The daunting task of rebuilding was compounded by the added emotions from losing personal belongings. “(These) challenges can only be attacked through diligence and support to and from the community,” said Harrison Twp. spokesman Ken Jarosik.
Beavercreek couple tasked with rebuilding from the ground up
Beavercreek’s Jim and Charlotte Lynch saw the tornado lift the roof off of their home and set it back down in place. All the drapes were sucked up into the attic while still attached to the rods from the living room. It was later found that the tornado had pulled the foundation loose, and ultimately, the couple had to rebuild their house from the ground up.
“It’s been hard,” Charlotte said. “It took us 22 months to go through all the trials and tribulations of we get one process done and they discover there was a bigger problem than they thought.”
While they were well-insured, Charlotte said, construction costs were enormous, and materials were delayed. The Lynches waited three months to get a front door, and ultimately had to refinance the house due to building costs.
Charlotte lived in Xenia during the deadly tornado in 1974, and was director of nursing at Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia when it was hit by a tornado in 1980.
“I’ve knocked tornadoes off my bucket list,” she joked.
The Lynches moved back in March 2021, one of the last families in their neighborhood to fully rebuild.
“We have a fine home now,” Charlotte said. “We have a beautiful, beautiful home that is so well-built, it’s probably the best-built home in Spicer Heights.”
Keels repair home, deal with lasting effects
Spencer and Aleta Keel, who have lived in Trotwood’s Westbrooke Village neighborhood since 1978 and whose home was damaged in the storm, have done the work to bounce back.
“We were very fortunate that we were able to maintain our home the whole time after the storm and not have to seek housing,” Aleta said. “We had broken windows, and we had holes in our ceiling, but a tarp was put on our roof the next day, so it kept the house dry (until work was completed).”
Although the Keels have repaired their own home, Aleta says the neighborhood itself, which had widespread damage, is not finished recovering. Dozens of Westbrooke Village homeowners have rebuilt, with just a few badly damaged houses remaining. But some other homes are vacant, and those few untouched “zombie” properties, with their second floors open to the sky, are a remaining scar.
Along with the physical reminders, Aleta said she and her husband Spencer, both 75, still have emotional effects from the experience.
“When it gets windy, we’re looking, we’re checking to make sure we didn’t leave anything loose on the deck, and you just don’t go to sleep easily in high winds,” she said. “I’m definitely more aware of the situation. Even out on the road when there’s bad weather, I pay more attention to the sky now.”
Trotwood resident recalls neighborhood’s bright past
Frances Malott moved into her Westbrook Road home in 1969. The following year, a groundbreaking was held for the Woodland Hills apartment complex, which is located directly across from Malott’s house and is now abandoned as a result of the 2019 tornadoes.
Malott said she stayed in her home throughout the storm and was able to fix up the house afterward. Much of the damage to her property was to the landscaping. “I lost every tree on my property,” she said.
Though Malott stayed put that night, residents of the Woodland Hills complex were evacuated.
“I feel so sorry for those people; at 3 in the morning, they’re standing there with whatever they could grab in a plastic Kroger bag, and they put them on school buses and took them out all night (to shelters),” she said. “They were worried about gas leaks.”
In the early years, Malott said the Woodland Hills apartment complex was considered “elegant,” and provided her kids with jobs, including newspaper delivery routes, work in the main complex office, plus cleaning jobs.
Over the decades, she said, it went downhill, with drugs and noise becoming a problem. The complex was then heavily damaged and shuttered by the tornado.
“I don’t miss the noise and I don’t miss the traffic,” Malott said, adding that she hopes the now-damaged complex is eventually torn down altogether.
“It’s kind of an eyesore now,” Malott said, and two of the complex’s buildings have been broken into and burned.
“I called the city once, and they said it was owned by people out of state and it would probably be two years before they would do anything,” she said.
Dayton resident grapples with emotional toll
Pattie Starnes, who lives on Maplegrove Avenue, a stone’s throw from the Harrison Twp. line, had her roof blown off and thrown into a neighbor’s pool. She said the tornado has changed the way she looks at life.
“I live my life one day at a time now,” she said. “Whenever I hear a storm, I take my dogs and we go downstairs. That night that it all happened, it was like you didn’t really believe it was going to happen because it never had before. So I just went on to bed. I take things very seriously now.”
Starnes had to move in with her then-boyfriend for about nine months after the tornado ripped her house apart and destroyed her garage. She said her home was rebuilt, but the price to rebuild the garage is too high.
“Wood has gotten so high and there was a shortage because everyone was trying to get it,” she said.
She encouraged everyone to take plenty of pictures of belongings because the insurance company requested them. She said she now has photos of everything in her home in case she loses everything again. But regardless of the troubles the tornadoes caused, she said she is thankful.
“I thank God every day that I’m alive.”
