WARREN — For many of the people who attended the standing-room-only discussion of the 40th anniversary of the May 31, 1985, tornado Saturday at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, their disaster experience felt more recent than a distant event.

“It was my last day of sixth grade and we were at Waddell Park in Niles for a baseball game. I heard a man yell, ‘tornado!’ There was no warning. It was just there,” Vicki Billey of Niles said.

Across the street from the park, a tornado touched down at Republic Steel.

“We went to check on my great-grandmother at Eastwood Arms apartments, but we were not allowed in there,” Billey continued.

The apartment complex had been hit by the tornado.

They walked through the Niles Union Cemetery, which was severely hit by the tornado. The firemen at the station nearby saw them and brought them inside and gave the kids fire helmets in case another tornado came through. It didn’t.

“I’m still afraid of storms and if I hear there is a tornado,” Billey said.

Dr. Gregory Forbes, a former meteorologist with the Weather Channel and a meteorology professor at Penn State University, explained his background in meteorology and his expertise in severe weather storms and tornadoes.

“I studied under Dr. Ted Fujita, who created the Fujita Scale for tornado Intensity,” he said.

The Fujita Scale is a rating system from F0 to F5 based on wind speed and damage done to structures and trees. The Niles-Wheatland tornado was designated an F5 tornado.

Characteristics of an F5 tornado are wind speeds of 261 to 318 mph, well-built houses lifted from their foundations and moved long distances, automobile-size debris flying through the air over 300 feet, and trees and concrete structures that are seriously damaged.

“I had done some damage surveys in Xenia, Ohio in 1974 with Dr. Fujita. He was about 65 at this time so he sent me to survey the damage by plane over the Niles-Wheatland tornado,” Forbes said as he explained his previous connection to the area while he was a professor at Penn State University.

He explained the atmospheric causes for a tornado and that there is much better detection today thanks to advancements in technology, such as Doppler Radar.

“What was really scary to me from the air was the damage to the petroleum storage tanks (at Ashland Petroleum Company in Niles),” Forbes said.

The tanks were crushed and rolled, and buildings were flattened.

Tammy Miller Sullivan came from Kentucky for the lecture.

“My dad worked at Ashland and lived on Warren Avenue. The one slide (that Forbes) showed was the street of company homes. We weren’t home when the tornado came. Mr. Martinko, his boss, his roof was gone,” Miller Sullivan said.

The second speaker was Forbes’ former student at Penn State University, Jennifer Narramore. She discussed her website “Tornado Talk.”

“We are a website dedicated to tornado history and our mission is to tell the stories of tornado events across the centuries, tracing each storm’s path from beginning to end, document the damage and elevate survivor accounts. Most importantly, we work to remember those who were lost by name whenever possible. We also highlight acts of bravery in the ways communities come together to recover,” said Narramore.

She told the standing-room only crowd and people in the overflow room and hallway watching on screens that she knew that this could be a painful event for people and they could leave the room if they needed to and that tissues were available.

Holding back tears, a woman asked during the Q&A session why the Chestnut Ridge area of Hubbard Township was not given more attention. She left before there was an answer.

Narramore highlighted the devastating damage done to the area with slides, photos and video taken by amateur photographers and video shot by Ron Alfredo, who was visiting family in Hermitage, Pa., with his wife and new baby as the tornado came toward them.

“It was one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history with 89 fatalities, and more than 1,000 injured in portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and southern Ontario (Canada) who were impacted by these destructive twisters,” Narramore said.

She reflected upon the human stories of people going about their lives on a spring day in 1985.

“One of the tornado’s most chilling moments came at the Church of God in Newton Falls. Romy Taylor and his fiancee, Diane, were just about to get married. As ‘Here Comes the Bride’ began to play, every window shattered. The wedding party hit the floor, cut and bleeding. They did get married surrounded by bandaged guests,” she said.

Top O’ the Strip Roller Rink on U.S. Route 422 in Niles was scheduled for an end-of-the-school-year party of 300 kids that day. It was destroyed when the tornado touched down. Pieces of the rink were found over a mile away on Stillwagon Road.

During the Q&A, former Executive Director of the Trumbull County Red Cross Bill Mottice put a positive view on the day.

“It could have been so much worse. The roller rink wasn’t open yet. Governor Celeste called me at midnight. At 5:30 a.m., I was on a helicopter overseeing the damage with Vice President H.W. Bush. We had shelters set up by 9 a.m. for housing and meals,” Mottice said.

During the Q&A, Forbes suggested wearing a helmet of some kind when taking shelter during a tornado since most deaths come from head injuries. Narramore recommended wearing shoes because there will be broken glass and debris when you leave your safe haven.

They both encouraged people to become storm spotters, whose work informs the National Weather Service.

As she showed the names of the local people who died in the May 31, 1985 tornado, Narramore read a quote from Ernest Heminway. “Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.”

She reminded the crowd not to forget them.