ROME, NY — a tornado that struck this small, upstate town, blew off roofs, leveled brick buildings and toppled the steeples of two historic churches. No one was killed, but the tornado left a mess in downtown and surrounding areas. More than 370 homes were damaged.
Residents vow to rebuild. But some of the damage on July 16 was so severe that the path forward is uncertain for many in this old industrial city, where people are more accustomed to digging out of snow drifts than piles of rubble.
Scott Smith stood by the wreckage of his hot dog, catering and events business a week after the storm, staring at the ruins of his storage unit, which had collapsed on much of its equipment, including tables, rides and smokers. The 65-year-old owner of Scotty’s Hot Dogs plans to continue operating his businesses. But he needs to find new storage space.
“I plan to rebuild,” Smith said. “Will it be Rome? I would like to believe so.”
The 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, his first car, was crushed. So was his first hot dog cart, which was sitting in a pile of rocks.
“I was hoping to save it for my first grandchild someday, you know, to get him or her started,” Smith said. “It’s kind of sad to see it in that rubble now.”
The July 16 tornado in Rome, home to about 32,000 people, was unusually devastating for the region, with peak winds of 135 mph (217 km/h). traveled more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) long and was rated EF2, which is considered “significant” on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which rates tornadoes based on estimated wind speed and damage.
According to Nick Bassill, director of the State Weather Risk Communications Center at the University at Albany, only one in six tornadoes in New York is EF2 or higher.
The Rome tornado was one of 10 confirmed tornadoes in the state that day. One of them killed an 82-year-old man who was hit by storm debris about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Rome.
The tornado ripped through Rome like a locomotive, Smith said. He and his girlfriend, Wendy Goldenbaum, sheltered in his catering kitchen and held on to each other as the building shook.
In one area that has been hit particularly hard, four of the five homes owned by landlord Richard Secor will likely have to be demolished, he said, including one whose roof has been ripped off but whose occupants are OK.
“Everything just flew up like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and disappeared,” Secor said.
According to Mayor Jeffrey Lanigan, dozens of businesses have already applied for emergency assistance.
Allison Graves has been busy moving supplies out of her New York Dance Academy studio, which is adjacent to a building that collapsed and took out a local mural of a Revolutionary War hero on horseback, rendering her building unusable and throwing her plans up in the air.
“Where can we go? What can we do? Some local studios have offered me a space if I want to go there and use their studios for the time being,” Graves said.
Homeowner Willard Harvey is waiting for insurance information to decide what to do with his badly damaged home. He has a rural spot up north where he and his wife can live. But he has childhood memories of the house, which used to belong to his parents. He thinks he wants to rebuild it.
“Just my roots,” Harvey said. “I’ve been here my whole life.”
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente estimates that demolishing uninhabitable and defective buildings could cost up to $25 million, with several buildings coming down the drain soon. The county and city have asked the state for help to cover the cost.
It would be particularly painful to lose some of the older buildings, such as the two 19th century churches with badly damaged spires and roofs.
One of them, St. Mary’s, was sold by the local Catholic diocese several years ago and has been disused, with the current owner saying that insurance would not cover the cost of rebuilding or demolishing it.
At the other church, First Presbyterian, crews used a giant crane this week to remove debris. The Rev. Edwina Landry remains hopeful the parish can rebuild, but said it’s too early to say what’s possible.
“There’s so much history here,” she said. “People have grown up in this church, they’ve been baptized here, they’ve been married here, they’ve had so many big life changes in this church building. And that’s something we want to hold on to.”
After the tornado, First Presbyterian Church held a service on Sunday at a nearby church, which also opened its doors to the congregation.
Lanigan, the mayor, said that if some buildings can’t be saved, officials at least want to honor them in a way that honors Rome’s long history. He’s confident the city will recover.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “This is definitely going to take some time and a lot of effort from us, the community and our external partners.”
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Associated Press journalist Cedar Attanasio in New York City contributed.
