"The Morning Call Inc., Copyright 2002"
Date: FRIDAY, November 17, 1989
3 STROUDSBURG SITES DAMAGED BY WINDS
by SEAN CONNOLLY, The Morning Call
It was either a small tornado or a large wind, but whatever it was, it did some damage yesterday morning in Stroudsburg - at a retirement village, a scrap yard and a cemetery.
At LaBar Village, a retirement complex in south Stroudsburg, the storm didn't damage any buildings or cause any injuries. But it uprooted trees and destroyed a nature trail.
''It's gone. It's totally ruined,'' LaBar Village owner Sue Wilson said. ''With all those trees down there, it will be terribly difficult to get it cleared.''
The storm then blew into neighboring Katz Scrap Yard, where it tore a roof and door off a garage and sprayed trees with scrap metal.
''I think it was . . . I think it was a tornado,'' Sid Katz said. ''We stood up here - the whole crew got scared. The building shook.''
Katz said several pieces of metal went sailing across Interstate 80, landing in the Stroudsburg Cemetery. No cars on I-80 were reported hit by the debris.
Walt LaBar, a gravedigger at Stroudsburg Cemetery, said he was marking graves for the winter when he saw a storm blowing in from Bartonsville. Suddenly, LaBar said, the rain and wind became so intense that he sought shelter in his truck.
LaBar said two co-workers were setting up a tent for a burial when the storm hit, collapsing the tent. He said both men were trapped under the tent for several moments in the gusts before they were able to run to the truck.
The storm knocked over about 20 tombstones, LaBar said.
''We thought for sure it was going to upset our pickup truck,'' he said. ''It's a terrifying thing to be in it.''
Was it a tornado or not?
Marv Stuart, Monroe County emergency management director, said he didn't know: ''I'm not a person who could classify anything as a tornado.''
Stuart said, however, that the atmosphere was right for a tornado or what are known as spinoff tornadoes. But Stuart said people are quick to call a wind a tornado when damage is caused.
So, was it a tornado?
Charles Giannetta of the National Weather Service in Allentown doesn't know, either: ''We would have to send someone out to observe the damage.''
Giannetta said no one has requested that an inspector be sent to Stroudsburg to determine whether it was a tornado or not.
Giannetta said an inspector would look at the damage and determine whether the destruction followed a straight or twisting path. Tornadoes tend to twist trees and objects in their path around.
''If you have a tornado, things are twisted in 360 degrees,'' he said.
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"WEATHER BY GIANNETTA"