Radio operators jumped into quick response after ’85 tornado cut communications (Ohio)

It’s a day Wes Boyd still remembers, 40 years later.

“I happened to have one of my kids look up and say the sky looked strange,” he said.

It was May 31, 1985 — the day strong tornadoes cut a path of destruction and death through northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada.

Boyd was one of a number of amateur radio operators called into service after the storms cut nearly all forms of communications across the Valley.

“So there was no way to talk from Point A to Point B, so we kind of operated as the backbone and assisted where we could with the police, fire, paramedics,” he said.

Each Friday, these operators gather for lunch to share stories and talk shop.

That fateful night, Boyd and his neighbor, Jim Stiffler, were sent with their walkie-talkies to the site of what had been a skating rink at the top of the Strip in Niles to help look for a missing child.

“We was walking through insulation, twisted metal and all kind of stuff,” Stiffler said.

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