ENGLISH     NYT1112DtornadoD
   

Alert Theater Manager Sent Moviegoers to Safety
By JOHN W. FOUNTAIN


AN WERT, Ohio, Nov. 11 ? As small children hunkered down in the hall and the restrooms of the local movie theater, the winds outside raged, 
a tornado carving a path of destruction. 

Moments earlier, about 50 people who had come for the Sunday matinee sat in four of the five screening rooms of the Van Wert Cinemas
 watching movies. 

But then Scott Shaffer, the theater manager, was alerted that a tornado was headed their way. He did, officials said, the only thing he could: 
He ordered everyone out of the theaters and into the corridor and restrooms for cover.

Today, Mr. Shaffer was being heralded for his quick thinking and sure instructions and for ushering the moviegoers to safety. Officials said 
Mr. Shaffer put the theater's emergency tornado plan into effect, moving people from the screening rooms to the central area of the building 
where it was more structurally sound.

When the tornado made its way through the theater complex, it tore the roofs off Theaters 2 and 5. It also destroyed Theater 1, punctuating 
the howling chaos by dropping three cars into the screening room. 

Jessica Ross, 16, who had just seen the movie "8 Mile," found a spot on the restroom floor, covered her head with her hands and prayed 
as the walls and roof vibrated and the sound of breaking glass erupted.

"You could feel the walls shaking and you could feel it raining on you," Miss Ross, a high school junior, recalled today, standing blocks 
from the five-theater complex. 

"When the whole thing had passed over us, the ceiling was halfway gone. And there was water and trash and glass all over the floor. 
And I think there was also a girl unconscious in there," Miss Ross said. "I went outside and I saw the walls and the ceiling of another 
theater was all gone. The cars were inside where the screen should have been." 

About 60 people were in the building when the tornado hit, the general manager, Robert Finger, said. No one was killed, officials said, 
though two people, including Mr. Shaffer, received minor injuries. Two people were killed elsewhere in Van Wert.

Mr. Finger said that about two years ago the county's emergency management agency equipped the theater with a weather monitor that 
provides alerts when there are potential dangerous weather conditions. 

He said that the monitor had sounded on Sunday, alerting Mr. Shaffer to the possibility of a tornado, and that Mr. Shaffer had informed 
the people in the theater about the warning. Minutes later, Mr. Finger said, Mr. Shaffer looked out a window and spotted a twister moving 
toward the movie house.

"The second he spotted it, he yelled, `It's coming,' " Mr. Finger said, adding that the theater's employees helped Mr. Shaffer lead everyone
 to safety.

Jim Boyd, the theater's owner, said that had the tornado hit a few minutes earlier, during a first, sold-out matinee of "Santa Clause 2,"
 the outcome could have been different.

And on the day after what local officials were calling the worst tornado disaster in recent memory, many were sighing with relief that 
the loss of life was not greater.

Even so, there was devastation here in Van Wert, a town about 110 miles southwest of Toledo ? shattered homes and a trail of debris, 
glass, and mangled and twisted steel. Also destroyed were several factories that officials here say will mean the loss of hundreds of jobs 
only weeks before Christmas. 

In Van Wert today, some people sifted through the rubble of what remained of their homes. Chain saws buzzed as workers removed fallen
 limbs and trees. Strips of aluminum siding dangled like a cloth curtain hung in trees. Outside the theater ? the only one in town ? debris and 
glass covered the ground. The adjacent drive-in theater lay in ruins. 

Hugh Saunier, a spokesman for the Van Wert County Emergency Management Agency, said that four tornadoes had been spotted about 3:10 p.m. 
on Sunday in the southwest part of the county. Mr. Saunier said there was no damage reported from those sightings. But 10 minutes later came the news 
that one of the twisters had developed into a category F4, with winds of more than 200 miles an hour and measuring 1,000 yards across. Officials 
said the tornado struck Van Wert, a town of about 10,000, about 3:30.

Officials said the two people in Van Wert killed in the storm were an elderly man in his home and a teenage boy in his vehicle. Officials also said 
that 19 people were treated at a local hospital for injuries. Three of them were critically injured.

Today, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency brought a team into town to assist with cleanup and recovery. They were assisted by the Ohio 
National Guard. Officials said all town residents had been accounted for.

A manufacturing and farming town, Van Wert also had several factories heavily damaged by the storm, Mr. Saunier said. The authorities have 
estimated that the damage to homes and businesses will be in the tens of millions of dollars.

"We lost about 300,000 square feet of industrial manufacturing space, which means we lost between 300 and 500 jobs," Mr. Saunier said. 

Officials said that 48 houses and 2 mobile homes were destroyed, and that 23 houses sustained major damage while 17 others suffered minor 
damage. Some 1,700 houses were still without power late this afternoon. Gov. Bob Taft declared Van Wert County, which has a population 
of 32,000, a disaster area.

Mr. Boyd, who added three screening rooms just last year, surveyed the scene today where his business lay in ruins. He also owned the adjacent 
drive-in and a three-bedroom house nearby. Everything lay in shambles.

"I'm not sure we have totally come to grips with it," Mr. Boyd said, standing near his house where a wall had been blown away. "We have 
lost what I have taken all my life to build." 

Still, he said he could see things in perspective.

"I'm alive," said Mr. Boyd, adding that he and his wife, Joyce, were visiting his mother about a mile away when the storm hit.

"Given all of the destruction that you see around you," he said, "I feel as though there were more miracles that occurred. God is still in control. 
Our faith is sustaining us through this."