‘It’s Horrendous but It’s Not a Judgment’ : Tornado Survivors Turn to Prayer

After the terror of Friday and the tears of Saturday, some members of this tiny northwestern Pennsylvania community turned to prayer Sunday as they struggled to make sense of the devastation caused when killer tornadoes wiped out more than one-third of their homes and killed 12 persons.

“This is terrible, it’s horrendous but it’s not a judgment on the community or its people,” the Rev. Philip Sallach reassured his small congregation at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. “It is a reminder of the Judgment Day to come.”

Usually, Sallach’s sermons draw 90 to 100 worshipers, but on this Sunday only 15 showed up, filling just three of the church’s 28 pews. Many congregation members were among the 500 of Albion’s 1,810 residents made homeless by Friday’s storms and were staying with out-of-town relatives and friends.

Albion was one of the communities worst hit by Friday’s violent storms, which ripped through parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario, Canada, killing about 90 persons. State officials said the death toll in Pennsylvania alone was 61, with more than 600 persons injured. Some of them remained in serious and critical condition in hospitals Sunday. Damage to property is sure to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

About 100 state, local and federal officials formed into damage assessment teams and began fanning out Sunday through the 15 Pennsylvania counties hit worst by the storms. Their reports are expected to serve as guidelines for the amount of federal and state aid that eventually will be needed to repair or replace devastated homes and buildings.

Meanwhile, state authorities awaited word from Washington on whether President Reagan would approve Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s request for emergency federal disaster aid.

In Albion, while few Lutherans could make it to town for church Sunday, Roman Catholics who wished to pray had to go to neighboring communities for Mass. A tornado had blown the roof off St. Lawrence’s Church here and it was closed.

‘All Bound Together’

By contrast, more than 100 parishioners, bewildered but unharmed, listened to the Rev. James Schmittle in the undamaged, ivy-covered Grace United Methodist Church. “Some of us have been victims and some of us have not in the immediate sense,” Schmittle told his congregation, some of whom dabbed at their eyes with handkerchiefs. “But we are all bound together and when one weeps we all weep, when one hurts we all hurt. . . . Our town shall rise again.”

In his closing prayers, Schmittle read off a partial list of the dead, injured and grieving. “I don’t know how many of you know Butch Schneider,” he said. “His wife, who was pregnant, was killed. His 3-year-old, Robbie, is in critical condition in St. Vincent’s Hospital. He needs to be remembered in our prayers.”

After services, Albion residents resumed the arduous process of cleaning away debris and sifting through the rubble of what had been their homes. As National Guard troops and state police patrolled the streets for a second day, several insurance adjusters drove through town with signs on their cars, inviting homeowners to flag them down.

Throughout the afternoon a procession of pickup trucks, loaded with an odd and sadly sparse array of salvaged goods--here and there a door, a table, a lamp base, a favorite picture--snaked their way past the roadblocks and out of town.

Elizabeth Baker, 25, a secretary at Albion Junior High School, searched the rubble of the home she shared with her parents and managed to salvage only a single shoe, a blouse, a small lock box containing personal files and five pennies.

As testament to the power of Friday’s tornado, Baker said that her brother Alan’s fourth-grade report card, which had been stored in the attic for more than 20 years, was found by a friend Saturday by a pond in Cranesville--three miles away.