On May 31, 1985, 41 tornadoes struck an area south of Lake Erie and north of Lake Ontario. Small towns on the borders of Ohio and Pennsylvania were leveled; there, in just over four hours, more than 2000 homes were destroyed, 75 people lost their lives and more than 1000 were injured. Fuller, author of We Almost Lost Detroit, has written a spellbinding account of that fateful day. The story begins in Kansas City, at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, where meteorologists chart weather patterns for the country. Their information is forwarded to regional weather stationsin this case, to Cleveland and Pittsburghthen to satellite stations (Youngstown, Erie), which are responsible for specific counties. Early in the day, there was a threat of severe thunderstorms in late afternoon for southern Ontario, eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and New York. At 4:25 p.m. EST,Kansas City issued Tornado Watch #211. Was anybody listening? The first tornado struck 45 minutes later. Fuller takes us to some of the communities for an "on-the-spot" report of the devastation and its aftermath. First serial to Reader s Digest.