The Cheektowaga Tornado of 1987
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
1:05 PM EDT FRI JULY 31, 1987
...STORM SURVEY OF THURSDAY'S TORNADO NEAR BUFFALO...
EARLY THIS MORNING REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOURED THE BUFFALO SUBURB OF CHEEKTOWAGA THAT WAS STRUCK BY A TORNADO THURSDAY AFTERNOON JULY 30, 1987.
INITIAL TOUCHDOWN OF THE FUNNEL WAS LOCATED AROUND ELKHURST AND CEDAR GROVE ROADS ABOUT 2 MILES SOUTHWEST OF THE BUFFALO AIRPORT. DAMAGE VIEWED AT 32 FERNWOOD INDICATED AN F1 TORNADO - ESTIMATED WIND SPEED OF 73 TO 112 MPH. DAMAGE PATH EXTENDED SOUTHEAST FOR ABOUT 1/4 MILE FROM THE INITIAL TOUCHDOWN WITH A WIDTH OF THE PATH OF 75 TO 100 FEET.
FROM GENESEE STREET TO THE THRUWAY FOR ABOUT 1/4 MILE LITTLE DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED. SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE BEGAN AGAIN AT PINEHURST AND WOODBINE JUST EAST OF THE THRUWAY AND CONTINUED FOR ANOTHER 1/4 MILE. AS THE TORNADO CROSSED CHEROKEE DRIVE IT GREW IN STRENGTH. GARAGES WERE LEVELED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHEROKEE DRIVE AND ROOFS WERE BLOWN OFF HOMES AT 104 MIAMI AND 849 AND 852 GEORGE URBAN. DAMAGE PATH WIDTH AT THIS POINT WAS ABOUT 175 FEET. BASED ON THE DAMAGE...TORNADO STRENGTH PROBABLY REACHED F2 AT THIS TIME...113 TO 157 MPH.
TREE TOPS WERE SKIMMED FOR ABOUT 1/4 MILE UNTIL THE TORNADO HIT THE PUTT PUTT GOLF COURSE ON UNION ROAD. A STRUCTURAL STEEL BILLBOARD WAS
COMPLETELY BENT TO THE GROUND AND DEBRIS WAS BLOWN ACROSS THE STREET TO THE HOLIDAY SHOWCASE RESTAURANT. PART OF THE ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF THE RESTAURANT AND SUPPORTS CAVED IN. DAMAGE PATH WAS ABOUT 50 FEET AT THIS POINT AND INTENSITY OF THE TORNADO WAS PROBABLY ON THE UPPER END OF AN F1. DAMAGE ENDED JUST SOUTHEAST OF THIS AREA.
LIFE OF THE TORNADO WAS ONLY MINUTES, PROBABLY 10 MINUTES AT MOST FROM INITIAL TOUCHDOWN AROUND 4:30 PM UNTIL FINAL LIFTOFF. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS AT THE RESTAURANT INDICATED THE FUNNEL WAS MOVING SLOW ENOUGH FOR THEM TO GET ALL THE PATRONS TO THE BASEMENT. 15 MPH MIGHT BE A GOOD SPEED ESTIMATE. PATH WIDTH VARIED FROM 50 TO 175 FEET. IT ALSO APPEARS OVER THE TOTAL PATH LENGTH OF ABOUT 1 1/2 MILES THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 3 TIMES.
I love the line "george urban will never be the same again" lmao leave it to local news to write the corniest melodramatic lines.love the cheektowayga accents too. lots of pink flamingos died that day i bet 😭😂
Best accent goes to Richard Herko. 3:31
At 3:09 of this video the green garage in the back ground was my house at the time on Cherokee Dr. The house and garage took some heavy damage but others were hit harder than us.
@bill61570 One of the more memorable things about this tornado was that, unlike most other WNY tornadoes that hit remote rural areas, this F2 twister struck a densely populated residential and commercial district. It really is amazing that there were no serious injuries or fatalities.
Channel 7's music has never changed.
I remember hearing about this disaster back in '87. I lived in the Akron/Clarence area at the time. Nothing happened there. I do remember I tuned into the Rochester, NY area TV News stations to see and hear if they mentioned anything about the tornado in Cheektowaga. They did and I do remember at that same time in the Rochester suburb of Greece they had a water main break that flooded a street in that town. Anyone from that area remember that?
I love this video :) my mom is Gloria. Luckily she'd added tornado insurance to the policy before this hit, so our new garage was totally covered ❤
I remember this - lived in Cheektowaga (Navy) & stayed in same Apt as many of the Buffalo Bills stayed in. Driving & seeing this over 1-200 meters high 1-2 blocks away - clear; see thru, but all this debris swirling around. Was quite a site to see.
'87 overall was a year of weather extremes...especially during the summer....this tornado (a rarity in western new york) struck in the midst of one of the hottest summers in 50 years...(at that point)....
@StukInBuf That's a cool story, thanks for sharing. I live in Cheektowaga but was vacationing in Virginia when that happened. I heard all about the tornado that evening from a relative who phoned me.
i remember watching this on the news when i was 11 years old wow.
I was luckily out of town when it happened. I was just a kid too.
@@adamx9793 yeah very scary!
The tornado came off the thruway at my house on Pinehurst Ave. When they cut to the story about Cherokee Drive it was a shot of the tree in the front of my house and my dad walking up the driveway on Pineurst.
I was at the Pizza Hut on Union Road, just south of the Putt Putt, when it happened.
While the twister wrecked the Putt Putt and the Holiday Showcase restaurant across the street from it, all Pizza Hut suffered was a few downed shingles from its roof.
Mom didn't let me hear the end of it when I got home!
Less than a year later, in a school play, we alluded to this event by having "two tickets to *Gone with the Wind* at Holiday Showcase" as part of the script.
I live on fath Drive when the tornado happened. It destroyed the Holiday Showcase restaurant just down the street and ripped siding off of houses; i remember being afraid a tree was going to fall on the first car I ever owned (I was just 17). I had JUST bought the car and it was parked under a damaged tree. My mom was in the living room when it happened and said the curtains were stuck to the ceiling.
I will never forget the experience for the rest of my life.
I remember this one. I was coming from the city on the 33 and saw the clouds but missed seeing that damn tornado. I saw the damage the day after and it was pretty bad. Which Long John Silvers was that in the pic? I am thinking it was the one by St. Barnabas.
Came here after seeing tornado in downtown Buffalo today
I still have the Buffalo News articles about this tornado. As for the Long John Silvers, I am embarrassed. I MUST either be senile, or for ALL of the YEARS I lived and traveled around in Buffalo, I SHOULD remember the layout of that intersection better. DAMN, I moved to Florida in hopes of seeing something like this and as soon as I do, all hell breaks loose in Buffalo. I JUST CAN'T WIN, WWHHHAAAA!
@zunidoll2 This tornado did considerably more damage than the one in 2006. One of the pictures of the tornado from the series they showed in this clip also appeared in the Buffalo News the next day. I still have the copy. The caption under the photo says: "Scott Fleetwood of Buffalo was standing near the intersection of Walden Ave. and Union Rd. when he snapped a shot of the funnel." So apparently there used to be a Long John Silvers near that corner in 1987.
I remember an Arthur Treachers Fish and Chips around there but not Long John Silvers. I wonder if they made a mistake. There was a Long John Silvers on Dick Road near George Urban and also one on Union near William.
My great great aunt was in the Holiday Showcase that day
Did she leave good tip ? I think it's important to always leave a good tip.
In This Clip, From 0:00 To 0:31, It Was WKBW-TV's Channel 7 Eyewitness News Nightcast Video Open From Thursday Night, July 30, 1987.
Indeed. Just a year or two later you couldn't even tell a tornado went through there.
@imgort I know that Mary Travers is now a politician in Orchard Park; married to John Murphy all these years.
Whatever has become of Messrs. Collin and Brown?
What a cool news intro
Al cavagnaro is my 6th grade teacher in science and ela and my current football coach
@zunidoll2 I'm sure it's not senility, just a temporary lapse in memory! :)
@bundangbear It was extremely rare and a once-in-a-lifetime event, or so we thought, until it happened again 19 years later in close proximity to where the first one occurred!
4:30 " When you see it happening...That's when it HITS HOME..." ummmm... I would say so. Quite LITERALLY.
@Gorette66 You're right!
@Getemgregg We only have tornadoes in Cheektowaga!
This tornado did considerable damage in Tiorunda also BUT because it is a HOUSING PROJECT filled with low income / no income poverty stricken people....the news went to the section of town where the private home owners were. I lived in Tiorunda at the time and the Coca Cola sign from
Ja Fa Fa Hots went through the side of my apartment. Nobody covered THAT. No emergency workers were removing THAT from the bedroom wall ! I'm now retired living in Lancaster in a house I've owned for nearly 30 years. My mortgage is $237 dollars a month because I put a HUGE down payment on the place. I'm on easy street. You can ALL kiss my ass.
That’s extremely hostile
Why should most of us innocent people be required to kiss your old wrinkly ass????
@sarah51580 Would be better if the theme was Frank Gari's then-updated rendition of "Cool Hand Luke/Tar Sequence."
I was in my car with my buddys kids going to putt putt are we lucky
Wow, those plans sure had to be cancelled rather quickly! Good thing you weren't there already!
same spot almost 20 years later another tornado
Remember 2017
4:30 "it hits home" no pun... Lol
I said the same thing ! "It hit home..." yeah it did....literally !
I took the pix with Long Johns in the foreground
That is so cool, Scott! That was in the days when no one had cell phones and hardly anyone had a video camera. That was quick thinking on your part to grab your camera and take those rare photos.
MrTraindude I was an inspector on the Union Road Bridge over Cayuga Creek replacement project at that moment.
AL CAVAGNARO IS MY SCIENCE TEACHER FHALGUFDKNLJDKJGLKDAFHN
Same... He Is the Science teacher at Starpoint. When I had him we hung Yankee themed stuff everywhere LMAO!