Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 1

Jlttfifi tl tl Hit ONE OF AMERICA'S GREAT NEWSPAPERS 50 CENTS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1998 VOL. 71, NO. 307 6398 FINAL it I A I Ewmut 1 -J Mount Washington is among areas hardest hit by funnel clouds spun off from fierce storms that struck Salisbury again A funnel cloud moves over Mount Washington at 5:51 p.m. KDKA mrvr ww miwi iu. wmmmmnmm mmmwmw40vmwum'wP n.wim.n.n 11 uniiin.ni.iiMi fy 1 -y If 'sv JU v'( i 1 By Torsten Ove Post-Gazette Staff Writer Dana Barker of William Street in Mount Washington won't soon forget the tornado that ravaged her neighborhood last evening, ripping the roofs from houses, shattering windows, and knocking down trees and power lines.

To her, it didn't sound like a freight train. Or thunder. Or an airliner. Instead, she said, "it was eerie and evil and awful." And that was just the beginning of a night of chaos in Mount Washington and throughout the Tri-State area. At least 14 tornadoes churned through the region between 5:30 and 9:30 last night, leaving a path of destruction from Beaver County into Pittsburgh and beyond into Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset counties.

The storms began in eastern Ohio in the late afternoon and rolled into Western Pennsylvania about 5:30 p.m. Funnel clouds first appeared in Beaver County and swept into the North Hills of Allegheny County, then headed into Pitts-" burgh and off into Westmoreland County. Trees fell into streets. Walls blew down. Hail as big as marbles pounded cars.

Roads flooded. And everywhere, people huddled into basements to wait it all out. No one was killed. But Mark Kanny, a spokesman for the UPMC Health Systems, said at least 16 people were treated at UPMC hospitals for injuries directly or indirectly related to the storm. At UPMC South Side, one person was admitted for treatment of a broken wrist and another was being treated early today for injuries she SEE STORMS, PAGE A-8 New Lewinsky developments Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr hints for the first time that he may send to Congress an impeachment referral against President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky matter.

Meanwhile, Lewinsky fires William Ginsburg as her lawyer and replaces him with veteran Washington criminal lawyers Jacob Stein and Plato Cacheris. Story, Page A-5 WEDNESDAY Weather Partly cloudy. High 66, low 50. PageA-2 Young at heart Kevin Young's tiebreaking three-run triple keys a 5-2 Pirates win over the Mets. Sports, Page D-l Serb offensive Serbian troops and police controlled by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic are reported to have laid waste to 1 1 communities that are home to 65,000, most of them ethnic Albanians.

International, Page A4 On target A guns-for-Viagra program? It might be worth a shot, says Peter Leo. Magazine, Page F-l Political pressure? The forced resignation of stadium foe Fred Baker from the Regional Asset District board touches off charges of Plan railroading. The Region, Page B-l Toughing it out A physically diminished and limping Greg Lloyd springs a surprise by practicing for the first time in 6VS months. Sports, Page D-l Californians speak Voters in California's primary approve a ballot proposition to end the state's policy of bilingual education. Lt.

Gov. Gray Davis wins the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. National, Page A-6 Cosmetic success Gayle Gaston enjoys life in the pink as executive senior national sales director for Mary Kay Cosmetics but hasn't forgotten her days of red beans, rice, hot water cornbread and a decrepit '57 Ford. Magazine, Page F-l Page 1 correction Minimally invasive heart bypass surgery restores blood flow to the heart muscle by using the mammary artery, not the pulmonary artery as noted in yesterday's article regarding Sen. Arlen Specter's heart surgery.

Specter had a conventional heart bypass, not the minimally invasive technique. By John Murphy ran i i 1 7 if it a. rr Salisbury residents relive trauma of tornadoes ByTomGibb and Vicki Rock A second band of tornadoes hit Somerset County last night, trapping four people inside a house in Scullton and sending residents of Salisbury, which had been devastated by a tornado days earlier, back to emergency shelters. By 7:30 last night, about 150 people crammed into the cafeteria of the Salisbury-Elk Lick Elementary School after firemen and state police drove the streets and announced over public address systems that a tornado was headed toward them. A series of funnel clouds were spotted throughout the county in such towns as Jennerstown, Jerome, Bakersville, Scullton, Trent, Stoystown, Coal Run and Salisbury.

On King's Mountain Road Scullton, the four people who were trapped were not injured, fire- SEE TRAUMA, PAGE A-8 Inside Salisbury, struggling after Sunday's tornado, rides a meteorological roller coaster as the weather turns beautiful Monday and early yesterday before becoming menacing again. Page A-7 A tour of Pittsburgh and other communities; Western Pennsylvania has been hit by seven weather events involving major twisters since World War II. Page A-3 Those who had up-close van- tage points as the storms crashed through the district tell their tales The five members of the Borelli family find comfort outside their house on William Street on the north slope of Mount Washington after a tornado ripped the third floor off of their house and deposited it in their front yard. Clockwise from left are Jeannine and Patrick Borelli and their children Patrick, Amy and Michael. 41 III Steve MellonPost-Gazette photos sky over the West End bright orange.

Weather twists make tornadoes INDEX Ann F-5 Lottery B-2 Bridge F-7 Magazine F-1 Business C-1 Movies F-3 Classified E-1 Neighbors B-3 Comics F-6 Obituaries B-5 E-3 Region B-1 Editorials A-1 0 Scoreboard D-7 Horoscope. Sports D-1 Interest rates Television F-4 Kids F-6 Weather A-2 DS03E3D By Sharon Voas Post-Gazette Staff Writer Tornadoes are rare because so many weather factors must come together at once to produce them. "Mother Nature really has to be in a bad mood," said Lee Hendricks, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Obviously, she was in an unusually foul mood yesterday when she swept through this area, leaving roofless homes, sheared trees and toppled power lines in her wake. One of the factors at work came from northern Canada.

A mass of cool, dry air pushed southeast from there through Michigan ana Ohio yesterday. It smacked into another factor, an especially warm hu- 36 8 SEE WEATHER, PAGE A-9 Shortly before 8:30 the setting sun turned thawestern on Page A-9..