Residents recall sudden fury that shattered town

Some residents watched the approaching storm on television but others said they had no warning it was coming.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
CLARK, Pa. -- It was the glint of a flashlight beam bouncing off his wedding ring that led rescuers to where Bruce Wetzel was buried in the rubble of his Nora Street home.
Wetzel said he was lying on the living room couch watching television in the log home he shared with his wife, Cindy, when a tornado packing winds estimated at 155 mph hit his neighborhood around 7:45 p.m. Sunday.
The brick and cement block fireplace in his living room collapsed atop him, pinning him down in a seated position and burying him so that only the hand wearing his wedding ring was exposed.
Cindy said she went to the kitchen window to look outside when the power failed and her ears popped.
"It was only 10 seconds. Boom, it was done," she said of the twister that turned their house into what looked like a pile of discarded toy Lincoln Logs.
Authorities said four houses in the borough were flattened, and an official count released by the Mercer County Department of Public Safety showed that a dozen homes were destroyed, a dozen more suffered major damage, 28 had minor damage and 68 had very minor damage in Clark and neighboring South Pymatuning and Delaware townships and in Sharon. Officials confirmed Monday that it was a tornado that raced through Clark.
Charles E. Templeton, 81, of 22 Milton St., died when the tornado flattened his home. His wife, Georgette, was rescued by firefighters who found her partially buried in the debris. She was admitted to Sharon Regional Health System and remained in fair condition today.
Authorities said 18 people were hurt in the storm, all in Clark. Ten were treated at the scene, and the rest were treated at local hospitals. Besides Mrs. Templeton, only Eli Paczak, 52, of 2775 Lake Road was admitted to a hospital. He was first taken to Sharon Regional but later transferred to St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, which, based on his family's request for privacy, wouldn't release any information on his condition.
Rescued by neighbors
Cindy Wetzel said she dropped to the floor of her kitchen when the tornado hit, and when she looked up, the house was gone. She crawled out of the rubble and began yelling for her husband.
Neighbors came to her aid, but in the pitch black night, armed only with some small flashlights, they couldn't tell how much damage was done or where Wetzel was.
Todd Clary and Wil White, of 24 Nora St. and 21 Nora St., respectively, were joined by a third man they didn't know in searching the remnants of the Wetzels' house. They thought they could hear some muffled calls for help but couldn't tell where it was coming from, White said.
As they moved farther into the debris, Clary said the beam of his flashlight caught the glint from the wedding ring on Wetzel's hand, the only part of his body not buried in the rubble.
"I grabbed his hand and said, 'If you can hear me, squeeze my hand'," Clary said, adding that Wetzel's response was a request that they promptly dig him out.
They did, and Wetzel suffered only minor cuts and bruises.
He and his wife were back at the house Monday morning, picking up valuables, clothing and other items they could salvage.
"I'm very lucky to be alive," he said as he surveyed what is left of their home.
Cindy showed she hadn't lost her sense of humor despite the tragedy, noting they had found the video of the movie "Twister" in the debris and presented it to her husband.
"It's his favorite movie," she said as she showed what they had been able to recover.
"We found the important stuff," she quipped, as she reached into a large cardboard box and pulled out a roll of toilet paper.
Headed for the basement
The Wetzels' next-door neighbors, Jim and Jan Scott, had just returned from Pittsburgh and weren't aware of the tornado watch and later tornado warnings that had been issued for Mercer County. They were about to dish out some ice cream when the lights went out, he said.
His wife sensed something was wrong and suggested they go to the basement.
Scott said he got to the bottom of the basement steps behind his wife and used one arm to hold her against the wall as the tornado hit, his other hand still holding onto the door jamb. The tornado slammed the door shut on the fingers of his right hand.
"I thought it cut my fingers off," he said.
The Scotts found themselves trapped in the basement. A woodburning stove next to the basement steps was blown into the stairwell by the tornado, blocking their exit.
Scott sad he got a two-step stepladder and they used that to climb over the stove and a large chair that had also been blown into the stairwell.
"All we could see was there was no house," he said.
Most of the exterior walls were still standing, but the roof and many of the interior room partitions were gone.
Scott said they had just finished putting a big addition on the rear of their home.
There were a couple of classic automobiles, including a vintage red Ford Thunderbird, sitting on the cement slab where his garage had been. Both suffered extensive damage.
'House fell on me'
"You can replace possessions, but you can't replace lives," said Barbara Zook, who was at home with her son, Harold Jr., at 16 Milton St., next door to the Templeton home, when the tornado hit.
Zook said they just made it to the cellar when "the house fell on me."
The Templetons' camping trailer and boat trailer ended up atop the basement and the bulk of her house was blown across Milton Street.
A pickup truck parked in her basement garage was still there, although extensively damaged.
She said she and her son were able to crawl out of the debris unaided and found their dog. Their cat was missing, she said.
A flag that had been in her home was found draped on what was left of a tree trunk in her front yard. Someone later attached it to a 2-by-4 board and properly raised it in front of what was left of her house.
Someone also found her purse across the street and returned it to her, much to her delight.
"I have my insurance card. Yes, and I have a couple of dollars," she shouted as she opened her wallet.
Recalling Wheatland tragedy
One of those walking through the debris-laden streets was former Wheatland Mayor Helen Duby, who has relatives in Clark. Duby was mayor when a F-5 tornado flattened much of Wheatland, killing seven people there May 31, 1985.
"It just makes me sick," Duby said as she surveyed the damage, adding that the scene was too reminiscent of what had happened in Wheatland.
Scores of fire and rescue personnel continued to comb the debris and lawns throughout the day Monday, picking up valuables that homeowners could reclaim later.
There were family pictures strewn across muddy Milton Street and, at one side, among a pile of twisted and broken debris, was a 1998 Sharpsville Devils Log 1998 yearbook, sitting atop what appeared to be family photo albums waiting to be picked up.
Many homeowners, aided by family and friends, were busy trying to salvage items from their less-damaged homes, knowing that they wouldn't be allowed to stay there overnight because the area still had no utility or telephone service.
Utility crews were busy replacing downed poles so power lines could be restrung, and there was the noticeable buzz of chain saws clearing away fallen trees and the less-obvious sound of portable gas-powered generators brought in by a number of people to provide temporary electrical power to their homes.
Thankful
Many Clark residents, some who had suffered damage and some who had not, spent part of the late morning hours wandering through the damaged area, remarking at how thankful they were to avoid the brunt of the storm.
Frank Schmidt of 35 Milton St., was wandering the streets with a video camera in one hand and a blue suitcase in the other. He was using the camera to document the damage. The suitcase contained personal items that he had removed from his home because he and his wife and two children weren't going to be allowed to stay there Monday night because of a gas odor.
His wife, Debbie, was working Sunday night at nearby Tara, A Country Inn, which was turned into a staging area by rescue personnel.
Schmidt said he and his son and daughter had been watching the weather alerts on television and knew a storm was coming but didn't immediately feel threatened.
That feeling changed, Schmidt said, "When you started hearing the sound you never heard before, a large sucking sound, debris hitting the house and the whistling of the wind."
The tornado destroyed their back porch and did structural damage. A 2-by-6 beam from his porch wound up stuck through his neighbor's wall at a 90-degree angle, penetrating into a kitchen cabinet.
"It was pretty scary. It was all over in 30 seconds," Schmidt said.