"Rick McCoy, county EMA director, said he watched two twisters split into four just outside Van Wert.

One of those twisters destroyed the Twin Cinema just minutes after films ended, and two wrecked cars came to rest in the theater where "Santa Clause 2" had been showing.

Raymond Moore said his 22-year-old daughter was leaving the theater when she saw the tornado and ran back in. She was one of the customers who were rushed into the lobby and bathrooms, stronger brick parts of the building. "She watched the roof come right off the building," he said."

The Washington Post reports that the tornado was 1/2 mile wide at the time it hit Van Wert.

This is one of the weirder storms I've ever seen. It looked on the radar like a July storm pattern, but there were many dangerous storms that popped up in front of the main area. One of them came through my area, and it is one of the more intense storms I've ever seen. And I've NEVER seen a storm like that in November.

My cable system has a 24-hour weather radar channel. One thing I've learned from watching this is that there is real trouble when storms move two directions at once. This storm had a main front moving west to east, and another section moving sw to ne. That usually means big trouble, and we certainly had that yesterday.

Has anyone heard if the Ridgeway Drive-in immediately next door is still standing?

I took some photos of both the indoor and outdoor theater next door in August of this year. Here are a few.

I did find some pictures of the theater's destruction here

Scary indeed! From the looks of things, the booth it barely hanging in there, but there's no way anyone can safely enter it. Although I've never experienced one, tornados seem more scary than hurricanes. At least you have several days to prepare. In this case, only quick thinking can save lives.

With the destruction the building faced, I doubt the drive-in is still there.

=TMP=

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Jim and Joyce Boyd of Van Wert, Ohio, suffered the loss of their home, drive-in theatre and adjacent indoor cinema as a result of the tornadoes that devastated parts of Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia. Jim and Joyce are okay but they are in a tough spot.

Fortunately, their other drive-in, the Van Del Drive-In Theatre, does not seem to have been damaged. It is located several miles away from the Van Wert site.

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Lebanon, Tennessee

The Van-Del Drive-in is about 10 miles away, literally the next exit on the highway, between Van Wert and Delphos.

A couple of years ago, Parsons, Kansas, finally managed to get a small multi built to replace their delapidated downtown movie house. IIRC, it was a community-effort sort of thing. One of the people involved kept in touch with me in the last stages of construction and everyone was excited when it finally opened. Two weeks later, a tornado ripped through town, devastating most of the business district and taking the new theater with it.

Having managed theaters in Oklahoma for five years, every time nasty weather was in the area, I made it a point to review emergency procedures on-the-spot with the staff on duty. It didn't matter what kind of weather, we always had a flashlight check and a game plan.

We're coming up on a very busy season and this would be a great opportunity to make sure everyone is up to speed, especially the newbies.

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Ohio Staff Saves Audience From Storm

By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press Writer
AP/Al Behrman [29K]
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VAN WERT, Ohio (AP) — When theater manager Scott Shaffer heard the storm warning on the radio, he knew he had little time to protect the 50 parents, children and neighbors watching ``The Santa Clause 2'' and ``My Big Fat Greek Wedding.''

It turns out, he had just five minutes.

Shaffer and his staff hustled their charges into a brick hallway and restrooms at Van Wert Cinemas, just before a tornado estimated at a half-mile wide slammed into the building Sunday...(more in linked article).

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: here

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