We continue our stories, and pictures, written by Dick Coleman of Kane while he was editor of The Kane Republican, after the killer tornado that hit the Kane area about 8:15 p.m. on May 31, 1985.

Storm damage here estimated at $7 - 10 million

Editor, The Kane Republican

Damage from the tornado that roared through the Kane area at 8:15 p.m. Friday has been estimated at between $7-10 million, Mayor Edgar James said today.

Meanwhile, the massive cleanup job from the storm continued, with the worst damage suffered at nearby East Kane and the Sleepy Hollow area of Wetmore Township and on Laurel Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Pine Avenue and Laurel Avenue in Kane Borough, in that order.

Offers of help continued to flow into Kane, in many forms, over the weekend and continued this morning. Those offers included offers of front end loader equipment, dump trucks, logging trucks, power saw operators and individual and groups of laborers.

For example, a group of 100 persons from a church mission arrived in Kane this morning and those people were being sent to various cleanup sites.

Offers of financial help were announced, too.

The state Department of Community Affairs will have representatives at Central Towers in Kane this afternoon to help in arranging aid “for anyone in need of financial aid because of tornado damage.”

The McKean County commissioners also arranged for financial help.

The chief assessor for McKean County told The Kane Republican today that a new assessment law was passed by the Legislature last October, called the Catastrophic Loss to Property Law.”

He said any person who suffered property damage from the tornado, in lieu of going through regular channels to have their assessments appealed, can petition the county Board of Assessment to have their assessment adjusted “due to catastrophe.”

He said the value of the property before the catastrophe, as opposed to the valued of the property after the catastrophe, will be considered. Then the assessment can be adjusted.

He said the commissioners have decided, for the 1985 tax year, to remove the tax rolls those buildings destroyed, rather than consider the values before and after the storm.

He said two representatives of his office will be in Kane today “and whatever it takes tomorrow” reviewing properties destroyed or damaged in the tornado. He said, “We will be doing a visual survey of the damage today and tomorrow.”

Three persons were killed and some 30 persons were injured - one of them critically - in the tornado Friday evening in the Kane area.

Despite rumors to the contrary, no other persons injured in the storm in the Kane area have died since then.

It was the worst storm in the history of Kane, lasting only a minute or two.

Emergency measures continued to be enforced in Kane, including:

No burning, because of the danger of explosions, since many gas leaks remain to be repaired.

A dusk to dawn survey, enforced by National Guard troops and police.

No parking on Fraley Street in the Kane business section to allow trucks hauling limbs and tree trunks to the old Kane dumps area at Northwest to not be impeded.

Mayor James said that there has been little looting since the tornado and that the curfew announced by police is “99 percent effective.”

Decisions are being discussed by a group of six persons:  Clair Barr, handling the telephone at the emergency headquarters at the Kane Firehall; the mayor; Fire Chief Joseph Stauffer; former state policeman George Plafcan, of Kane; Ernest Ishman, director of the McKean County Emergency Management Agency, from Bradford, and his deputy director, Charles Daniels of Smethport.

Final decisions are being made by the fire chief and the mayor.

Evergreen Park in Kane suffered heavy damage in the tornado with at least one third of the trees in that beautiful park destroyed.

One of the three school buildings in Kane was heavily damaged, the middle school.

Mrs. Sue Novosel, a member of the Kane Area School Board, said Chestnut School suffered minor damage, to the playground area (trees destroyed), a tree destroyed in one yard.

At the senior high school, the vocational-agriculture building - a separate building - was demolished, with a lot of equipment destroyed.

Two thirds of the west wall of the swimming pool section of the building was destroyed.

At the middle school, she said, the roof lifted up and then came down on the building in the storm, causing a lot of structural damage. The garage at the rear of the building was destroyed and most of the windows in the building were destroyed.

The south side of the building suffered the worst damage.

Mrs. Novosel said there is a possibility that the building will be declared a total loss, although the auditorium, for example, is in good shape, since it has no outside windows.

The Sturgeon Engineering firm, which previously surveyed local school buildings, is doing another survey following the storm.

The Sturgeon firm will then make its recommendations to the school board.

The business office of the school district has been moved from the middle school to Chestnut School.

Mt. Jewett School students are to report Mt. Jewett School to pick up their report cards tomorrow.

Students of Chestnut School, the middle school and the high school are to NOT report to those buildings Tuesday for their report cards. Their reports cards will be mailed to them.

The Kane Manufacturing firm, closed by the storm, will resume production Tuesday.

Mayor James said, “Everything is going smoothly in emergency operations since the storm, with every facet covered. Help has been received from the state Emergency Services agency and the federal Emergency Servives agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Congressman William Clinger will visit the area Tuesday to survey the damage.

(Reprinted from June 3, 1985)