Pocono News Section

1 Year After the Mountain Top Tornado

1 Year After the Mountain Top Tornado - Friday, November 30, 2007 at 9:19PM EST

Reported by: Les Still
Friday, Nov 30, 2007 @09:19pm EST

MOUNTAIN TOP, LUZERNE COUNTY- December 1st marks the 1 year anniversary of the Mountain Top tornado. The tornado tracked 15 miles through Luzerne County hitting the Mountain Top area the hardest. It also put the Wyoming Valley into the weather history books.

One year ago Saturday we were having the warmest December day ever recorded here in NEPA. From Mt. Pocono to Avoca to Williamsport we set all-time December temperature records.

But if you tuned into WYOU News that evening this is what you would of heard me talking about.

“Severe thunderstorm warning…poles down near Knoeble’s…possible tornado reported near Mountain Top, Luzerne County.”

A fast but narrow line of severe thunderstorms were racing across our region that evening. That line of storms generated an F2 tornado that tracked from Hollenback Township to Fairview Township in Luzerne County. Besides damaging hundreds of trees along its path, it also did considerable damage to several buildings.

The Mr. Z’s along Rt 309 was in the direct path of the tornado and its store manager, Dave Krasucki, was right near the big windows at the exact moment the tornado hit. He explained what he observed the seconds leading up to the tornado. “We could hear wind howling and stuff. You could see the windows starting to buckle back and forth. The next thing we knew the carts came through. Afterwards it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. In a matter of seconds it happened that quickly.”

Dave Nicosia with the National Weather Service in Binghamton was on duty tracking the line of storms that night. He stated “It was a little hard to believe we could actually see a tornado outbreak in December in PA.”

Even knowing the weather set up that day, he was amazed with the history that he was seeing. Never before had a tornado been reported in Pennsylvania during the month of December. And by the time the storms had cleared the state that evening 5 tornadoes had touched down. 3 of them right here in our area. 2 weak F0 tornadoes in Pike County and the strongest of them all in Mountain Top.

The next day Dave was down here to survey the damage. “It was one of the worst tornadoes I’ve seen in this area” declared Nicosia.

The wind from the tornado shattered the huge front windows sending glass all the way to the back of the store. It also peeled ¾ of the store’s roof off, toppled a 5 ton compressor and threw another 2 ½ ton compressor 20 feet.

Even a year after the fact you can still see the scares from this historic tornado. You can see the exact patch the tornado took after it slammed into the Mr. Z’s.

Work began immediately that night to get the grocery store operational, workers removed damaged inventory and fixed the damaged building. The store reopened after only 6 days of repairs.

Though his injuries have healed, Mr. Krasucki hopes history doesn’t repeat itself. “It’s a day I’ll never forget, but I’d really like to forget”