Picture it: Mechanicville, NY, May, 31 1998. A very warm and windy day. I was in church with my family. Back then I was in 4th grade (9-years-old) and my brother was in Kindergarten (6-years-old). I was in church with my family. We had heard we were going to get some pretty bad storms that day, but didn't really think anything of it at the time. Little did we know what we were in for. Anyway, after the service we went home and I was feeling a little tired so I took a nap.

At about 3:00 PM, my mom woke me up and said we had to go into the basement. She didn't tell me why which left me a little suspicious. We brought down some chairs, a phone, which was cordless (what was the use? If the power went out we couldn't use it), my dad's laptop with the radar image on it and our gerbil Teddy. With in a couple of minutes the power went out and my dad kept shouting, "GET AGAINST THE WALL!" We were all huddled together. I don't remember anything after that (no, I didn't pass out) because it happened so fast. Our neighbor across the street came over with nothing on him but a pair of shorts.

After it was done my dad and I went outside so see the damage. Trees, power lines, pieces of SOMETHING everywhere. Everyone was crying, hugging each other, just being glad at everyone was okay. My mom's friend drove my brother and I to my grandparents whom had no idea what had happened. My parents come by later because of a gas leak (we heard a house on the hill behind us was on fire) but we left the gerbil in the basement! A couple of days later we were given 1 hour to get our stuff, which was when we got our gerbil back. As for our house, it was unsafe to live in as there were windows broken (the whole window in the living room (small tree went through it) and the outer portion of my bedroom window) and it moved off the foundation (the main reason for deeming it unsafe), although you couldn't tell just by looking at it, and thus, it had to be demolished. However, it was never demolished and instead was remodeled and there are people living in it today!

School was closed the next day. For the next few days, we moved from house to house for a place to stay. We eventually found a new condo complex in Halfmoon (about 5 minutes from Mechanicville) and we remained there for the rest of the summer before moving back to Mechanicville. A couple of days later a news crew (Channel 10) came to the school to talk about the tornado. It had wind speeds of 200 MPH, which is considered to be a strong F3 on the Fujita Scale (158-206 MPH).

The week after the tornado we went to church and thanked everyone for support through this difficult time. After the service we got interviewed by CBS 6 (then WRGB/Channel 6). My dad was interviewed (I was in the background, however).

I am currently a WeatherNet 6 weather watcher for CBS 6 and since then, the whole weather staff knows that I was a victim, my whole family got interviewed for a special on severe weather. For those of you in eastern New York and western New England who know about the storm, and for those of you elsewhere who would like to know more information about the storm and see some pictures of the damage, click here, and in the drop down menu, select “1998: May 31 Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Outbreak”.

P.S., my house is not in any of these photos, and neither was it half as badly damaged as these houses were.

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