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Big Beaver Plaza reopened after the tornado, but success never returned
Jenny Wagner
BIG BEAVER Big Beaver Plaza was a bustling shopping center on May 31, 1985, when a funnel cloud swept straight through the middle of it.
Before the tornado, the plaza was home to more than a dozen businesses, including Jamesway department store, Comet Food Warehouse, a state liquor store, where two individuals died in the tornado, Gerello’s Beer Distributor, Fowler Veterinary Clinic and Zodiac Hairstylist.
Store shelves were toppled and merchandise destroyed, windows were blown out, concrete block walls crumbled and the steel roofs collapsed or were open to the sky above. The parking lot resembled a junkyard, said Beaver County Emergency Services Director Wes Hill, then-fire services coordinator.