30 Years Later, Residents Vividly Remember Deadly Tornado Outbreak
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - This Sunday marks 30 years since one of the worst tornado outbreaks in United States history.
On May 31, 1985, over the span of nine hours, more than 40 tornadoes tore through parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Canada.
Nearly half of them were in western Pennsylvania.
Of the 89 people killed, 75 were from Pennsylvania and another 800 Pennsylvanians were among the more than 1,000 who were hurt.
One of the towns hit the hardest was Albion in Erie County.
Martha Sherman, the former Red Cross Coordinator for that area, remembers the day vividly.
A total of 12 people in Albion were killed, including Sherman's daughter-in-law.
"She got in her car and her car was lifted up over a silo. The neighbor who saw that, he suffered terribly, I don't think he ever, ever recovered from that," Sherman said.
While Albion has been rebuilt, no one who survived that day can forget it.
Joanne Catron was 15 years old in 1985.
"A part of you just had to grow up fast. It was a whole new meaning as to life can be cut short so fast," she said.
John Yazembiak also survived the tornado.
Just hours after it hit, he got on a front loader and helped rescuers dig out survivors and victims from the ruins.
He continued doing that for 36 straight hours.
About the survivors who were trapped in the rubble, Yazembiak says, "You could hear them screaming and hollering."
Three decades later, you have to look hard to see the path of that devastating storm, but the emotional scars have yet to heal for many people.
"I just kept seeing private pieces of people's lives everywhere. It sticks with you. You don't ever forget," tornado survivor Jennifer Crowl says.
Another of the tornadoes that day tore through parts of Beaver and Butler counties.
It touched down near Darlington and churned its way 40 miles to Sarver, hitting several towns and the Big Beaver Plaza in Beaver Falls.
In that tornado, nine people were killed, 120 others were hurt and more than 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
The worst though was the lone F5 tornado that hit Wheatland in Mercer County - killing 18 and injuring another 310.
More than 100 buildings in the small town were leveled.
All told, the tornadoes caused more than $600 million in damage.
Since then, there have been only two other tornado outbreaks in the U.S. that were deadlier than May 31, 1985.
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