Ken Albright, officer
candidate, Cortland; and Sgt. Bruce Buckler, Warren, |

The Veteran's Memorial in Union Cemetery lays on
the ground in the wake of the May 31, 1985 tornado.

Woodglen Avenue home condemned. |

Shadow Ridge Damage |

122 Woodglen Street Damage |

Woodglen Street Damage |
|

The Niles Ohio map shows a straight
red line indicating the path of the 1985 Tornado.
Amazingly, the tornado followed a
path that resulted in the least damage and loss of life.
|
Upon entering the Niles area, the tornado destroyed
the propane storage tanks on Niles-Warren Road, then continued
through open fields until it hit the Republic Steel plant on Route
169 adding sheets of steel roofing material to its whirlwind.
These were spread throughout trees and homes along the tornado's
path.
The tornado caused extensive damages to the homes
on Woodglen Street, then it jumped across Mosquito Creek and the
empty filelds behind Nancy Street and Cynthia Court. Emma
Yannucci, 67, died of a heart attack while the storm destroyed
her home on Cynthia Street.
The Lincoln School playground area and school
were empty since the school year was over.
The Convenient Mart was destroyed with the walls
and roof collapsing, resulting in the death of Helen Thomas,
84, inside the building.
Carmen's Auto Sales and Eastwood Arms suffered
considerable damage.
The tornado ripped through Union Cemetery next
causing damage to tombstones, trees, and building but no loss
of life.
Shadow Ridge and Lantern Lane where homes were
demolished with many disappearing completely.
The timing of the tornado which flattened the
Roller Rink, which was not open and filled with students who had
been given free tickets on the Last day of school,
Niles Park Plaza and Thornton's Gas station victims:
Elaine Italiano, 39, was in her car when the tornado
struck her; Evelyn Simmons and her daughter, Denise
Mazza; Ernest Miller, 87, and his wife Anna
Miller along with Anna's sister, Margaret Palkovich;
and Linda McMahon.
Autumn Hills Nursing Home had not opened for
business so their were no residents in the building.
The tornado continued across empty farm fields
destroying trees and an art workshop; then into the Stillwagon
Road area destroying homes but taking no additional lives.
|
|

House locations in the Stillwagon
Road area, map by Corey (Masciangelo) Maley.
The following images illustrate the
damage to the homes along Stillwagon Road.
|

1644 Stillwagon

1661 Stillwagon |

1662 Stillwagon

1674 Stillwagon |
|

1674 Stillwagon |

1675 Stillwagon |

1675 Stillwagon |

1690 Stillwagon |

1690 Stillwagon |

1690 Stillwagon |

1701 Stillwagon |

1731 Stillwagon |

1731 Stillwagon |

1731 Stillwagon |

1644-1650 Stillwagon |

Destroyed truck Stillwagon |
|

Organization Help: Ruth and John Batts
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, spent the last two months in Niles assisting
the Niles Rcovery Coalition in the communitees rebuilding effort
from the tornado of May 31, 1985.
The Battses, volunteers from the Christian
Reformed World Relief Committee, left for home after checking a
building site in the heavily damaged Woodglen Street area. |
Organization Help
By Neil Durbin
Vindicator Trumbull County staff
NILES - John and Ruth Batts
left for their Grand Rapids, Mich., home Saturday, after spending
two productive months helping people here rebuild their lives
from last May's disaster. The couple, volunteers with the Christian
Reformed World Relief Committee, arrived August 8.Their white
Oldsmobile with the large CRWRC stickers and Michigan license
plates soon became a familiar sight around town.
Batts, a retired builder, supervised the coalition's
reconstruction projects, concentrated in the hard-hit Woodglen
Avenue area, while his wife helped organize the coalition's office.
While Batts was busy ordering building materials, handling paperwork
and traveling to the various job sites, his wife was answering
phones and assisting Coalition Director Susan Heatherington.
“I really don't know what we would have done without them,”
Miss Heatherington said. “They have the expertise because
they've been through this before.”
Two months in Niles was their longest stay in
one place since they became CRWRC volunteers a year ago. Their
work has taken them to such places as McCall, S.C., which also
was struck by a tornado.
They have spent three months away from home, working in disaster
areas, including their stint here, since joining CRWRC's disaster
recovery team, Batts said.
What motivates a couple to travel several hundred
miles from home, working long hours to help total strangers? “We
really do it out of thankfulness for what the Lord has done for
us,” Mrs. Batts explained.
The couple will spend a few weeks relaxing and reacquainting themselves
with family and friends at home before traveling to Pascagoula,
Miss., to assist in hurricane recovery efforts there.
|
When
they first arrived in the Woodglen area, neighborhood residents
may have eyed them somewhat suspiciously, “but after you've
stayed around six or eight weeks you make some pretty close friendships,”
Batts said. He added that he was impressed by the way neighborhood
residents banded together to help each other. He recalled that one
woman let laborers use her restroom and electrical outlets as they
rebuilt her nextdoor neighbor's home.
Mrs. Batts added that her husband
would have liked to have stayed until the construction projects
are completed. Thus far the coalition has completed seven building
projects,
The Battses both admitted mixed feelings
about leaving. While they were glad to be going home to their family,
they still will miss the new friends they have made here. “It
wasn't all work. We enjoyed it,” Mrs. Batts said. “You
get to know people. That's what it's all about,” Batts said,
adding “It's been a very positive experience.”
At the work site, Batts supervised
a rotating contingent of volunteer skilled laborers, supplied by
the Church of the Brethren Disaster Response. These volunteers have
come from different parts of the country and have been staying in
quarters at the First United Methodist Church.
The Niles project was the first Batts
could remember in which CRWRC and Church of the Brethren volunteers
worked side by side.
“The Church of the Brethren
Bill Chappell, who arrived her last Wednesday, will assum
Batts' duties.
Meanwhile, the coalition is seeking local volunteers, either individuals
or groups, to perform such finishing tasks as painting and landscaping
once the Church of the Brethren volunteers leave,” Miss Heatherington
said. “Other residents have been approved and wait for volunteer
labor,” Miss Heatherington said. “The coalition has
spent more than $30,000 of $80,000 collected to provide for material
needs to victims who were either uninsured or underinsured,”
Miss Heatherington reported. |
|

Righting tombstones – a group
of retired iron workers labored in the Niles Cemetery repairing
tombstones knocked down by the May 31,1985 tornado.
With no known relatives in the area,
182 toppled tombstones might have lain there indefinitely because
the city lacks the more than $10,000 needed to repair them.
But John Ozanich, retired vice-president
of Diamond Steel Company in Boardman, rounded up a crew of 13 members
ofStructural Iron Workers Local 207, convinced his old employer
to lend him the equipment, and arrived yesterday morning to start
the project.
The group plans to return one day
per week until the project is completed.
“You can't work these guys too
hard,” Ozanich laughed, “they're retired.”
Niles City officials are extremely
grateful for their efforts.

New trees ready to be planted in cemetery. |
Ironworker retirees ‘right’
tombstones.
Niles February 26, 1986 – It is an act
of charity that leaves city officials flabbergasted.
Fourteen retired ironworkers using equipment loaned by the Diamond
Steel Company in Boardman worked in Niles City Cemetery Tuesday,
righting dozens of tombstones tumbled and broken by the May 31,
1985 tornado.
“It's a tremendous lift for the cemetery,"
remarked Mayor John Shaffer.
“It's something I jus t can't believe,” he added.
“It shows you there are a lot of good people out there who
don't do things just for monetary reasons.”
Among the killer tornado yesterdays’ multi-faceted
legacy were 182 broken tombstones upon the graves or people for
whom there are no known descendants in the area, no one to repair
the grave markers.
Many city residents repaired the tombstones of their ancestors.
In many cases, homeowner’s insurance covered the cost of
the repairs. But the responsibility for the remaining 182 tombstones
fell to the city, which has no money to make the repairs. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency ruled last year it would not
reimburse the city for this expense.
Service Director Lewis Slanina sought
bids for the repairs, and found it would cost at least $10,000.
Enter John Ozanich, the retired vice-president of Diamond
Steel. “I worked for nothing all my life,” he remarked.
“Outside my job, that is...”
“I heard about the problem here, and decided
it would be a good job to do since Niles is broke,” Ozanich
added. He explained he took a sign-up sheet down to a get-together
of retired members of Structural lron Workers Local 207 and passed
it around. Thirteen men signed up to help Ozanich.
Next Ozanich dropped in to see the man who replaced
him when he retired in June 1984. The new vice president gave
Ozanich permission to use two large cranes. One rents for $100
per hour, the other for $75 per hour. Ozanich, his crew, and the
cranes arrived Tuesday morning. Three men who have heart conditions
left for home after lunch because of the cold. “You can't
work these guys too hard,” Ozanich laughed. “They're
retired.”
None of the men are Niles residents. Most are
from Canfield, Struthers, Austintown, Braceville and one from
McDonald. The volunteers are: Pete Ozanich, Harold Oliver,
Larry Shiflet , Jack Mailey, Ralph Whistler, Myron Oliver, Eugene
Roberts. Paul Lilko, Marty Novotny, Scotty Simpson. Paul Petro
and Bud McClellan. They plan to return one day each
week, and keep working until the project is completed. Some of
the work must wait until warmer weather, because some of the tombstones
must be glued together with a glue that works only if the temperature
is 60 degrees or warmer. “I just go along and when there's
no more I'll know we’re done,” noted Ozanich.
Without Ozanich and his crew, the work might
not have been done at all this year, according to city officials.
“ There's no way we could have paid for this,” Mayor
Jack Shaffer commented. “Those gravemarkers probably would
have lain there indefinitely.”
Carmen Vivilo, Niles Park and Recreation
Director, like Shaffer, said, “the retired workers’
help is more than welcome. Here we are, cleaning up the cemetery,
planting new trees and grass, fixing the mausoleum and staking
out graves in a new area of the cemetery, and we still have these
tombstones lying down.”
“It just shows you that volunteerism is
alive and well,” Vivilo added. Finally, “the volunteer
efforts leave him nearly speechless. I can’t express how
good this makes me feel,” Shaffer commented.
|
|

Autumn Hills Nursing Home, 2025.
40 years after 1985 Tornado.
|
Nursing Home Being Rebuilt
By JIM FLICK
Staff Writer
NILES .:... Plans have been announced to rebuild
two more businesses destroyed by the May 31 tornado-the Autumn
Hills Nuring Home and the Convenient Mart on Route 46.
In fact, the Mike Coates Construction Company
began work on the nursing home earlier this week, after obtaining
a building permit from Building and Zoning Inspector Mel Rose
on Wednesday.
The building permit application shows it will cost $190,000 for
the initial work on the building, located at
2565 Niles-Vienna Road.
The venture was nearly completed and scheduled
to open just a week after the tornado razed it to the ground.
The original target date called for the nursing home to be occupied
several weeks prior to the tornado, but it fell behind schedule.
If it had been completed on the original target date, it could
have been filled with more than 100 elderly occupants when the
tornado struck.
Coates and Dr. Carl Gillette are the major investors
in the project, whose estimated total cost is more than $2 million.
Everything above the foundation was destroyed by the killer windstorm.
The Convenient Mart store is apparently still
the subject of litigation between the owners of the local store,
who include several members of the Fasinelli family, and the parent
company. The lawsuit revolved around a clause in the lease which
said owners of the property would rebuild if the store was destroyed
in a natural disaster. An elderly woman was killed in the store,
which lay on the fringes of the tornado's path.
|
|
Rebuilding
and 40 Years After the May 31, 1985 Tornado |

Home being Rebuilt, 1985.

Woodglen Street, 2025

Nancy Street and Susan Court, 2025.

Lantern Lane, 2025. |
Packard People
by Patricia Reilly
On May 31, Dolores Thomas stood transfixed in the parking
lot of a Convenient food store in Niles, Ohio. Less than a mile
away, a curious natural phenomenon advanced toward her. When the
Dept. 949 employee realized the nature of that malignant black
funnel, she gaped an instant longer before she fled to the apparent
safety of the grocery store.
That building was not safe enough as the tornado
continued its dance of destruction through the area.
Halfway down an aisle of the store, Dolores Thomas turned to see
the windows shatter and the roof blow off. Then the remainder
of the roof collapsed; the tornado departed.
Most of the store's debris sparkled with a layer
of broken glass. Dolores Thomas leaned heavily against a shelf,
her leg pinned under the ruins. Her mother, only a few feet away,
was dead.
A couple of the store's coolers lay on top of the debris, preventing
rescuers from reaching the victims. Cranes eventually freed them
from the rubble.
Forty-five minutes after the tornado hit, Dolores
Thomas found herself in Warren General Hospital with a fractured
knee and fractured ribs. After a 10-day hospital stay, she returned
home.
At that point the Packard Electric/IDE Local 717 disaster relief
team stepped in to help.
Tornado contact workers kept in close touch to
ensure she would get the help she needed. "I don't know what
I would have done if they hadn't been there;' Thomas said. "The
worst part was getting home and knowing I couldn't take care of
myself. I'm used to being independent."
The Packard/Local 717 tornado relief fund provided for round-the-clock
nursing care, which gradually lessened as she became more self-sufficient.
"I can't think of a way to thank people enough for the help
I received;' Thomas said. Dolores Thomas is on the road to recovery.
But it is a long road, and many Packard
people are still traveling it.
Packard, 717, GM help
Over the past three months Packard Electric, IUE Local 717 and
General Motors have combined efforts to help more than 250 Packard
tornado victims. An outpouring of generosity by Packard employees
and retirees enabled the disaster relief team to provide tornado
victims with financial assistance, storage of household goods,
debris removal, use of temporary vehicles and counseling.
The tornado relief fund has received more than
$182,000 to date, and is expected to top $225,000, according to
Dave Hofius, divisional auditor. Packard employes and
retirees donated more than $72,000 of that figure. Employee contributions
from all Ohio GM locations to the GM Care and Share
fund totaled more than $196,000. General Motors doubled the employee
contributions with a matching donation.
Tornado Relief Steering Committee co-chairmen Larry L. Haid,
assistant Personnel director, and Harold E. "Nick"
Nichols, IUE Local 717 shop chairman, praised Packard Electric
employes and retirees who donated their time, energy and money
to work together in helping provide assistance to Packard's tornado
victims.
"When dealing with a natural disaster, people
are called upon to give with resources they never thought they
had - that includes our employes and retirees affected by the
storm who had the fortitude to begin rebuilding their lives right
away, and those who gave of themselves to help them. As co-chairmen
we have seen that even a tragedy such as this tornado could not
defeat Packard Electric people."
Many tornado victims felt strongly about the
support they received, including Bill Stocker, Dept.
902, and his wife Kay: "The three words, 'thank you everyone'
can never be enough to express the deepest feelings we have for
all of the Packard people who helped us out during our time of
greatest need. We will never forget your brotherly love.
"May 31, 1985, was the darkest day some
of us in this valley have ever lived through. This ordeal shows
that when the chips are down, we will be there for each other."
This story appeared in The Cablegram, August,
1985
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Photographs
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