This weekend, the 40th anniversary of the pounding tornadoes that walloped the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, conjures up a wide swath of eerie images and powerful emotions.

It’s a day to remember the surrealist horrors of our battered landscape and to recall those whose lives were snuffed out or inexorably changed. But it is also a day to recognize the resilience of our twister-battered communities, to reflect on the advances in technology and preparedness that minimize a replay of those storms’ devastation and a day to reinforce the lessons that thousands should have learned that last fateful day of May 1985.

To be sure, no other weather event or act of God in the ensuing four decades has even come close to matching the fury, the intensity and the destruction of the 1985 tornadoes. For that, we can consider ourselves blessed.

As today’s Page One feature story that recounts the personal vignettes of horror, helplessness and hope of those directly in the path of this region’s worst natural disaster in history illustrate, Valley residents who lived through that dark and haunting day will never forget that monster’s chilling impact.

The cold, hard numbers are chilling indeed: At least 88 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured by about 40 funnel clouds that ravaged Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada, during an eight-hour period, making it the worst tornado outbreak in the United States in the 1980s.

One of the first and the largest of those reached internal speeds of 300 mph, high enough to turn homes into splinters and to suck the life out of people who stood in harm’s way.

Nineteen of those deaths and about 500 of those injuries occurred in Trumbull and Mercer (Pa.) counties. The twisters also caused more than $140 million in property damage in our region alone.

As today’s special report illustrates, the monstrous storms of four decades ago today remain firmly embedded in the minds of many who lived through them.

Many of their stories are heart-warming and remind us of the genuine human capacity to rise above adversity to help fellow men and women caught in the cross-hairs of unmitigated mayhem.

We remember very well the valiant recovery efforts throughout the region. From churches providing food and shelter for displaced residents to scores of neighbors rushing to disaster scenes to help first responders in their recovery efforts to individual acts of courage to protect loved ones amid the fury of unrelenting winds, the selfless character of the Mahoning Valley rose above the catastrophic turmoil and wreckage.

All illustrate that everyday people — in an instant — can and do commit acts of great heroism and unbounded selflessness. Those traits continued in the weeks and months after the storms and played a leading role in the amazing healing and recovery of lives and landscapes.

Collectively, the hardest hit-communities of Niles, Newton Falls, Hubbard and Wheatland, Pa., learned that the passion to help extends far beyond our boundaries. Assistance from Red Cross affiliates, Mennonite, community groups and individuals throughout the nation responded speedily and efficiently. Valley residents would do well to remember that blessing and reach out to assist others standing in the epicenter of disaster as a projected worse-than-average hurricane season begins Sunday.

The stark horror also produced other lessons. Many for whom tornadoes lived only in the merry old land of Oz received a fast and furious reality check. The storms and their aftermath ignited a new urgency toward understanding the fundamentals of tornado safety. It mobilized communities and counties to raise the level of tornado preparedness.

Additionally, improvements in weather and other technology have led to earlier and more detailed warnings — in 1985 some communities had little or no advance notice.

But just because we have been spared the destructive wrath of May 31, 1985, for four decades now does not mean any of us should ever let down our guard.

And just because the passage of time has clouded or erased some of the horrific memories does not mean that the lessons of that destructive and doomful day in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys should ever be forgotten.