Propane Storage Tanks

Nancy Street and Cynthia Court

Shadow Ridge

Niles Cemetery

Niles Cemetery

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.

Congressman Traficant Office Destroyed

Special Disaster Update

June 25, 1985

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nursing Home Being Rebuilt
By JIM FLICK
Niles Times 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.

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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